A GOOD PLACE by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 17, 1888

A GOOD PLACE.

By Editor

This expression is emphatically true of the Rural Health Retreat, near St. Helena, Cal. It is a good place for the sick to go in order to get well, and for the well to go in order to get better. The old epitaph, "I was well; I wanted to be better; I took physic, and died," can never be written by the well man who goes to the Health Retreat, in order to get better; for there he will take only nature's remedies under the most favorable circumstances.

Great improvements have lately been made at the Retreat. The main building has been enlarged to more than double its former capacity, so that now a family of one hundred can be well provided for. The building is four stories in height, with a well-lighted room and a promenade upon the fifth floor which is the roof. An elevator run by water, of which the Retreat has now an abundant supply, provides easy access to every floor. Besides this, the rise of the mountain is such that one can step from every floor, and also from the top of the building, directly out upon the ground.

The view from the Retreat is most delightful, and from every spot of ground in the neighborhood round about, a different landscape is presented to sight. The climate is so mild that invalids can, even at this season of the year, take comfort in sitting out upon the verandas. The variation of temperature is not great, and what Eastern people would call cold weather is never known there.

As for the fare, we can say that the tables are provided with everything that is good. The only difficulty anyone will find will be to restrain his appetite when so great a variety of nourishing and toothsome food is spread before him.

Genial managers and kind attendants combine to make the sum of happiness complete for the invalid or the wayfarer. Given the bracing air, the mild and equable climate, the medical attendance and the good treatment, the rest, alternated with judicious exercise, either active or passive, according to the strength of the patient, and the nourishing diet found at the Retreat, and if a sick person cannot recover his health there, it is because recovery is impossible; while the professional man who feels worn out with close confinement to his office and the daily routine of business, will find his spirits wonderfully revived by a week's stay at the Retreat. In short, the place is what its name implies, a quiet home where one can retreat from the noise and bustle of the world, and find the blessing of health.

In a recent speech in New York, Dr. McGlynn said of the Papal authorities at Rome:—

"I will go on, and if they try to crush me, then I will proceed to expose them, and I can give facts that will make the country too hot to hold some of them. It will be the part of prudence for them to let me alone."

We have no doubt that Dr. McGlynn can tell some pretty damaging things about the Romish authorities. He has been behind the scenes, and has been in their confidence. From his remarks, it would seem that he knows of some gross crimes that they have perpetrated; and it would not surprise us at all to find out that this is so. But the question is, Why does he make the exposing of them a matter of revenge? If he were a true reformer, he would not rest his actions on such low ground. If he would tell what he knows, calmly, and with the desire of keeping as many innocent people as possible from being duped, it would have much more weight.