The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-17
HOI SPRINGS SHARPS
How They Devour the Sub
stance of the UnWary.
DRUMMERS AND DOCTORS
May Receive Attention at the
Hands of Congress.

Ark, where the government owns a res
ervation of the hightst value as a health
resort, and is in honor bound to pro-: >et
its patrons from extortion and fraud.
Year fater year the superintendent has
reported on abuses prac-sed there, and
made recommendatio tons for thtir amend
ment, but Congress has simply turned its
face the 9th sr way and let things drift
There is reason for thinking, however,
that information which has recently
reached some of the Senators may have
its effect in procuring at least part Of
the legislation imperatively demanded.
The most crying of all the evils TO be
remidied is the 'touting" or drumming"
practice.Ths has swe,led to the dimen-
sions of an independent trade, systemati-
cally carried on in the interest of hotel
propdietors, bath-house lessees, druggists,
and even physicians. The superintendent
has done what he could, by such means
as revising the rules for the government
of the reservation, to bring this business
under control and reduce it materially.
He admits, however, that it is an uphill
strugg1e,in view Of the active competition
between seekers for public patronage.
In his report for the year just ended, he
says that there are eighteen lighthouses
at Hot Springs, each striving for lions
share Of the business, and that those pro-
prietors who find themselves behind at
tribute their trouble, not to any fault Of
management, but to the more vigorous
drumming don't by their competitors. In
Iv,h hot ba
drummers themselves and the drumming
physicians. The drummers are unscrupu-
lous in finding means to create the i'm
preston that one bath-house proprietor
is paying more money to his drummers
than another, SO as to bring the other up
to the point of paying more himself; and
a drumming physician will sometimes
send all his patients TO one particular
bath-house so as to make the proprietors
Of the others believe that he is getting
commission on the business he commands.
It is a standing disgrace to their pro-
fession, which the honest and Eelf-resp-
Getting doctors resent bitterly, that out
of some ninety persons practising medi-
cine in Hot Springs,at least forty1ve en-
ploy drummers and resort to other I'M
professional tactics, and with a shameless
freedom and publicity found scarcely any,
where else The superintendent recon-
mends that a Board of Medical Examin-
ers be appointed under some provision OF
law to pass upon the qualifications OF
every person applying for license to prac-
tise on the Hot Springs Reservation. BY
cooperation with the state authorities, 1t
Is believed that the practice throughout
Hot Springs-including both the federal
reservation and that part which falls full
Iy within the jurisdiction of the state
could be effectually regulated and the
quacks and touting doctors driven out.
If the Senate saw fit to take this mat
ter up it could procur evidence enough
outside of official circles to give 1t a basis
for very trenchant action. Some of the
stories brought back by travellers visit
ing Hot Springs show an utterly demon
allied situation there. The drummers
have got so now that they do not wait
for a patient to reach their town, but
flood the, cars as far away as Little Rock
and insinuate themselves into the good
graces of any ont who strikes them as
promising victim.
A common prciacte IS for a drummer to
seat himself beside a misunderstanding
passenger who seems to be comfortably
we'll off, and engage him in general con-
versation. If he findse that the passen-
ger is, as he SUSPECTS, going to Hot
Springs for his health, he welcomes this
as a happy coincidence, as he, TOO, is go
~
of a past visit which did him world of
good Does the passenger know anything
of physicians there? No? Then the oblig-
ing drummer will be very happy to in
troduce him to one of the most successful
physicians in the place, of whom he Is
himself an old and grateful patient.
Next the drummer ingeniously shifts the
conversation to the danger to which all
sick persons are liable. of having adul-
terated drugs pressed upon them. He
has tried all the druggists in Hot Springs
and there is only one whom he has found
entirely satisfactory as to both the quail
tiles and the prices of his goods. He will
introduce the passenger there, also,
gladly. Then, it must be remembered
that there is a great difference between
the lighthouses. Smiths are dirty, Jone' 5
have not the latest appliances, but
Browns are up to date" in every res
pect. Thus the game goes on, extending
to the hotels and lesser boarding-places,
and even 10 the small shrops which the
tourist might visit for writing-pad or
a spool OF thread.
The drummer does not hesitate TO lie
with a holiness that would chill por-
Sional rogue almost anywhere else. \
gentleman from this city was tackled by
one Of the fraternity TO whom he stated
at the outset that he was going to q GER
tain hotel and a certain physician. The
hotel the drummer could not dispose Of,
| because its standing advertisements were
| everywhere 10 be found: but with the
! physician il was different. When he
! heard the name he drew a long face and
/ repeated it once or twice musingly:
! Or. E? DR.. E? The name
seems familiar oh, yes. I remember him
now: he used TO practice here. bat he
moved away 70 California some years ago
ana has since died I know, however. the
{ physician to whom he turned over lis
to introduce YOU" etc, etc The beauty
| Of all this was that DR.. E vas then
I and is "a day. among the Two or three
| physicians at the very head Of their por-
fsssiou In Hot Springs
One unwary visitor became 50 fascinat-
ed by the drummed that got hold OF him
tia, he paid cash Tor three weeks board
and Two weeks medical attendance IN ad-
vance. and had been introduced 70 the
5rumnler's druggist before he had evea
seen the room in which he was to stay.
The whole drumming business could be