The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-02-12
LETTER FROM RINGW00D.
Young Lady Burned to Dea,h-Tribute
to the Doctors-PriviIege Tax on
Physicians Should be Repealed-The
Proposed Confederate Monument at
Woldon

Physicians Should be Repealed-The
Proposed Confederate Monument at
Weldon.
RINGwooD, n. c., Feb. 5, 1908.
EDITOR GOLD LEAF:-Miss Eula John
son was seriously burned week ago by
her clothes catching fire from a heater:
She wasfthought to be getting on well
but died Monday morning quite sudden
" and UNEXPECTEDLY. She was a daugh-
ter of the late Lucius Johnson and niece
of Mrs. George Davis, of Arcola, Mrs. L.
II. TAYLOR and Mrs. NJ. V. BObbitt, at
whose home she had lived since the death
of her father Just seventeen years old,
of fine ply sique, hale and strong, lovely
i'm disposition, with prospects OF a long
life it a sad and serious dispensatlon
which is hard to understand.
Your references to the cowardly assas-
sination of the South Carolina editor
Gonzales, by the cowardly Jim Tillman
were pointed and true. No more dia-
bolicai and scOundrelly act has ever been
committed and the murderer should be
made to stretch hemp as there Is no ex
cuse for his heinOus deed.
Let this Legislature abolish the law
taxing Doctors five dollars annually fOl
the privilege of practicing a profession
largely given to charity and to those
who too unwillingly pay for services rem
dered In rain and storm, day or night
the Doctor plies his noble calling and toe
often when fair compensation is asked Ii
met with cold repulses and the tardy re
sponses by his patrons to his statement
OF indebtedness" causes him sometimes
to lose faith in himself and faith In hu
mainly and he reflects ia sadness upol
the truthfulness of the poets sentiment
when he inscribed these lines:
God and the Doctor we alike adore,
Only when in danger-not before,
The danger Ger both are alike requlted,
God is forgotten and the Doctor sighted
The Legislature ought to wipe this I'm
lust tax on physicians from the staut
books and put them at least ON a 1901
| ing with other labOrers who can take
lien until paid for services rendered. IN
| less a man owns over the amount OF nj
homestead, land very few OF them 90
| the Doctor has to depend on the honest.
of his patients, and in this particular tn
educated physician and the unscrupulou
quack and charlatan are equal.
The London Times some years ago pun
| lished a number of letters about doctors
bills. One of the NJ. D's. wrote: Tn
gist of the whole matter is that peOpl
| do not like to pay the Doctor at all. N
| popularity in the way of making out III
| account would ever atone for the 1act c
| sending it in | have met somewhere I'll
following lines which faithfully expires
the popular feeling:
Three faces wears the doctor when first he
| sought;
An Angels, and a Gond's the cure ma
| wrought; :.
But when, that cure complete, he seeks nj
| fee
The devil looks less terrible than he.
While the subject of Doctors will 20
not publish the following eulOgy whic
explains itself? 1t appeared originally
the Wilmington Star:
IF the doctors knew what q splendl
eulogy that genuine Scotch genius, Rot
ert Louis Stevenson, had paid them i
the dedication to his recent volume {
verse. that show him to be poetic g
MUS of no mean order, they would rea
his stories if they did not read his POI
try. He says of the noble army OF do
tors, and however it may apply to man.
it will not apply to all, it may be sal
with regret: There are men and classe
of men that stand above the cOmmO
herd: The soldier, the sailor and til
shepherd not unfrequently; the arts
rarely; rarelier still, the Clergyman; til
| physician almost as a rule. He is tn
flower (such as it is) of our civilization
and when that stage of man is dor
with and only remembered to be ma
veled at in history, he will be thought t
have shared as little as any in the d
fects of the period, and most fully exhil
tied the virtues of the race. Generosit
he has, such as is possible to those VIII
practice an art, never to those who driy
| a trade: discretion, tested by a hundre
secrets; tact, tried in thousand emba
easements; and what are more impO
tant, Heraclean cheerfulness and cOu
age. SO it is that he brings air an
| cheerfulness into the sick room, and Ofte
enough, though not so often as he wisl
es. healing That is indeed most mob
tribute, and what is better, there al
physicians all over the world, and in tt
South, and in North Carolina, and
Wilmington, who may take to then
selves the high praise that would seel
to belong only to the ideal master in tt
healing art
The proposed monument in Weldon
the Confederate dead of NOrthamptO
and Halifax, should be built. No brave
or truer men ever lived or died fightin
for what they believed to be their cha
tered rights, the honor, the glory an
freedom of their native land. Let a
contribute to commemorate their mob
deeds.
regret to see that you offer the Col
LEAF for sale. You are so peculiarly fl
ted for journalism, and have made
such a successful and popular newspap'
it would be pity for you to quit. How
ever, whatever you do, wherever you g
whatever scenes you see, may you pro
per ever and happy be-as much so {
J belongs to mOrtals here G. f. NJ