Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-10
BONE-SETT|NG CIRCLE
Family Made Famous Be-
cause Of Their Gifts.
COULD COUPLE UP"
STILL DOING 1T SATISFACTORILY
FOR LONG ISLAND FOLKS.
Looked on as Able to Hold Their Own
With the Great
Lorenz.
COULD COUPLE UP"

that quaint fishing and watch manufactur-
ing town away out on the eastern end OF
Long Island, journeyed to the metropolis
to see the bloodless operation. He accom-
plished his object, and upon his return
home two days later was waited upon by
a score or more of the towns oldest inhab-
itants.
Been to New York, we hear?' said the
spokesman, a bay fisherman whose nets
have been cast in Long Island waters for
sixty years.
"Yes-yes," replied the doctor, in the ma
tive Long islanders manner of affirmative
ly answering a question.
Went down to see that fellow Lorenz!
continued the aged bay man.
"Yes-yes," said the doctor.
Saw him set bones?" anXiously.
"Yes-yes."
Everything the papers say about him
true?" more anxiously than before
"Yes-yes."
The inquisitor paused and hesitatingly
glanced at the delegation, as If fearful OF
the next answer. Then he blurted out:
But he didn't streak the Sweets!
was buttered.
NO." he answered stoutly, hes good,
but he can't streak the Sweets"
Thereupon the old man excitedly left the
physicians presence to spread the glad
tidings, and all Sag Harbor Is proudly
Boosting that the deeds of the noted Aus
TRAN are not "shucks with what old Dr.
Steve Sweet and his children could do.
Yes-yes."
A Famous Family Of Bone Settlers.
DR., Sweet had been dead several years,
but memory Of the founder of Long Island
famous bone-setting family is still green
among the jewellers around Peconic bay
There is many family in that region Oh
sand stretches that has had many bone
set by the doctor and. likewise, numer-
Gus persons have had bones mended since
the doctor 81 day by his sons Steven ana
Charles and his daughter Mary. indeed,
since the initial triumph Of the orlginal
bone-setting Sweet some fifty years ago,
the regular practitioners down Pecon1c pay
way have considered themselves In rare
luck whenever they have secured an OPP
portunity to set a bone. The faith OF east
ern Long Island In the prowess Oh the
Sweets Is unShakable.
Ask a Peconic bay man to tell you some
thing about the Sweets, and the first thing
he will say, after he has recovered ms
establishment and pulled up his lower Jaw
will be:
''Guess you're not long round here, or
you wouldn't be asking such questions
Then, because your ignorance Is so dense,
the bay man will ultimately take pity On
YOU and invariably begin:
'"Those SWeetses are great bone settlers
best in the world. Old Steve, before ne
died, set thousands Of bones, and he always
set 'em stra1ght-never hao Done grow
crooked: never had cripple. Young steve
set bones until he left here for the west
several years ago. and he was like the GIG
man-always set 'em straight. Charlie ana
Mary are setting still, and they've always
set 'em straight, too"
Here the bay man will pause, look you
square in the face. and. as he leans conn.,
dentially toward you and assumes an ar q
Importance. will add:
land YOU couldn't guess in a hundred
years where they got the knack A mo-
ment's impressive silence. Just picked II
up-never went to a doctors schooi. hes-
yes"
A quarter Of an hours interview with the
bay man will give the impression tnat
nearly every man, woman ana chllu WHO
has ever lived within radlus OF MY
miles Of Sag Harbor since the advent OF
the Sweets has had innumerable bones set
by old Steve and his children; also that the
average eastern Long Islander breaks mis-
bones much easier ana o1tener thai lie
reads the newspapers.
Be all this as it may, the region is full
of stories about the Sweet family, partlcu-
larly of the father, who used to drive
around the island in laudable Long Island
edition of the "one-hoss shay who was
proud of his long, flowing, white beard;
who took keen delight in his unvarying
dilapidated appearance; who shook MS Dig,
red hands in the faces of his patients, as
he exclaimed heartily, They'll do the bus1-
ness for you in jiffy," and who, although
he was in constant demand and received
not inconsiderable fees, spent his last days
in poverty.
Fifth Avenue Experience.
The story that the old men who were
Young with CDR" Sweet like most to tell
about him concerns their hero's visit to the
mansion Of 9th avenue millionaire
It seems that the moneyed mans mother,
who was in her SEVENTEEN year, dislocated
a hip bone in a fall The best surgeons OF
the city were called to her bedside, put,
work as they would. they could not make
the bone get back into the proper position
for spIinting and binding. AT last they
confessed to the son that unless some one
couId be secured who would conquer the
stubborn bone the chances were thou
sand to one that he would be called upon 10
bury his mother in very short while.
Then It was that the millionaire suddenly
bethought himself of bone setter by the
name of Steven Sweet. who lived In Sag
Harbor, and about whom he had heard
while cunning over the Long lsiana
and implored to come to New York with all
possible haste.
day later when the butler opened the
front door Of the millionaire's house IN re-
Spouse to the bells summons, big man
with a scrupulously clean, flowing white
beard, and dirt begrimed and much-patch-
ed clothes. announced in stentorian voice:
'Well. you sent for me- Where's the
The butler had been instructed that when
a man by the name of Sweet arrived he
was to be ushered into the sick room with
ont a moments delay. So the butler asked:
"Are you-ah-Mr. Sweet?"
I'm Sweet. the bone SETTER" was the
short response.
But the butler had thought to behold a
much different-looking man, SO he hesitated
about letting Sweet in.
Thereupon the bone setter fared up.
at didn't come here to be kept on the
doorstep" he exploded, land what's more,
I don't give d-n for the case"
with that he started away, but before he
had reached the corner the master Of the
house, who had been told by the butler that
a tramp had tried to convince him that he
was Sweet, came running up.
Sweet was pacified' and taken into the
sick room. Gently he fingered the injured
limb. while his gruff voice guffawed. and
then. suddenly before the onlookers knew
what was happening, he gave 1t a herculean
twist and with the snap and noise of re-
yolyer's explosion the bone shot back into
NOV" said Sweet. as he turned to the
hieh-priced doctors. ''bind it and watch if.
Pm no laundering doctor, thank the Lord;
Pm lust q bone setter"
FIFTEEN minutes later Sweet left the house
with a $1,000 check in his pocket. He had
asked for fee of $50. And 1t Is tradition