Author's Note About His Book:
As to the reliability of the information given in this voluime, the unprecedentedly large sales of my two former works will 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 Receipt 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 information for the money invested, I have instructed the type-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 Receipt Book?" 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, inasmuch as eternity was of infinitely more importance than this life. His name I have forgotten, but I take the liberty of giving the name and address of a lady in "Wisconsin, whose letter I received while preparing this last work, presuming she will take no offense, as I give her name and letter only to prove to the public in what esteem my former books are held by those who have them. The following is from Mrs. O, N. Alden, and dated at Neenah, Wisconsin:
Dear Sir:
It is not the author or compiler of every book who himself so permeates the contents that the reader feels in the author a personal acquaintance, but when I am consulting Dr. Chase's Books, it seems as though I was personally consulting him, and that he is a friend, he makes what is therein so individual. But, by so doing, he exposes himself to, perhaps, annoyance, as in this instance, by being personally addressed. *
The writer closes by relating her own condition of health, and making inquiry as to the character of goods made by another gentleman. I mention these circumstances among hundreds of others only to illustrate to those having neither of my former books what those who do have them think of them, hoping thus to convince the million that my third and last book shall, at least, be equally valuable. I have, however, done my best to produce a work in every respect superior to my former ones, and with the aid of thirty years' experience since my first book was published, during which time many new theories have come into vogue and many valuable discoveries have been made, I am confident that I have succeeded, and can only hope that my former works have opened the door to this, my Crowning Life Work, and that it will be a welcome visitor at every home, where either or both the first and second books have found their way and prove to be worth many times more than the sum paid for it.
