yi A WORD TO THE SUBSCRIBERS OF 



It was at first ignorantly and profanely considered a 

 joke for u good fellows," who, as was supposed, had dis- 

 ingenuously, and even feloniously, deluded the author 

 into the vain and stupid conceit that he had something 

 to say that the human race wanted or needed to hear. 



The real motive, it was further imagined, was a wicked 

 experiment to ascertain the exact shade of verdancy 

 afflicting the UNFORTUNATE, and the precise degree of 

 his proclivity to a sell, and not a veritable delusion on 

 their part, that he could say a word that ought not to 

 be lost. 



Grandly transcended and forgiven are the sages, with 

 whom "wisdom will no doubt die." 



A word upon what we have been about must suffice. 



The flight to the Mountain was always looked upon by 

 those calling themselves sober, common-sense friends, as 

 an absolute dementia, and constantly stuck, or rather 

 dug, into the tender sensibilities of the unfortunate 

 author of the Alleghany Mountain Sanitarium, as the 

 prodigious blunder of his existence. 



Any account that might be given of the mountain, 

 especially the unutterable folly of ANY BOOK about that 

 plain old chain of pine-covered knobs and its true signi- 

 ficance to men, must meet the unqualified disapprobation 

 of this self-styled, sober, common-sense party; and any 

 delay in the appearance of said book, hailed as a signal 

 manifestation of the merciful interposition of a special 

 Providence. 



Earnest in the belief that life in the country is nearest 

 connate with man's organization, securing to him con- 

 stantly the greatest of all blessings, perfect health and 

 physical development, and standing with outstretched 

 arms a great world of counter-forces or balance-sheet in 

 favor of humanity, against the destructive influence of city 

 life or the fatal results of the swarming instincts, founding 

 the Sanitarium, and uttering a voice from the woods, have 

 become a mission, solemn as a command from Heaven, 

 and with the sternness and reality of life and death. 



Is it not time for the Philanthropist, whose highest 

 form is the "healing man," to ask the significance and 

 end of the action of the depraved and vitiated gregarious 



