Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-04
ssSOBERING OFF,.
How Jolly Physician Gets a Good
 Big Income.

Ahost e "Sts sa "ooo Rig Income.
 From the Boston Herald.1 ''Hello, Doc! Will you join mel" ''No, thanks. never drink" 'The devil you don't. Why, you spend half your time in a bar-room. I'll bet l have not been in here for a month without seeing you sitting at one of these tables. 7" 'Well, Charlie, that is how make my money. More than half of my business is done with the boys who patronize the bars of the big hotels. I come down about eleven o'clock in the morning, when the boys begin to congregate, and get in troduced by one to another. I tell them stories, make various excuses to avoid drinking, take light lunch about noon and go home in season to take my five o'clock dinner. Then, if I have no call CTS. 1 take an hours nap and am ready for work"
 Occasionally go to the theater or con- cert with my wife. but when l do not go to bed by ten o'clock, sleep eight hours, take cold sponge bath, eat sfnall break fast of hearty food, and, by that time, I am pretty sure to see some of the boys you are apt to meet here during the day or evening, and who come to me to get 'sobered off in season to go to their busi- ness down town"
 "You don't mean that you have a -regu- lar bushes in this line, do you, doctor!' Certainly" replied the jolly doctor, who prescribes massage instead of oint- ments, long walks instead of drugs, and healthy exercise and regular hours in places of dyspepsia specifies. ''The man who has been drinking wine or whiskey half the night gets up in the morning with his nerves in such condition that walking and talking are burden, while the task of writing is one that he shud ders at. He comes to me, and I strip him and give him a vigorous dose of massage for an hour or less, and he goes away per fectly strengthened out for the time being. ''If he keeps up this sort of life it will kill him or at least destroy his life in 6 short time, and I tell him so. But as a temporary expedient the treatment is very effective.
 "Once in a while, in an extreme case, l advise the man to go and take a Turkish bath, if he has time to spare. But these | baths, while apparently wonderfully re storative for the time being to the man | who has indulged too much in stimulants, | are very exhausting to nature when taken under such circumstances, and only pre- | scribe them in cases of extreme necessity. l ''Now the application of massage treat ment requires great deal of strength. If I should indulge in liquor or tobacco it would vitiate some of my strength, and, | in the course of time. l would be absolute | ly unable to keep up my practice. l can l only retain my vigor by the most careful | obedience to laws of nature. Strong and l we'll as 1 am, single glass of whisky | would reduce my vigor for two or three | days, while the mildest cigar would proba- bly, unfit me for work the next morning after indulgence.
 ''You see that man who nodded to me.
 He has just called for brandy and ab- sinthe He comes to me about twice 8
 week He was probably too busy this morning, and now he seeks to get through
 the day by taking the worst decoction pos
 sible. I have warned him against it dog
 ems of times, but he keeps up the prac-
 tice, partly from habit and partly because
 he thinks he cannot help it. To morrow | he will be at my house at half-past seven,
 so that he can be fixed up for his business,
 which begins at ten o'clock. After that
 he will not drink anything until after
 three, and perhaps nothing at all to-mor-
 row."
 "Well, doctor, what is the best method
 for sobering off Is it yours!"
 "Of course. I have followed my meth
 cd for more than twelve years and it ha'
 never failed"
 "Does it include anything else beside
 the massage treatments"
 ''It does not include that, even. My
 method is not to drink nor to smoke; t
 get fair amount of exercise; take regu
 larly eight hours sleep when I can; to ca
 small meals of hearty food three times
 day, and when am very tired to drink
 little of very strong coffee. During al
 these years I have been 'sobered off al
 the time
 ) ''Try it. You will find that it will bea } all the other schemes in the world"