appeal. In 1912, a Western architect, in correspondence with the
writer concerning recent essays of Mr. Burroughs, said:--


I have had much pleasure and soul-help in reading and re-reading
"The Summit of the Years." In this, and in "All's Well with
the World," is mirrored the very soul of the gentlest, the most
lovable man-character I have ever come across in literature or
life. . . .To me all his books, from "Wake-Robin" to "Time and
Change," radiate the most joyous optimism. . . . During the past
month I have devoted my evenings to re-reading [them]. . . . He
has always meant a great deal more to me than merely intellectual
pleasure, and, next to Walt Whitman, has helped me to keep my life
as nearly open to the influences of outdoors and the stars as may
be in a dweller in a large town.


As I write, a letter comes from a Kansas youth, now a graduate
student at Yale, expressing the hope that he can see Mr. Burroughs
at Slabsides in April: "There is nothing I want to say--but for a
while I would like to be near him. He is my great good teacher
and friend. . . . As you know, he is more to me than Harvard or
Yale. He is the biggest, simplest, and serenest man I have met
in all the East."

I suppose there is no literary landmark in America that has had a
more far-reaching influence than Slabsides. Flocks of youths and
maidens from many schools and colleges have, for the past fifteen
years, climbed the hill to the rustic cabin in all the gayety and
enthusiasm of their young lives. But they have seen more than