Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1891-05-02

iiiOot ilNbA W.. Nil'l'itN wv "
ter and spirit of the commuuica.
ton, in this issue, from DIR.
Smith, of Paducah to DR. Barrow,
Chairman of Committee Of Ar
rangemcnts in this city.
Not to use any circumlocution
about it, all the doctors in town,
and the country circumiaceut are
fixing to get drunk here on May
9th.
That's Just the size it. They
are going to have big banquet
and have liquor. and nearly every
son Of Hypocrates, GaTcn, Escula-
Plus or whoever it is, that's the
daddy of all the doctors, will get
drunk, and some of them will be
"Scpultus in rmo.' OF course
they will not admit that, but they
are going to have wine, and they
will nearly every one drink it,
and it will make all of them more
or less drunk except one or two in
stance in which the parties are
old whisky soaks to whom wine
would be almost like water.
Think this is not only un-
becoming, but that these gentle
men have no right to do this
These gentlemen have been en-.
trusted, to a great extent, Will
the lives ofthe people.
There are prominent railroad
corporations that will not employ
any man in any position that i,
at all responsible, who uses any
liquor. These same physician,
that will drink wine at this ban.
quet will commend these railroad
corporations, ahI yet they propose
in this prominent and Official man
ner to put themselves into a con.
dition where their profession tells
them that they are Intellectually
and physically incompetent t(
discharge their duties, and where
they will by their example en-
courage that which their specia
skill tells them is, mere than an,
dozen diseases in this country
tainting not only!the physical bu
the moral nature Of men.
l never was at an editorial as
soclation, but | understand tina
at their last meetings they hay,
declined to have any liquors, be-
cause they thought it was unbe
coming. If all the preachers il
the country should have biz
meeting here and all get on hi!
jamboree, it would be exceedingl,
unbecoming; but drunken preach
ers and drunken editors both ar
not so dangerous citizens a
drunken doctors, who have tn,
lives of the people in their hands
believe that physicians as
class are the incest men of an,
one calling. In the whole cit
of Lexington, l can only recall
one who is a black sheep in tn
lot.
They are as a class, too cult
waited and two refined to requir
to be reasoned with in a matter o
this kind. They are, on tn
other hand, the very men t,
whom society has right to lool
for a correction Of the very evi
they are thus fostering. The,
know that in the higher classes G
society, nearly all of the instance
of ruined young men, had thei
start right in such occasions q
this very thing these gentIeme
are proposing.
The low born and uncultivate
and uneducated very naturally Q
to the saloons the very first ste
of their downward career, bu
naturally many well reared youn
men who would be ashamed to b
seen entering places especial
conducted for drinking purpose.
would be influenced to indulge il
liquors by seeing so highly respec
table body of gentlemen as thes
physicians-who are supposed t.
be specially informed as t.
whether there is any danger il
liquor-thus publicly, by thei
example, encourage its use.
Lexington has had some fright
full instances of what whisky cal
do tor the medical fraternity: ant
l suppose that nearly all of j
started in the use of liquors in tn,
high toned way that these physi,
clans now propose to use it.
When | first came to LeXing
ton, nearly twenty years ago,
selected as my family physician
the man who had had the greatest
opportunities for knowing hi,
profession in the finest schools o
Europe.
/ went one night for him in {
great hurry for my dangerously il
child. | found him, after great de-
lay, in a club room at the Ph@niN
Hotel.
Years ago he died a drunkard.
saw it was injustice to my
family to employ such a man, and
selected what | thought was the
next most skilled in his profes-