News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-09
TALKS WITH THE BOYS.
WHAT TO PUT ON YOUR sHINGLE
WHEN YOU TACK 1T UP OVER YOUR
DOOR.
Something About the Doctor and the Trou-
bic He has to Make People Understand
Him PrOperIy.
M. Quad, in Detroit Free Press.


Him PrOperIy.
M. Quad, in Detroit Free Press.1
When mechanic is finished work
man his wages are regulated by a mar
ket value. He is worth so much to any
employer, aside from any enthusiasm he
may have in his trade. There may be
personal reasons why he is worth more
to one employer than another, but his
work can only bring him in fixed sum.
In the professions the case is different.
The lawyer, the doctor, the dentist, the
artist, the teacher and others have a
fixed price for their services, but the
public are at liberty to patroni1e them
or let them starve.
Your mother wants one of her boys to
be doctor, and your father would feel
proud to have a son with ''M. ID.
hitched to his name. As you regard the
profession you have only to go to col
lege for couple of years, get diploma
and start out and make cures and pile
! up dollars. Let us see what there is in
it. If men are not born for the profess
sion why is it that so many drop it, even
after graduating? While one may not
display the same enthusiasm to be
physician that he would to handle tools
or use the brush, it is certain that the
best physicians of our day are those who
have their souls in their work. Your
mothers wishes or your fathers pride
will have nothing to do with making
YOU a success. Neither will the length
of time at college or the amount of
theory pounded into you by the profess
sors. When you. have put in your
course and started out with ''sheep-
skim in your pocket, you may think
you know how to treat fever, invigor-
ate the liver, set broken arm or cure
rheumatism. The next thing is to get
the chance to practice for pay. Here is
where you will either have an advantage
over the artisan or lose by comparison.
Your fees are established by custom,
while his wages are fixed by the law of
supply and demand. His skill will bring
a certain price, even in the dullest times.
Your income must depend on, first, the
health of the public; second, the conf
dence of the people in your abilities;
! third, chance and luck.
In whatever city or village you are
call up to yourself the names of all the
| physicians YOU know or have heard
| spoken If in village you find that
| two or three have nearly all the prac-
! tice. The three or four others may be
| excellent doctors, but where are their
patients? If in city of 100. 900 inhab-
itants the number of physicians known
as frst-class is small. Follow one of
| these successful men back to his start
and you have the key. One of his first
calls after establishing himself was to
prescribe for some member of wealthy
and influential family. 1t was pure
luck, as the family's regular physician
happened to be absent. The young doc
tor set broken limb or prescribed for
fever The family spoke well of him,
and other families employed him. He
had the good luck to work prompt cures,
and in a year or two grew into fair
practice.
Talk with almost any doctor you will
and you will find that his start was made
about that way. He may be smarter
than steel-trap, and as competent as
the physician whose Office is crowded,
but people hesitate to employ young
doctor. If he is an unmarried man,
that will count largely against him. Ii
he should be so unfortunate as to lose
his first patient he may as we'll take
down his shingle and seek new field.
And there is the person as well as the
profession to be consulted in the sue
cess of doctor. Some men attract
while others repel. Their skill being
equal, the one with the personal mag
netism will have much the largest prac-
tice. You hear it said of one that he is
rough and bearish and without sympa-
thy and of the other that he is sosympa-
thetic and tender-hearted that it is al
most privilege to be treated by him.
A lawyer may win great victory by an
appeal to the jury, or even by the
stupidity of a~single Juror. The physI-
clan must win his victories single
handed and often against great odds.
When loved ones hover between life and
death their friends hope and despair,
feel confidence and dlstrust-in the
same moment. It is seldom that one
saws of the lawyer you have employed:
"You don't say so Well, | hope he will
win the case-but-well should have
had so aud So" 1t is an every day
thing to have it said of your doctor:
"Well, if you've got him that settles it
He's killed about everybody he's doc
tored?' If the lawyer loses the case he
pleads unfair ruling or the eccentricity
Of the jury. If the doctor loses patient
he must stand the blow alone. While
we all admit that death must come, no
one is inclined to forgive the doctor who
couldn't keep death away. Can you call
up the name of single physician whose
professional reputation is free from slurs
and ISLANDERS? The more of a success
he IS the oftener you will hear these
ISLANDERS:
"He doctored Mrs. Blank, and his
neglect killed her.
He kept telling my sister that her
baby would get we'll, and it died while
he was i'll the house."
':They say he had been drinking, and
that he had cut old Bogg's arm off when
there was no need of it.
"He doctored Blank into his grave,
and he would have killed my brother if
we hadn't taken the case out of his
hands"
You hear all this and much more, and
while the chances are that the doctor
could exculpate himself in every in
stance, he is hot given the opportunity.
He is condemned off-hand, and the |
number of his enemies is increased |
every time a SANDER is repeated There !
are physicians in practice who, from |
lack of excellence and influence and cir,
earn less money than any |
or blacksmith. There are |
others who make just fair salary and
cannot increase it. A very few come to
be termed eminent or leading, and have
incomes running from 5000 to $25.-
300 year.
Ponder on these things before you
July make mp your mind that you were
created to become a frst-class physician.
II is one of the two or three professions
IN which ambition cannot increase the
ncOme.
The skill of the artist can be placed
before the eye for criticism that of the
physician and surgeon may remain IN
,elled for and unknown Where one
ucceeds to eminence and fortune hun
lred simply earn fair living. Where
me is generally praised for his success a
core would be unknown in their neigh
but for the sign on the door.
Swallowed a Lizard.
crUp TN nEA1rpo |