Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-09-28
HOW ONE MAN GOT a wIEe.
He Kept Away From the Pretty Doctor
and She Weut After Him.


and She Weut After Him.
"You have doubtless read Charles
Reade's charming tale of the difficulties
encountered by the first woman doctors
and the pathetic recital of the manner
In which these difficulties were re-
moved by plucky, brainy little wo-
man?" said veteran doctor at the
: Cadillac yesterday afternoon.
well, l could tell you a little story"
said an old-timer, somewhat similar in
many respects, about young woman
/ who was one of the first practitioners in
TINS country, for she studied in the days
when many colleges had not yet opened
! their doors to women. She had re-
ceived a degree somehow in Boston
/ when she wouldn't have been given one
anywhere else, and, as her home was in
western town near one of the mining
camps, for those were the DAYS of gold
and silver excitement, she resolutely
packed her grip and one day surprised
everyone by mailing shingle on the
door OF a rude cabin, stating her pro-
tession and the fact that her office
hours were from o'clock in the morn
ing until at night, after which she
was only to be disturbed by extraordi-
nary cases. She was a bright little
woman, with a graceful figure and
proud, real thoroughbred way of car
rying herself that disarned any
approach toward familiarity on
the part of the rough, unedu-
Gated men. Her appearance was hailed
with general satisfaction, and there was
something so prepossessing about her
that the men began to wish that the
camp wasn't so healthy, so that some
of them might be treated by the fair
newcomer. l remember her first, for l
was working in drift at the time
Bill Swipes, six-footer, went to her
one morning in a sheepish kind of way,
for he had been hit hard by her bright
eyes. He did look little out of sorts,
Bill did, and he trembled as though he
had the palsy. The young woman eyed
him critically as he awkwardly ex-
planned that he wasn't feeling very
well, thought he had the CONSUMPTION
or something, and calculated that he
would come and consult a doctor.
Consumption! she exclaimed. scorn-
fully, surveying his stalwart figure,
'Bosh! What are your symptoms?
"'Wen, L got up feeling dazed-lilze.
and for two or three days have had a
pain in my head. If it isn't consump
tion it's brain fever
onsense? she said sharply You've
been on a spree. The only remedy for
you is to let whisky alone Good morn
ing
bill hesitated and pulled out a roll
of bills
Thanks, he said. What is the con-
sultation fee?
''She laughed, and he put his money
in his pocket in a shame-faced manner
After that the patients came thick and
fast. Those were rough days, and the
1alr doctor had more cuts and slashes to
bind than any other kind of cases. and
as consultation fee and treatment was
ten dollars visit the gold pieces lin
gled merrily into the newcomers palm.
The miners hailed cut or stab with
consldera Die satisfaction, as such slight
mlshaps enabled them to visit the pretty
young woman, who never received anv
but mutilated callers. Rows began To
be frequent, and one day even a China
man who had been slightly slashed |
started for the cabin, but the bows in
terfered, for they were not going to |
nave her treat any Celestials, so they |
took him by the pigtail and made him
walk turkey to the river, where they |
pitched him in, just to remind him that |
he should not presume again. The boys
courted scars and wounds, and the |
miner WHO was treated was SO proud |
he wouldn't speak to any of the rest of
us for a week or so. But there WAS a
young fellow who was a most freauent
visitor, he went about once every two
weeks, and l am sure she would have
been amazingly surprised If he had
missed one of these fortnightly visits.
While she was binding up his wounds
he would gaze into her brown ewes and
would sometimes utter absurd exclama-
tions which would cause her to admon-
ish him sharply. But one day he came
there wreck, 81 well cut up that she
made him lie down on the sofa. when
he became unconscious for two days.
She pulled him through with carefnI
nursing, and then what do YOU sup-
pose?"
She married him?"
No; she married me, and I was the
only man who hadn't gone galivanting
around to her house with a stab or a
slash It's my wife I've been telling
you about, gentlemen. Detroit Free
Press.