Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1891-05-26
THE STATES PHYSICIANS.
WORK OF THE CONVENTION
BEGUN TODAY.
Hon. Richmond Pearson Extends
welcome i'm a Handsome
Speech, and DIR. l.. j. PicOt
Responds as HandsOmely--SO.
ciaI Features.

The thirty-cighth annual meeting of the
medical society of the state of North
Carolina convened in the court house
in Asheville this morning at 10 o'clock.
DIR. M. II. Fletcher, president OF the
Buncombe county medical society, called
the society to order, and expressed the
pleasure it afforded him to have the pro
icssion again meet in Asheville.
Rev. c. w. Byrd, of the Central M. E.
church, south, opened the exercises with
prayer.
DR.. Fletcher then introduced Hon.
Richmond Pearson, of Asheville, who de,
livered the address of welcome.
Mr.. Pearson said
"On behalf of the citizens of Ashcvillc, !
not only extend hearty welcome to your
distinguished body, but beg to express
our grateful appreciation OF what the
medical profession has done for our city.
81 recall distinctly and with pleasure
your meeting here just ten years ago.
Asheville was then a scattered and
struggling village. Yours was the first
great convention of eminent and influen-
tial men to assemble here, and you were
the first to recognize and proclaim the
advantages and charms of this favored
region.
"Your eminent men have sent the name
of Asheyille into the uttermost parts Of
the world. Such men as DR.. Loomis, DIR.
Mitchell, DR.. Agnew and DR.. Sayre, have
sent hundreds of patients with thousands
OF ailments and millions of money down
here, to such men as Hilliard, and Bat
tie, and Williams and others, and these
doctors have relieved these millionaires
both of their ailments and of their mil
lions, and then have modestly ascribed
it all to our climate, and set their enthu-
siastic and impoverished patients to work
building up the town, building hotels,
factories. handsome houses, buying town
lots and loaning money at six per cent. to
the great JOY and surprise of the natives.
THUS in a certain sense the doctors
have made Asheville and Asheville has
made the doctors, and stand here today
to acknowledge our part of the obliga-
ton. All mankind must admit an ever
lasting debt to your great and learned
and benefcent calling. We recognize the
physician, the family physician OF course;
he is the first to meet and the last to
leave us in this world, he prcsides and
prcscribes both at the birth and at the
death; he always welcomes the coming
guest in an obstcrical sense, and in some
l,nc lc ln rt T OF in
Il mortuary sense; seriously we recognize
i'll the family physician the most intimate
friend, the most trusted counsellor, the
faithful custodian of the innermost Sc
crets of the heart and OF the household.
"In a special and peculiar sense we
welcome you to the city which you have
raised from the position of Il hamlet. we
welcome you to the climate whose repu-
tation you have made worldwide. We
welcome you to scenery whose verdure
and whose azure, whose serrated peaks
and broken skylines must touch the SEN
sibilties of the dullest man.
"We would welcome you gentlemen to
citizenship here. There is room for
all and welcome for all and
work for all and profit for all. We
would even admit you to the charms OF
our select real estate transactions, to a
fair share in our hopes and expectations
to our new streets and pavcments soon
to be laid and if not laid in gold orjasper
or opalescent alabastcr we have resolved
shall not be surpassed this side OF the
New Jerusalem.
"We welcome you to cur skyland and
skylines, to our mountain walks and our
mountain dew, to our storytelling glcns
and our spring blossoms, to our wild
flowers and our invalids.
Gentlemen, l assure you we are glad
to see you"
DR.. PIcOT's SPEECH.
Mr.. Pearson's remarks were heartily
applauded, and at their conclusion Dr..
l.. J. Picot, OF Littleton, N. c., responded
on. n..bchalf of the society.
DR.. Picot said:
II thank you in the name of my con-
freres for your kind and generous wei
come. ! am glad to say that many OF
us are not entire strangers iny your midst.
Ten fleeting years have only passed since
as body we met in your city before.
We carried away with us then the most
pleasant recollections of your kind, hos
pitable people. We come now with glad
anticipations to renew them. We tind
some of the same familiar scenes that
greeted us then. Yonder still flows your
lovely river, well and truly named a
"Nymph of Beauty" itself immortalized
in song, now murmuring songs OF poetry
upon its crystal bosom, and bathing
with its pure water the feet of these eter.
nal hills. On every hand still tower your
lordly mountain peaks, but in all else
how changed Surely some eastern
necromancer has been here and touched
your homes with his magic wand. We
left here pleasant little village nestled
in this valley, but find now rich and
prosperous city, bustling with all the
signs of great wealth and prosperity
We already recognize yours as the queer
city of North Carolina, and let us pre-
dict with confident hope that ere another
decade has passed yours will be tn,
queen city of our beloved southland, ant
that it will be to North Carolina what
Athens was to Greece, the nursing
mother of brave men and gifted women
Your region was once landlocked ant
almost entirely unknown, but now tn,
story of your delightful cline has bcel
carried to every part of this and many 1
distant land. 1t has brought hither {
Aoodtidc Of wealth and population. w,
bid you God-speed in your glorious err
of progress.
my venerable teacher, the late Prot
Samuel Henry Dickson, once said to hi
pupils, when speaking to rs of tina
direst Of all human ills, pulmonary con
sumption, Send your patients, gentle
men, to the mountains of Western Nortl
Carolina, for if there is a paradise OF
garth, it is there. Now, can we'll be
leve it, for these ountains, piercing tn
heavens themselves, seem to lift one near
or to the throne OF the Great ] Am, an,
that they are really His stepping stones
They arc grander and more awe-inspir
Ing to US who are dwcllers Of the plain
and by the shores of old ocean. The
are fitting abodcs for poets. for nainter