The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-04-29
EBENsBURG, Pa THURSDAY, April. 80, 1869.

| HhiCA AdtScty compose ms WlEuerneS8s
| yield upon the air, and especially at night,
all their curative qualities. Nany night
have laid down upon my bed of balsam
boughs and been lulled to sleep by the
| murmur of waters and the low signing
melody of the pines, while the air was
laden with the mingled perfume of cedar,
OF balsam and the water-lIy. Not a
few, far advanced in that dread disease,
consumption, have found in this wilder
ness renewal of life and health 1 recall
young man, the son Of wealthy parents
| IN New York, who lay dying in that
great city, attended as he was by the best
skill that money could secure. A friend
calling upon him one day chanced to
| speak of the Adirondacks, and that many
| had found help from trip to their region.
From that moment be pined for the
| woods. He insisted on what his family
! called ''his insane idea,'' that the noun
tain air and the aroma of the forest
would cure him. 1t was his daily request
and entreaty that he might go. At last
his parents consented, the more readily
| because the physicians assured them that
their sons recovery was impossible, and
his death . mere matter of time. They
started with him for the north in search
LOT life. When he arrived al the point
! where he was to meet his guide he was
| too reduced TO walk. The guide seeing
his condition refused to take him into the
woods, fearing, as he plainly expressed it,
that be would ''die on his hands" At
last another guide was prevailed upon to
serve him, not SO much for the money, as
he afterwards told me, but becauee he
Pitied the young man, and felt that "one
so near death as he was should be graft
fed even in his whims."
The boat was half filed with cedar,
! pine, and balsam bows, and the young
man, carried in the arms of his guide
from the house, laid at full length upon
them. The camp utensils were put at
one end, the guide seated himself at the
ether, and the little boat passed with the
living and dying down the lake, and
was soon .ost to the group watching
them amid the islands TO the south. This
was in early June. The first week the
guide carried the young man on his back
over all tue portages, lifting him in and
out of the boat as ne might child. But
the healing properties of the balsam and
pine, which were his bed by day and
night, began to exert their power. Awake
or asleep, be inhaled their fragrance.
Their pungent and healing odors penetra-
ted his diseased and irritated lungs The
second day out his cough was less sharp
and painful At the end of the first
week he could walk by leaning on the
paddle. The second week he needed no
support. The third week the cough
ceased entirely. From that time he i'm
proved with wonderful rapidity He
went in' the first OF june, carried in
the arms of his guide. The second week
of November he ''came OUT bronzed as
an Indian, and as hearty. In five months IS
he had gained sixty~five pounds of hesh,
and flesh, too. ''well packed on" as they
say in the woods. Coming out he carried
: the boat over all portages, the very same
over which few months before the guide
had carried him, and pulled as strong an
} oar as any amateur In the wilderness. =
} His meeting his family leave the reader
to imagine. The wilderness received him
almost corpse. 1t returned him to bis
! home and the world as happy and healthy
: man as ever bYouacked under its pines.
: This, am aware, is an extreme case,
J and, as such, may seem exaggerated but
: it is not. | might instance many other
: cases which, if less startling, are equally
corroborative of the general statement
: There is one sitting near me as I write,
the color OF whose cheek, and the clear
brightness Of whose eye cause my heart
to go out in ceaseless gratitude to the
: woods, amid which she found that health
and strength OF which they are the proof
and sign. For FIVE summers have we
r visited the wilderness. From four tc
seven weeks, each year, have we breathed
: the breath of the mountains bathed il
E the waters which sleep at their base; and
t made our couch at night of moss and bal
? sam boughs. beneath the whispering
? trees. l feel, therefore, that / am able
r to speak from experience touching this
2 matter; and l believe that, all things be-
S ing considered, 10 portion Of our country
q surpasses, if indeed any equals, in health
: giving qualities, the Adirondack wilder
7 ness.