vili AUTHORS PREFACE. 



testify. It is only necessary to say that the longer one labors in 

 a practice or profession, or in the mechanical arts, the more 

 mature is his mind and judgment and the better qualified he is to 

 carry on his work. This being universally conceded, it need only 

 be said, then, that one who has lived nearly seventy years, doing 

 all the good possible to his fellow creatures, as I have done, if 

 judged by the above evidence, would certainly make his last the 

 crowning effort of his life, and that it shall be so found I feel 

 assured. This work is the result of nearly thirty years practice 

 and experience since the publication of my first book, and is not 

 a " revised edition " of the former ones, but is made up wholly of 

 new matter and new discoveries. I, therefore, believe that it will 

 prove of infinite value to its purchasers, and although they may 

 have both the former ones in their possession, they cannot, if 

 they value my first and second book, afford to be without this, 

 my third and last one. My mature years, numbering nearly 

 three score and ten, will not allow me to ever undertake that 

 great labor which, in this case, covers a period of nearly five 

 years. 



A Eeceipt Book, not being calculated for general reading, can 

 very properly be set in closer type than an ordinary book, and 

 as it is my aim to give the greatest possible amount of informa- 

 tion for the money invested, I have instructed the tjrpe-setters 

 to use the smallest type that can, with ease, be read; yet the 

 following will serve to illustrate the fact that even a receipt 

 book is, by some, read to a considerable extent As I was once 

 traveling through Illinois, a gentleman, just before we reached 

 the crossing of the Mississippi at Burlington, approached me, and 

 said, " Isn't this Dr. Chase, the author of Chase's Eeceipt Book?" 

 (referring to my first) to which I replied, " Yes, sir," when he 

 remarked : " I thought I recognized you from the frontispiece in 

 your book ;" and added, " We read it more than the Bible," etc. 

 To which I remonstrated and begged to suggest that he instruct 

 his family from that time forward to read the Bible most, inas- 

 much as eternity was of infinitely more importance than this life. 

 His name I have forgotten, but I take the liberty of giving the 



