THE RURAL HEALTH RETREAT.
By Editor
How many of our Western readers know where this institution is? Well, we wish to tell them. It nestles about half way up Howell Mountain, on the southerly side, where it luxuriates in the sunlight all the day long, and overlooks three beautiful branches of the celebrated Napa Valley. Howell Mountain is three miles from the valley of St. Helena, the second town of importance in Napa County, one of the richest and most beautiful sections of California. The Retreat is reached by an easy and delightful train ride from San Francisco and Oakland, with a short and safe stage journey at the Retreat end of the road. The surroundings of the Retreat we will not attempt to describe. There would be sameness and wearisome monotony in an attempt to picture the beautiful valleys, hills, mountains, and fruitful fields which feast the eye in ever-varying beauty of detail. The fresh, clear atmosphere, the pure, soft water, the warm, mellow sunshine, the beautiful scenery, are some of nature's contributions to the place of the Health Retreat. But this is not all by any means. We have been at the Retreat at different times during the last three years. Since our first visit, in fact, within the last year, the building and grounds have been greatly improved in many respects. The bath and treatment rooms have been refitted, call bells and whistles have been put into every part of the building, a greater supply of water has been brought to the institution, the warming of the building has been improved, and the woods on the hillside are growing into a beautiful park, where one can roam and rest at his own sweet will. The institution is really a medical and surgical sanitarium. All approved methods of treatment are used for the restoration of health, under the direction of skillful Christian physicians, who are giving their life to relieve the sick and suffering. Never since our acquaintance with the institution has such a good spirit pervaded its atmosphere. All are professing Christians, from manager to bell boy, and we believe that most of them are possessors. A cheerful Christian spirit is manifest throughout among the helpers, with no unseemly levity. We could but notice the change in this respect among the workers in the gentlemen's treatment rooms, and we learn that it is the same throughout. We heard many expressions of praise in this respect while there. The surgical work alone at the institution for some years past has been good, but especial success has attended it in its many operations for internal difficulties for the past few months. Drs. W. H. and H. S. Maxson, assisted at the present by Dr. A. J. Sanderson, are physicians not only skilled in the treatment of diseases, but, as is the common testimony, they take a real interest in the welfare of their patients. In fact, their labors are unceasing and patient. Mrs. Dr. Maxson, a wife and mother, has given especial study to those diseases which afflict the weaker sex, and Dr. Maxson is, besides his large general practice, a specialist in diseases of the lungs and throat, in which he is aided by one of the finest atmospheres in a fine State. Another matter most worthy of consideration is the department of Health Foods made at the Retreat, consisting of bread, zwiebach, rolls, biscuits, crackers, wafers, granola, etc., of all kinds nearly, and for every variety of taste and digestive difficulty. Our readers who have been to the Retreat in the past must not compare the present health foods with those manufactured then. Those were like the country boy's butter, good enough what there was of them, and sometimes enough of them such as there were, but not so now. They are now good what there is of them and there is enough and to spare for those who need. We may have more to say of this in the future. The Signs nor its editor does not say this for pay. We stayed at the Retreat four weeks, paid what was charged us, and write this, we are glad to say, without a hint of solicitation or expectation of recompense other than that which comes in the very saying of a good word for an institution which will do good to the many who may avail themselves of its benefits. Its religion and religious services are not obtrusive, its attendants are kind, its rates low, and the surroundings such as to make the place what it truly is, a "Rural Health Retreat." Those desiring rest, recreation, treatment, or medical advice would do well to visit this restful spot or communicate with the Rural Health Retreat, St. Helena, Cal. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen."