The Southern herald., 1902-08-29
ARP AND DOCTORS.
Says He and King Edward Would
Have Died But for Them.
BIZ Is Recovering from His Illneth
and Tells Of the Medicine He
Has Been rakinE-Old Dr.
Kirk's Duel


Copyrighted By the Atlanta Conztitu-
ton and reprinted BY psTmlssion-l
don't know whether l can write
letter OF not. I will try. The effort
will keep me from thinking about my
self. For month have been playing
Billy in the ow grounds" but / had
a good doctor who has nuTsed me night
and day and eheered me up and COM
forted me and l am on the up grade,
though as the Georgia crackers say:
Il am powerful weak" This doctor Is
my son and he says he has not forgot
ten how his mother and ! nursed him
for three long months in Florida and
saved his life and now l shall not die
IL he can help it. l take all his medi-
cine, quiniue, strychnine, ealomel
spirits Of nitre and capsules without
number, and tonics, too, and If l get
well will never know what cured me,
but he will. What would the world do
without doctors? King Edward and l
would have died last week.
About 20 years ago had a spell like
this one, for had been working in
the water all day trying to dam up
the branch in the meadow SO that the
children could 60 in bathing. That
night / liked to have died and old DR..
Kirk was sent for and worked on me
for three or four days and got me up
again. My wife told me then that if
didn't be more careful of myself l
wouldn't live out half my days. She
told me the same thing the other day,
and she knows. Old DR.. Kirk is a
trump. He was our family doctor un-
til he got old and tired and moved
away to live with his children. Be-
fore he moved to this place from South
Carolina he had love scrape over
there, and he had rival, too, and they
fell out. The girl wouldn't have either
one of them and the other fellow
heard that the doctor had told stories
on him to the girl and so after the doc
tor located here his rival wrote to him
and demanded a retraxit or else
fight. The doctor wrote him a stinger
and refused to make a retraxit, but
would accept his challenge and fight
him until Hades froze over, and as the
fighting code gave the challenged par
ty choice of weapons and time and
place and distance he should choose
rifles at long range and the next Goth
day of February as the time and the
other fellow must stay where he
was and shoot over this way and he
(the doctor would stay here and
shoot over that way and both must aim
high so as not to hit anybody between
them.
Bit must stop now and take
breath. A good long breath is what |
want. The old woman was asked what
disease her husband died of and she
said the doctors differed about it, but
she always believed he died for lack
of breath. l don't want to go that
way. l was Illuminating about these
physicians, for doctor is not the proper
name. Doctor means a teacher of any
thing whether it be science or art or
law or pharmacy or theology. Physi-
clan is the right word, 1t is very an
cient name for the profession. The
Bible tells how Joseph got the physi-
clans to embalm his old father, but |
do not think it was a very popular pro-
fession among the Jews, for it is men
toned only two or three times and
with doubtful favor. King Asa had a
disease in his feet and would not call
upon the Lord for relief, but sent for
physician, and he died and slept with
his fathers. Then there was a woman
who had had an issue of blood for 12
years and had suffered much from
many physicians and spent all she had
and was nothing better, but rather
grew worse. The Jews unto this day
do not give much patronage to physi-
clans or quack medicines. l never
knew but one Jew doctor, though