You will no doubt be surprised to receive this letter from a stranger, & will I expect conclude that it is a very strange letter, & why I write it I do not know except that I am a sick suffering woman longing for help & relief. I have become very much interested in metaphysics, & after having been a wretched nervous sufferer for twelve years, have some hopes that I might be relieved by that treatment. My situation in life is a very trying one, & it is impossible for me to act as I would like for want of means. This is a large institution for the sickEditorial Note: The Clifton Springs Sanitarium was started in 1850 by Dr. Henry Foster (1821-1901) as a water cure facility and eventually was expanded into a comprehensive holistic health center, drawing upon a number of different therapies. It is now known as Clifton Springs Hospital & Clinic. While its main focus has become conventional Western medicine, it still offers a number of alternative healing modalities., & I have been placed here for the winter, my expenses being paid by a friend who is wealthy. As much as I desire to go to Boston & be treated by a metaphysician I cannot do so for want of means & she is unwilling to pay my expenses anywhereAs Written:any where else except here. My case is very peculiar one having baffled the skill of the best doctors in this country, until my means are gone & wasted & I am now being helped by friends, still the most I hear & know of your treatment. I believe there is help for me if I can get someoneAs Written:some one who has had experience to take up my case. It must be someoneAs Written:some one in whom I can confide, for my keenest sufferings arise from a trouble, of which I cannot speak except to one in whom I can have implicit confidence. I am tired laying around musing my complaints, & since knowing of your treatment I have felt many times as if I must burst the chains that bind me & get out of it, still I cannot do it without help. If my mind can be controlled I believe I will be well. What encouraged me about this treatment was this. Before coming here I took treatment from a metaphysician & she helped me considerably. I can walk farther than I have done for two years. She did not seem to help me towards the last of her treatments, & I find my stomach & nerves remain about the same as they were before she treated me, whether she had done all she could or whether she needed more time I cannot tell. but it has made me very anxious to try the treatment still farther, but, how situated as I am, I am to get to anyoneAs Written:any one is more than I can tell. I dare not give up this opportunity of being cared for all winter, & still am so tired of a sanitarium & sick people & medicine, & most of all of my own complaints. I wrote a metaphysician to see if I could have her come on here but she could not leave her patients. I know you do not treat, & I had heard of your going to Chicago to teach a class, so I thought I would write & ask you if there was any probability of your being any where near here very soon. If you ever go away from yourAs Written:you labors to rest, I do not believe you could find a pleasanter place than this to come to for a few weeks, & if you could in any way interest Dr. FosterEditorial Note: Henry Foster, M.D. (1821-1901) & these physicians in your treatment it would be a wonderful point gained, & I would be so delighted to see you & have your opinion of my case. Had I the means I would pay you any sum & have you come on here to see me, as it is I can only say I would give anyoneAs Written:any one who will cure me what little money I have, but unless I can get well I can't give it all up. Would you be willing & would it do me any good, to have you treat me without seeing me? Could I tell you what I have suffered all these years, & am suffering todayAs Written:to-day, I know your heart would be inclined to do something for me, if it lay in your power & I believe it does. UpstairsAs Written:Up stairs lays a poor woman who has not left her bed for eight years; I have tried to interest her husband in this treatment, & I believe she could be raised up. Don't think I am demented for writing & trying to interest you in my case, but consider me, & see if you cannot possibly help.