Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-02-27
THE PASSING SHOW.
On Matters of Interest and Cur
rent Topics.
THE OLD SOLDIERS ARE DYING OFF.
Inexperience Cost the Union Army 2o,-
900 Lives-The Large Incomes of
Physicians.
THE OLD SOLDIERS ARE DYING OFF.

General Wager Swayne earnestly and
advocates military instruc-
tion in our public schools, and his rea-
SONS are not sentimental. They are
practical. He tells me that long obser-
vat1on during his service with the Fed
eral army showed that the inexperience
of raw recruits with ball cartridges
cost on an average loss of two men
in each regiment on each side during
the late civil war. This means that
more than twenty thousand lives were
sacrificed because enlisted men had
never handled ball cartridges. This
is an appalling statement, and it affords
a strong argument why the boys in
our public schools should be given a
practical knowledge of military duties.
And this recalls the fact that the vet
Grams of the war are rapidly dying off.
An insurance man tells me, after max
ing careful calculation according to
the best tables showing the expectation
of life that the duration of life of
members of the Grand Army of the Re-
public will not average more than
sixteen years. Commander Adams,
of Lafayette Post, estimates that that
splendid organization is losing it's
mem bership by death at the rate of 10
per cent. year. The late Gen.
Thomas, a very thoughtful and obser-
want man, declared that veterans who
came out of the war unhurt could ex-
pect to live only half as long as men
who did not enlist and who escaped
the terrible nervous strain that every
enlisted man was subjected to.
General Swayne and Commander
Adams both tell narrowing incidents
of the war-case in which soldiers
ON picket duty were pierced to the
heart with rebel bullets and fell dead
in their tracks, of men at the mess
table whose arms were shot off with
out moments warning by stray shot
from rebel cannon; of soldiers asleep
in, their tents who were found dead in
the morning pierced by rebel bullets
in their fugitive flight The COM
mander of a Western regiment tells
me that he saw soldier during a
charge fall headless to the ground, a
ball from a Confederate cannon having
beheaded him as if with sabre stroke;
the severed member fell tweny feet
away. These are frightful casualties
to think of. Perhaps it is we'll that
we do not recall them too often.
The recent death of DR.. Loomis, the
specialist in lung diseases, reveals that
he left an estate valued at more than
al. 900, 900, half of it personal prop
erty. DIR. Loomis was good business
man, it is said, and knew how to in
vest his earnings. But his special prac-
tice brought him an enormous income
-one of the largest of any professional
man in New York City. Specialists
generally enjoy lucrative practices and
escape many of the hardships which
fall to general practitioners. OF all
the professions that of medicine re-
quires, perhaps, the severest labor.
and it deserves high remuneration.
1t is stated that the average annual
income of physicians. even in our large
cities, is not more than $4,000, and in
the rural districts it rarely exceeds
$1,000. DIR. Loomis was one of the
three physicians in New York whose
practice was said to yield over 800,
900 per annum. 1t is estimated that
only half dozen others make as
much as $780, year, while more
than hundred earn $40, 900 or there
abouts. and three hundred more than
$4,000 each. The remainder of the
physicians in New York do not average
more than from $1,000 to $4,000 apiece,
and of these there must be in the city
several thousand patient plodders.
The specialist usually fixes his
charges higher than the family prac-
titioner. The latter's fees rarely are
more than 80 visit to the patients
house, except in special cases. while
the expert must usually be consulted
at his Office, and his charge ranges
from So to $25 per interview. Sur.
gical operations, of course, cost much
more. In England physicians fire.
quently sell their practices when they
desire to retire from business or to re-
move to new neighborhood. and in
the London Lancet whole columns of
advertisements Of medical practices for
sale can be found, the income of the
physician being stated and price being
fixed upon the business. 1t would be
amusing to calculate how much such a
practice as that of DIR. Loomis would
bring in foreign land, though it
must not be supposed that the high
priced physicians are only found in
New York. DR.. George +. Shrady, in
a recently printed article on this sub
ject. said that the highest annual in
come of French physician was $40, ;