The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-17
SHARKS AT HOT SPRINGS.

n
Pretty nearly every body who knows any
thing about the Hot Springs of Arkansas
knows that the place is infested with high
land sharks OF all sorts. always hungry
for new Victims. Gamblers, confidence
men and fakirs abound. A report recent
~ made by an inspector for the interior
department, however, classes the quack
doctor and his drummer as the worst me-
mace to the life, health and property of
persons who seek the benefits of the IA
nous resort. Owing to the fact that the
resort is a government reservation, under
the superintendency and ownership of the
federal government, and at the same time
being under the judicial control of the
state of Arkansas, there is some question
Of authority for the suppression of the
fakrs and quacks. However, a movement
is on foot to secure cooperation between
the state and federal governments for the
protection of visitors to the springs.
According to the interior department
inspectors report the quack doctors and
their drummers are among the smartest,
shrewdest people in the world. The typi-
cal drummer is especially voluble and
plausible. Not only is he able to con-
vince the average visitor that he is in a
very bad way and that the doctor for
whom the drummer is working is just the
man to cure him quickly, and the only
physician al the springs who can cure
him at all, but he is able also to hoodwink
and fleece some of the most astute public
in
that two United States senators were not
long ago victimized by drummers for
Quack doctors.
The drummers go out as far as 100 miles
on the railroad sometimes to catch their
victims 1t is their business not only TO
rope the sucker, but to take his measure
mentally and financially, and tell the doc
tor how to handle him and how much he
can afford to pay The inspector tells of
a case in which a drummer underestimated
the paying capacity of a man he had run
in. The doctor thumped him around
while and charged him $50. The man
pulled out a fat roll of bills and paid the
fee, the doctors eyes bullying at the sight
of the money. You are a fool" said the
doctor to his drummer, as soon as the
patient was out of hearing, that fellow
is a walking national bank; you must
get him back here" The sleek drummer
soon had his victim on the hook again.
He said the doctor was not entirely salts
fled with one point in the first examina-
ton The fool went back. The doctor
looked wise. made a critical examination,
and announced that the man had tu-
NOR, and would die unless a surgical OPP
Grafton were performed at once
The man was badly frightened, and sub
mtted to an operation. They chloroformed
him, made an incsion clear across his
abdomen just through the skin, but not
penetrating the cavity at all, sewed it up
with many stitches, swathed him in band
ages revived him and told him the oper-
alton had been perfectly successful but
he must lie in one position for number
Of days on pain of bringing about dam
gerous complications Then, the doctor
showed him a property" tumor in a bot
tie of alcohol and assured him that it
had been removed from his abdomen. The
fee was $500, which the victim paid
The foregoing is said TO be a typical
case. That there are many of the same
class each year is asserted, and 1t is easy
to believe the allegation to be true. The
reputable physicians at the springs have
contended against the quacks and their
drummers for many years. without avail
II is to be hoped that the state and ma
tional governments acting together will be
able to clear out the human sharks