Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-11-26

nllnStou, anu tne SuOp IN which tueSe
charlatans spread their SHARES and bled
the pockets of their poor, credulous and
unfortunate dupes has been closed.
These peripatetic bushwhackers of the
medical army seldom linger long in one
place. They soon reach the end of their
tether, either by exhausting the gullible
among the afflicted or by getting into
trouble with the law, and then they
move on to pastures new. The worst
Of this is that they gather their victims
from among those who most need
to be protected against them
the poorly informed and poorly
paid, and the despairing victims
Of incurable maladies who are in
a frame of mind to allow themselves to
be deluded and swindled. The feeling
that there is something wrong, either
with the law itself orin its administration,
when such wrongs can be perpetrated in
a community like this,is natural one to
those who do not know the extreme
difficulty of framing such law as will
adequately punish quacks and pretend
ers without bearing unjustly upon legiti-
mate practitioners. In such an emergency
the press can sometimes step in and do
the work that, under an ideal system of
government should be better and more
promptly done by the local authorities;
and such was the case in this instance.
The GAZETTE quietly gathered the
facts essential to the exposure of these
medical bushwhackers and the publica-
ton of these facts wound up their Will
minton career. The two chief con-
spirators absconded at once. Their
associate and, to some extent, their
subordinate, was left in the lurch and
had to spend a short season in New
Castle Jail. Our city is now clear of
the whole gang and our people should
have learned not soon to be taken in
this way again, 1t is very safe rule
that the reputable and tried physicians
who have made their homes in Will
mington and have a reputation to keep
up are the best, safest, wisest, and, in
the end, the cheapest counsellors, and
that strangers who drop down here
with great blare of trumpets and
promise to do wonderful things free of
charge or for slight remuneration are
almost sure to be loud -mouthed quacks,
who are only scheming to prey upon
the unwary for brief season and then
move on to some other hunting ground.
The GAZETTE cannot keep track of
all the humbugs that come to town, but
it feels that it has done the public some
service in so quickly scattering this par
ticular gang of "eminent" pretenders.
| Minneapolis came on to Washington
with tornado and swept the Republi-
can national committee into the Twin
| cities-for this was one occasion when
Minneapolis and st. Paul pulled to-
gether. And what pull they made
1t is great era for the north west !;
Chicago carrying off the Worlds Fair
and Minneapolis gathering in the Re.
| fNSiANfh NNhNShtoH q new Guy un-
heard Of thirty years ago. The growth
of these wonderful Twin Cities has been
a marvel in even American history,
though almost paralleled by the con.
temporary progress of Buenos Ayres,
that wide-awake capital of the Argen-
tine Republic. No farther back than
1860 the falls of St. Anthony were
still in the Wilderness; hardly pioneer
sawmill had invaded the solitude of
nature. Seven years later Minneapolis
was incorporated; in 1870 it numbered
1909 inhabitants; in 1880 there were
46,Ss7; in 1890 Minneapolis doomed UP
in the census with 164,73s people, and
on the other side of the river st. Paul
came in with a population of 1873, 1856.
Counting the two cities as one, now
that their suburbs are intermingling
here is northwestern metropolis of
more than 100000 that has grown up
within thirty years and is promising to
pass the half-million marx before the
census enumerators again make their
rounds.