The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-24


New York Tribune.l
81 have made one fortune in my time"
said an old merchant the other day,
"and"-
"Spent it" broke in the writer.
Didn't have that pleasure"
Lost it?'
'No, sir; the fortune l made was that
of another man."
GLOW was thatg' asked the writer.
"After left college," replied the first
speaker, 81 knocked about the country,
here and there, for few years, before l
settled down in this city. In the course
of my wanderings / met an old school
friend who had gone to medical col
lege and was then just starting to build
up practice in a small country town.
When / ran across him he was in a
dreadful fit Of the blues, and / said to
him, after first greetings had been ex-
changed: why, old man, you're not like
your former self at all. You haven't
been practicing long enough to have
killed anybody yet, have your
"'No, no! my boy he answered, not
that. But, if 1 may confide in you with
safety as | think can, will tell you
my difficulties. I'm madly in love with
the most beautiful girl in all the world
and she loves me, but all her people are
opposed to our marriage, because the old
man is wealthy and am poor. They
want her to marry rich sutton who is
after her, and I feel like brute in ask
ing her to wait for me till am able to
support her, while that prospect seems
SO distant. I've been in this town for
six months now and not a single patient
have / secured
elbow many rivals have you got
hereY inquired.
"'Only one,' he answered, old DR..
Scroggs, but he has been here for forty
years or more all by himself. He re-
sents my intrusion as personal insult,
and SO do his patients, think. There
seems to be a prejudice against young
doctors, anyway, and am heartily dis
outraged
Why don't you try some OF the time
honored old tricks Of the trade? said.
"You know them as well as do. Have
a boy rush into church and whisper in
your ear where you sit, well up toward
the front. Then grab your hat and make
as much noise as you can going out Get
up half dozen prescriptions and have
the bottles directed to Mrs. Smith, Mr..
Brown, etc., and then see that they are
delivered to the wrong houses. Send for
them again, explaining that in the rush
of business these little mistakes will
sometimes happen. There are a dozen
such little lodges that
No use, my dear boy he answered,
with sigh. All those pretty games are
N. G. in a small town. If Mrs. Smith
has toothache nearly everybody else
here knows it or will hear of it some
day. The tricks would all be discovered
here to a dead certainty, and would be
worse off than ever They are all right
enough in big city, but
"'Whats that exclaimed, as a ter
rife banging was heard at the outer door.
Charley, my friend, went to the door,
and girls voice came out of the dark
ness, saying, Come down to the hotel,
doctor, there's traveller there took down
with a fit or somethin' and he's like to
die
Charley grabbed a case of instru-
ments, and we both started for the hotel
on a run. We got there few minutes
before old Scroggs, for whom the girl
who told us had also gone. Before
Scroggs got up to the travellers room
Charley had diagnosed the case to his own
satisfaction, and was looking very wise
indeed. Scroggs seized the insensible pa
tient by the wrist, listened to his heart
beats, and before Charley had said
word, raped out:
"'Case of apoplexy, bring some
"But Charley was not to be ignored in
this way. Its plain case of ep'- he
began, but just then pulled him to one
side and whispered in his ear.
"T was about to remark, DR.. Scroggs,
resumed Charley, with considerable dig
nifty, that the case is undoubtedly one
of morphine poisoning.
Nonsense, young man. said old
Scroggs rudely, L say it's apoplexy.
GA stomach pump will soon prove
who's right, said Charley, as he unlock
ed his case and produced one.
"The little crowd of hotel employees
and villagers who had crowded into the
room, big one, seemed rather amused
by the arguments of the doctors, and a!
the patient was stranger to all, the ap
plication of a stomach pump, if only K
settle the controversy, met with genera
approval.
"Well, to make long story short
morphine it was sure enough. This dis
comfture of old Scroggs spread abroad
Charley soon built up practice, mar
ried his heiress and lived happily evel
afterward"
"And how did you discover it was NOR
phine just in time to prevent your young
friend from declaring in favor of cpl
lepsy?" asked the writer
"That's just what Charley asked me
when it was all over" replied the mar
rator. "The fact is, while Charley anG
old Scraggs were engaged in looking
wise over the patient, and guessing a
his malady, l was looking about tn,
room. There in corner behind foo
stove spied bottle. Picking it up
saw that it was labeled morphine, poi
son, and that it had been recently emp
tied, as the outside of it was still moist
That was enough for me, and had Jus
time to hiss in Charley's ear morphine
before ba committed hir1colf -