Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1850-01-10
JOB PRINTING.
The Morning Visit.
By o. w. HOLMES.

A sick mans chamber, though it often boast
The grateful presence of literal toast,
Can hardly claim amidst its various wealth
The right, unchallenged, to propose a health
Yet though its tenant is denied the feast,
Friendship must launch his sentiment at least,
As prisoned damsels, locked from lovers lips,
Toss them kiss from off their fingers tips
The MORNING FIsIT-not till sickness falls
In the charmed circle of your own safe walls
Till fever's throb, and pains relentless rack,
Stretch you, all helpless, on your aching back;
No, till you play the patient in your turn,
The morning visits mystery shall you learn
'Tis a small matter in your neighbor's case,
To charge your fee for showing him your face,
You skip up stairs, inquire, inspect and touch,
Prescribe, take leave, and off to twenty such.
But when, at length, by fate's transferred degree
Tile visiter becomes the risiiee,
o then, inded, it pulls another string,
YouR OK is gored, and that's different thing
Your friend is sick phlegmatic as Turk.
You write your recipe and let it work;
Not yours TO stand the shiver and the frown.
And sometimes worse, with which your draughi
goes down;
Calm as clock your knowing hand directs,
REEI, JALAPG, ANA GRANA SEX,
Or traces on some tender missve's back
ScRuPuLos Duos PULvERrs lPEcAc;
And leaves your patient to his qualms and griPes,
Cool as sportsman banging at his snipes.
But change the time, the person, and the place
II L. 81, 90
You'll gain some knowledge which it's well TO
learn,
In future practice il may serve your turn.
Leeches, for instance, pleasing creatures quite,
Try them, and, bless you, don't you find they bite
You raise blister for the smallest cause,
But be yourself the great sublime it draws,
And trust my statement, you will not deny.
The worst Of draughtsmen is your Spanish Fly
It's mighty easy, ordering when you please,
INFUsIA SErNG, cAPIAT UNcIAs TRES;
It's mighty different when you quackle down
Your own three ounces of the liquid brown.
PILuLA, PULvIs-pleasant words enough,
When other Jaws receive The shocking stuff;
But oh, what fattery can disguise the groan
That meets the gulp which sends il through your
own.
Be gentle, then, though Arts unspaIing rules
Give you the handling of her sharPest tools;
Use them not rashly-sickness is enough
Be always" ready" but be never rough
OF all the ills that suffering man endures,
The largest fraction liberal Nature cures;
Ofthose remaining, tbs the smallest part
Yields to the efforts Of iudicious Art
But simple KINDNESS kneeling by the bed
To shift the pillow for the sick mans head,
Give the fresh draughf TO cool the lips that burn,
Fan the hot brow, the weary frame to turn;
KINDNEss--untutored by our grave M. DIS,
But natures graduate, whom she schools to please,
Wins back more sufferers with her voice aud smile,
Than all the ,rumpery in the druggists pile.
Once more, be euIET-comjng up the stair.
Don't be plantgrade, human bear,
But stealing softly on the slant toe,
Reach the sick chamber ere you're heard below
Whatever changes there may greet your eyes,
Let not your looks proclaim the least surprise;
It's not your business by your face TO show
All that your patient does not wish to know
Nay. use your optics with considerate care,
And don't abuse your privilege TO stare.
But If your eyes may probe him oyermuch
Beware still further how you rudely touch
Don't clutch his corpus in your icy fist,
But warm your fingers ere you take the wrist;
II the poor victim needs must be percussed,
Don't make an anvil Of his aching bust;
doctors exist within hundred miles,
Who thump ihorax as they'd hammer piles.)
If you must listen to his doubtful chest,
Catch the essentials and ignore the rest
Spare him; the sufferer wants of you and art
A track to steer by, no, finished chart;
So of your questions--don't in mercy try
To pump your patient absolutely dry
He's no, mollusc squirming ina dish =
You're poi Agassiz, and he's no, a asa.