The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-05-25
THE MAGNIFICENT.

IN INC ancient Roman city OF Bath,
about the end of the last century, while
1t still retained much Of the fashion and
celebrity it had reached in the days OF
Beau Nash, the frequenters of the Pump
room and Balls were divided into two
rival factions, and long and fierce were
their quarrels over the topic of dissen-
sion. This was neither more nor less
than the not inappropriate one of the
merits of two rival doctors, who divided
between them the smiles and guineas OF
the elite of Bath. DIR. Heathcote, the
senior of tAe two, long ruled over the in
ternal economy of the upper class of
patients with undisputed sway. He
was handsome, dapper, dignifed, we'll
spoken little gentleman, with undenia-
BILE manners, silk stockings, and shirt
frill. Among the dowagers his word
was law. At whist or piquet he was an
oracle, and not unfrequently the young
er ladies would contide to his safe ear
and kindly counsels maladies of the
heart. If he did bow little low to u
a,aronet, and still lower to coronet, it
was his only foible; and as that was
part of his professional manner, it was
pardonable and not unpopular.
The reign of this 1Esculapian poten-
tate was at last rudely distur bed by the
arrival of & pretender to the Throne.
Where DIR. Lenoir came from, who he
was, or where he had previously prac-
ticed, no one knew, or, to tell the truth,
had ever ventured to ask. He was
man of immense frame, over six feet i'll
height, with large head, black eyes,
and a good-tempered, sanguine complex
ion. He had commenced his Bath career
by becoming the tenant of a large house
on the outskirts Of the town, which ru-
NOR said was used as a lunatic asylum.
But he made his appearance in the
Pump-room and the evening recreations,
and, as he proved to be man of wit and
information, soon became a favorite with
the lounging society of the place. Even
in his most familiar moods, however, he
had something formidable about him.
No coxcomb ventured to ask him ques-
ltions, and he assumed quiet superiori-
ity which was only not calling because it
was SO thoroughly good-tempered.
With his patients he was exactly the
reverse of the reigning sovereign. He
was grutf to the great, kindly to the
poor, to children gentle as woman.
Rules of practice he set entirely at de-
tiance, and was said by his enemies to
toss up for each case whether he should
kill or cure. Cure, however, he did
many cases apparently hopeless, and by
devoting much care to soothing the suf-
ferings he could not cure, and making
the approaches OF death less agonizing,
he earned the gratitude of surviving
relatives. Such were the rivals. for
whom the card-tables Of BIth waged
war.
The rivals themselves were sworn
brothers. DR.. Heathcote at first was
scornful, and then was testy; but he
could not resist the spell which DIR. Le-
noir seemed to WELD; and although at
consultation and on professional visits
he wore his digniied sneer with due
propriety, many hand at piquet did he
hold with his brother physician, and
when none was by to see or hear, would
make his old consulting ring with
laughter at the exuberant humor of
his companion. Lenoir, on the other
hand, bowed in public, with the modesty
of a younger man, to the more mature
practitioner, and assumed his place with
80 much kind hearted Difference that the
other was entirely disarmed. But a
kind OF underlined pomp followed his
footsteps. In the Pump-room and at
the balls he had a chosen place which
ne one ever usurped; and he went by
the name of doctor Magnifcus,"
which, contracted by the unlearned into
Tile Magnificent, was his ordinary title.
DR.. Lenoir had been about three years
at Bath, when the events happened of
which 1 am about to speak. Little
more was known of him then than when
he first arrived. 1t was known he was
unmarried; but he was plsinly not a
marrying man. He firted in his good
humored way with all the pretty girls,
but it was evidently Irritation of society,
not OF the heart. 1t was also certain, by