Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-05-21
A REMARKABLE PHYSICIAN.
The Life of q Man Who Tried to Emu
lato the Great Helper.

latc the Great Helper.
Last spring, in the city of New York,
occurred one of the most remarkable
funerals ever witnessed. The hearse
which bore the dead man was attended
by 60 pall-bearers, and each man of the
GO owed his life, under God, to the min
istration of him they bore. Behind
the hearse walked 800 men in line, hard
ly one of whom but was indebted to the
dead man for his ability to be there
Two hundred and ninety-three car
riages followed, and these in turn were
attended by large number of people
ON foot. .' 's.# ..'' H'-r I..
Who WINS this man who, being dead,
could so stir the hearts of the people?
Who was he that he should be mourned
over by $4,000 persons in one day, be-
cause they would look upon his face no
more? Was he great general; u
world-honored statesman? .... a.-...
No. He was simple East side ply
stefan, whose patients were jewellers
in the tenement districts, and whose
mourners We're the poor to whom he
had lninistered.
LII. iIOuSOu IL
erty from his father, and early deter
mined that his life should be spent in
service for others. He made lung dis
enses his speciality, and studied with
Koch in Berlin, and in the best schools
in Europe. When he came back to New
York he was unknown save to ply
sicians, but he Immediately opened, at
his own expense, a hospital for con-
sumptives in the poorest part of the
city, and threw himself heart and soul
into the work of alleviating the dis
tresses of fricndless patients.
1t was his custom when called upon
to attend a poor family to leave a few
dollars on the table behind him. In the
bestowal of these gifts neither creed
nor race was recognized.
A friend said of him: HE was a man
who took peculiar pleasure in seeing
other people happy. He often declared
that If he had 100000 he would spend
his life in driving around in the tene-
ment districts and relieving the poor
He himself once said: 81 like to dis
cover a case where hard landlord is
pun " liDc wall. l. llGn
it is my delight to come in at the last
moment, raise my hand and call halt,
with a check for the amount owed by
the tenant. Then real happiness is
seen in the face of the one relieved"
"a mans life is so short at best!" he
was wont to say. "It would be an easy
matter to make the world happy, and
ones self, too, if each person would con-
tribute all he possibly could to the re-
lief of the suffering"
Several years ago case of blood-poi
soning occurred on the East side of New
York. The patient was poor woman,
and she was critically ill. Physicians
to- whom applications had been made
had refused to take the case because of
the exceptional risk in the treatment
that was required. .~
The night when DIR. Aronson heard of
it was the night of his brothers we'd
ding, and he was dressed to attend it,
He was told that the woman would die,
unless she were operated upon within
two hours. He threw off his dreSs-suit.
hurried to her bedside, and performed
successful operation. A few days
after he himself was taken down with
blood-poisoning, contracted from the
sufferer, and for weeks fingered be-
tween life and death a
Then a wonderful and beautiful sight
was seen. Hundreds came daily to in
quire for the good physician. Scores of
people knelt together in the open air
around his doorstep, and prayed aloud
for his recovery. The man was greatly
beloved because he had greatly loved
and grandly given. When he recovered
he said he would gladly undergo the
game again, to again save life.
AT last came a day when upon his
return from Il call on poor and
wretched patient this good man dropped
dead upon the sidewalk, near his own
doorstep. his end thus coming, it was
said, just as he had long secretly hoped
and prayed that it might come.
The end came, we have said. But
who can predicate an end to life 80
filed with the spirit of Him who was,
prominently, the Helper and Healer Of
men? Youths Companion.