In the late nineteenth century, relatively few photographs appeared in local Arkansas newspapers. Technology had not yet advanced to the point of facilitating frequent, affordable  use of images in print. At the time, one of the ways journalists could get information about a place was to visit it. Then they could disseminate that knowledge to readers by describing what they saw. Such was the case when an Arkadelphia newspaper editor decided to journey to Hot Springs by rail, stopping off at Malvern along the way. He recounted meeting up with various friends in Malvern and told of the town’s growth. In the process, he offers some details about business and transportation in the area. The newspaperman related the story to his readers in December of 1880:

“We, last week, made a short visit to the famous watering place. When we arrived at Malvern, we had to remain there for two or three hours to connect with the train on the Iron Mountain road. We, in company with our friend, E.S. Wood, took a stroll over the town and found that the place had greatly improved since we last visited it. The town is building back on the hill. Dropped in to see brother Henderson, the handsome and able editor of the Meteor, and were glad to learn from him that his paper was in a prosperous condition. Brother Henderson gets out a good paper and he should receive a liberal support from the citizens of Malvern. Saw our old friend Dan Stell, who we found to be busy and had on hand a big stock and seemed to be handling a good deal of ‘tin.’

“Brother Brassler, we found to be just as clever and jovial and kind as ever. Thanks to him and his kind lady for the nice dinner they fixed up for us. Malvern is a nice little town and is inhabited by a clever and enterprising set of citizens. We noticed two or three substantial brick buildings that had recently been built.

“About three o’clock we boarded Diamond Jo Reynolds’ railroad, in charge of that prince of clever fellow, J.R. Graves. The distance from Malvern to Hot Springs is about twenty miles. The Hot Springs road makes close connections with the two daily trains on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, and convey their passengers in comfortable and nice cars on an easy-going road from Malvern to Hot Springs in about one hour. Col. Reynolds certainly deserves credit in building and keeping up this road through such a rough and broken country. Since we last visited Hot Springs, over a year, we found that great improvements had been made. We noticed houses going up in every direction. It has a population of about 5000 inhabitants and is a regular cosmopolitan city.”