Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-07-24

II like as. I'd pay for any other patent
medicine. So he fixed me up this. . 0
He put his hand in his pocket and
drew out small red paper, which
when opened disclosed pink powder,
It was gravely passed around the group.
why, it smells and tastes like gin
ger, = said one
1T is only ginger said another
scornfully.
Mebbe it is and mebbe it ism IT," re-
turned ~ Parker stoutly. .'Mebbe it's
only my fancy. But if it's the sort of
stuff to bring on that fancy and that
fancy cures me it's all the same. I've
got about So worth of that fancy. or
that ginger, and I'm goin to stick to
it. You hear mo" And he carefully
put it back in his pocket.
At which criticisms and gibes broke
forth. If he ICY Parker), white man,
was going to "demean himself by con.
sulting Chinese quack, he'd better
buy up lot of idols and stand them up
around his cabin. If he had that sort Of
condolences with See Yup, he ought to
60 to work with him on his cheap tail
ings and be fumigated all at the same
time. 1t he'd been smoking an opium
pipe instead Of smelling punk, he ought
to be man enough to confess it. Yet it
was noticeable that they were all very
anxious to examine the packet again,
hI1t (iU ParJo,, 81; L.
demand or entreaty.
A few days later l saw Abe Wyn-
ford, one Of the party, coming out of See
Yup's washhouse He muttered some
thing in passing about the infamous
delay in sending home his washing,
but did not linger long in conversation.
The next day I met another miner at the
washhouse, but he fingered SO long on
some trifling details that I finally left
him there alone with See Yup. When
l called up Poker Jack of Shasta, there
was singular smell of incense in his
cabin, which he attributed to the very
resinous quality of the fir logs he was
burning, l did not attempt to probe
.hese mysteries by any direct appeal to
See Yup himself. respected his reti-
cence. Indeed if l had not was quite
satisfied that he would have lied to me.
Enough that his washhouse was we'll
patronized, and he was decidedly "get-
ting on.
1t might have been month after
ward that DR.. Duchesne was setting a
broken bone in the settlement, and after
the operation was over had strolled in
to the Palmetto saloon. He was an old
army surgeon, much respected and loved
in the district, although perhapsa little
feared for the honest roughness and
military precision of his speech. After
he had exchanged salutations with the
miners in his usual hearty fashion and
accepted their invitation to drink Cy
Parker, with a certain affected careless
ness which did not, however, conceal a
singular hesitation in his speech, began:
GIVE been wantin to ask you ques-
tion, doc-a sort Of darned fool ques-
tion, you know-nothin in the way of
consultation, don't you see though it's
kinder in the way Of your purfeshun.
Sabe:''
$50 on, Cyl said the doctor good
humoredly. "This is my dispensary
hour
"Oh, it ain t anything about symp-
toms, doc, and there amt anything the
matter with me- It's only just to ask
you if you happened to know anything
about the medical practice of these yer
Chinamen?" .ss
II don't know" said the doctor
bluntly, "and / don't know anybody
who does. = ..
There was a sudden silence in the
bar, and the doctor, putting down his
glass, continued with slight professional
precision:
''You see, the Chinese know nothing
Of anatomy from personal observation.
Autopsies and dissection are against
their superstitions, which declare the
human body sacred, and are consequent
ly never practiced. .
There was slight movement of in
quiring interest among the party, and
Cy Parker, after a meaning glance at
the others, went on half aggressively,
half apologetica]ly:
''In course, they amt surgeons like
you, doc, but that don't keep them
from havin their own little medicines,
just as dogs eat grass, you know Now,
want to put it to you, as fair mind
ed man, if you mean to say, jest be-
cause these old women who sarve out
yarbo and spring medicines in families
don't know anything Of anatomy, that
they amt fit to give US their simple and
nat'ral medicines?"
'tBut the Chinese medicines are not
simple nor natural" replied the doctor
coolly.
"Not simpler" echoed the party,
closing round him.