San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-08-06
Beckmann Criticises two Doctors.

the sewerage question yesterday,
with just enough color in them to
lead us to infer that the good, old
doctor is "ferninst" that modern
'contraption" called SANITARY sew
erage.' Now the doctor is nothing
if not a good joker, but the morn
ing paper perpetratOr should have
told us all of the doctors funny
| sayings on this very funny cues
| ton. One Of these which he failed
to give us runs about thus: When
| sewers were the great question,
| several years back, rumor says, the
doctor, when asked his opinion,
said the best "sewer" system for
San Antonio, which he knew of,
was the one he found in vogue here
in the early days, when the sun,
our hot day air and the merry
tumble-bugs did the work. This
was as good joke as any the doc
tor ever got off, and the system has
the merit of being cheap, especially
in summer time and when the sun
shines.
There is an unintentionally fun
| ny medicine man in town, who adj
vertises himself in the papers as
"arzt." This is the German for
doctor, only it is little more en-
phatic and l suppose is intended
to let people know he is on the tip
permost top of the highermost
rung of the esculapian ladder Of
fame. He also totes the prefix
"von" to his name around, to let
common people hereabouts know
that he is blue-blooded, ETC., etc. l
mean DR.. Won Koehring, who, in
Sundays Express, says sewerage
is an evil" London, Paris, Berlin,
which, as the greatest cities of the
most enlightened race of men Of
the oldest continent, are also the
greatest seats of learning, of re-
search and of anything which may
affect the welfare of humani-
| ty. The authorities of these
cities have provided sewerage,
because they did not know
better and were not esstopped
by sanitarians, etc. But Won X.
knows better than the combined
experience and wisdom of ages and
nations and he has the courage to
tell the world so. But you see he
is an "Artzt" and lives in San An
tonic, since New Braunfels got too
small for him to live in.
Won *. quotes ChaumOnt, but
proves nothing except that Chau
probably never saw or heard of
that system of sewers which mod
ern sanitary practice has devised
and calls the separate system"
Won Koehring in all seriousness
tells us to use the dry sewerage
process-but as he fails to describe
the workings of his dry process we
will presume he also heard about
the sun, the air, etc. Thanks aw-
fully, doctor, for your earnest ad-
vice, for we fully appreciate the
fact that you are not joking.
Won Koehring, artZt, must have
a peculiar conception Of his profess
sion, inasmuch as when he speaks
about consumptives and the danger
that such people expose us to, tells
us it were better we closed our
doors to our poor, lung-atfected
| fellow men, who seek our own Pc
culiar climate for a restoration to
that health, which they prize more
than wealth and which latter they
are willing to leave here if in ex-
change they can get cured. Doc
tors are supposed to seek to pre-
serve or prolong life; Won Koch
ring. artzt, however, counsels us to
run the poor devils out. But if
only the DR.. will let that danger
scare him sufficiently that he would
move away from it here In San An
tonic no one would pick quarrel
with consumption.
Cholera, DR.. V. X. is not a bit
proud or aristocratic and will as
soon visit a severed city as one with
out, but thinking people will prefer
have the poisonous dejecta Of
cholera patients swiftly washed
away to a harmless distance from
their homes and the city than to
have it tester and throw off gases
like your blood and water illustra-
tion,) in back yard privy vaults,
barrels or boxes. Maybe the doc
tor would prefer to have people
hoard or treasure the poisoned de-
jecta in vaults or by drying it in
the back yard, while he hurries the
dangerous corpse of the dead de-
| parted out of the house and to the
grave in double quick time. But
ode gustibus non est disputandum"
or "there is no discussing Of
| tastes"