The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-11-03
MEDICAL MAJOR GODS
THEY RIVAL THEIR BROTHERS OF Le-
GAL FAME INFANCY FEES.

Some Enormous Incomes That Are En-.
Joyed by the ELECT In Their Respective
Professions In New york-How, In Com
trast, the Common Herd Fares.
An English jour- nlist visiting this coun
try few years ago sad of New York that
It was "a market where all desirable wares
are certain to bring fair reward for the
trouble and expense Of producing them"
While this is as true today as it was then,
there are critics who find fault with the
scale of prices and give point to the old say
ing that IL is impossible to satisfy every
body
A reporter has investigated the subject
of professional incomes received in this
city, and in the course of this investigation
has discovered that, il the figures cited by
President Harper are accurate, his college
professors are doing quite rs well as the
average lawyer doctor and clergyman in
New York He states that in I'll colleges
having from 90 to $50 students, the salaries
of the most highly paid professors average
about 81 900, aud that in colleges having
more than $50 students the average is
81 ,916
The average business man who makes s
per cent on his invested capital thinks that
be is getting very fair return for It. The
capital of the professional man Is his edu-
cation, SO that President llarpers professor
receives an income about equivalent to that
derived from SIS 600 invested at s per cent.
Many doctors and lawyers have confessed
to the reporter that they would be glad to
feel sure of realizing that profit as the re-
suit of a years labor,
During the last 80 or 40 years the rate Of
compensation for the heaviest cases of work
in the three learned professions has greatly
increased. Before the war the lawyer who
received fee of 5000, SO 600 or IS, 600 was
regarded as II specially lucky fellow. To
day it is common thing for well known
members of the bar to charge and obtain
such sums for particular service.
During the famous Erie litigation,
brought about by the transactions of Fisk
and Gould, David Dudley Field, their coun-
sci, is said to have received retainer OF
100000. At no time during the period
when that eminent jurisconsult was at the
summit of his fame and in the midst of an
active practice did he derive less than $780,
COO per annum from his professional labors
Mr.. Evarts income was quite as large, and
Mr.. Choate, his partner, is today in receip,
Of one that cannot be much less. While
these cases are exceptional, there are, it 4
estimated, between 500 and 400 lawyer.
here whose average annual earnings vii
exceed $4,000
Against these, which may be classified a.
cases of lawyers of exceptional talents anC
opportunities, are to be placed the cases o
the thousands of less fortunate ones, many
of whom barely manage to earn a supper
for themselves and their families. The Law
is a crowded profession, and for the MAJ
who enters it without briefs or friends al
Improbable one. According TO an estimate
given the reporter by member in Ions
practice, the average income of the New
York lawyer is between 5000 and $1,000.
The same conditions are to be observed il
the medical profession. There too. mel
of the highest attainments and reputation
are earning yearly sums that half century
ago would have been regarded as a fortune
A list submitted To the reporter of physi
clans whose incomes exceed so, 900 con.
tanned. among others, such names as DIR.
Loomis, DR.. Flint, DIR. Ssyre. DR. Satterlee,
DR.. Stimson, DIR. Markoo, Dr. Peters, Dr.
McBurney, DR.. Hamilton, DIR. Delafed and
Dr. Weir. The list of those whose incomes
are in the neighborhood of $4,000 embraces
the names of nearly 200 practitioners.
Doctors like Loomis, Flint and Sayre hold
the same relation to the practice of medi.
cine that lawyers like Choate, Evarts Car
ter and Field hold to the practice OF law
They are the major gods of their pro
fession, and their remuneration is grad
uated according to the public appreciation
of their pre-eminent skill and talent. A
physician who has been associated with DR.
Loomis in many important cases is of tn,
opinion that his profession yields him u,
much as $50 600 or Sc, 600 Il year In former
times, when "a doctor had more bushes,
than he could attend to- he turned some o
1t over to an assistant. Although that il
still done, the most popular Of the leadin.
physicians correct the excess by increasing
their charges or by adopting the role o
consulting physicians,
A quarter of a century back 81. 80 was tn
usual fee for visit. Now it is in some in
stances SIS, in other $40 and in still other SO
When physician who has abandoned tn
practice of visiting his patients aud becom
consulting physician makesBn exception
under special circumstances, he charges TO
a visit thus made as much as he would 70
consultation. Doctors of the grade o
Sayre, Stimson, Flint, Loomis and Nc
Burney, when acting as consulting physi
clans, receive as high as $50 $50 and 500.
In the third or lowest grade of the pro
fession the incomes taper down from s., 90
to few hundreds This of course is tn
most numerous grade and has the princi
pie of the survival of the fittest as illus
trated by experiences that are often posi-
lively narrowing. At the time when tn
passion for painting PLAQUES was most in
tensely developed in this city, a cynic OF
served that, "Of PLAQUES and doctors Their
is no end" He alluded to the multitud
of ''sawbones" yearly graduated in spite o
the fact that New York has had for year
more doctors than it knows what to d
with By the profession the opinion is al
most unanimously entertained that tn
best correction of the evil is to raise tn
standard of qualification. Reduce tn
quantity and improve the quality of tn
supply.-New York News.
WOman's Last Look.
When woman has got her bonnet ant