The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-12-09
THE DOCTORS FEE.


Heber Jones for his services in main
tanning a prohibitive quarantine dur
ing the recent yellow fever epidemic
IS pleasant in itself and as marking
an exception to an unexplalnabIe
habit Of communities towards class
of men on whom in times of stress
they are only too ready to rely.
Why are there no monuments to
doctors? Why, in some sense, do
they fail in winning the expressions of
appreciation which the public is so
quick to give to other and frequently
less worthy representatives of other
classes and professions? 1t is not an
individual lack of consideration, but
as a collective phenomenon it is GER
tainly true of a physician, as it is
true of no other man who does half
as much for his community, that by
the whole people he is less praised,
less rewarded and sooner forgotten.
To the individual mind with its
memories of the old family physician
whose personality and whose kindness
robbed his visits of almost every sug
gestion save that of the call of a
friend and the quick response for
loving service, the idea that the phyi
clan fails of his just measure of re-
ward sounds both harsh and untrue.
Nor does he in the heart of the sep
arate man, and as man himself.
And yet. as a profession, medicine
fails to receive the popular consid
Grafton that it deserves; and, as a
member of the profession, the self
abnegating laborer who gives his life
to work that to be well done must
be self-sacrificing to a degree, is put
by when the need for him is passed
with but a perfunctory recollection of
the service performed.
Perhaps the secret of this lies in the
very sympathy and the very help in
time of need that radiate from the
person of a good physician, as love
glows from the brow of a good wo-
man. The physicians work, perhaps,
is too intimate to meet applause. He
goes down into the dark places. He
presides at sacred shrines of love. He
lives in memories of hand to hand
battles with death. Strong and
smiling and with almost divine con-
fidence he wards away despair; and. |
when the fight is lost, he goes out witt: |
that most infinite pathos in his face OF
one who, beaten a hundred times, to
be beaten yet again, knows nothing
and believes nothing of surrender to
the inevitable. Such services make |
their appeal and win their gratitude |
as man to man, voiceless mostly, |
living in hand=clasp, swimming in
wet eyes, told by'a passing touch on
the sleeve. With the instructive taste
of simple hearts, the reverence of the |
people for theirI doctors is too per-
sonal for clanor. The doctors them
selves seem to tell It in their manner
that they would ahave it so. Touchy
in their professional standards, |
in ethics, proud as Lucifer
in their Independence, quick as
Hotspur at affront your physician in
his dealings with the people he
serves is almost always, modest,
signal goes up--the most diffident of !
men. Then, in the twinkle of an
eye, does he become autocrat, gem
eral soldier in the ranks, laborer on
the works. He commands and /
abuses and compels. Without in
tention and with the perfect grace of
he becomes great
without even reaching up. Yet, as
the hero of a mass meeting or the
victim of a brass band he would be
nothing but hands and feet and
bushes And it is much better that
1t is So
Yet the Memphis incident is one,
that it would be we'll for other places
indebted to take as a pre-
cedent The public takes the ply
stefan too much as matter of fact
He has always been SO. yet that is no
reason that he should forever be com
PEELED to give and never be equally
forced to take. In every thing that
SCOiilS ION oil 10 pQDllC SOOu Tie uOC- |
tors are in the front. They take
public as well as private emergencies
on their shoulders as matters of
right. They demand sanitary condi-
lions. They educate against dis
ease. They make great discoveries
which rob death yearly of it's thous-
ands upon thousands of lives. These
discoveries, in quite the most beauti-
full survival of love amid the crush
Of dollars, they give cheerfully to the
world without price or the thought
of it. Their individual lives they
throw into the breach without q
sigh and shorten with hard and
never ending labor with the same
pathetic philosophy of matter of
course which distinguishes them in
so many other ways. And the world
wags on, taking it all, giving 10th
ing back, absorbing and forgetting,
except as parents sometimes look
,tpOp a cIaonip0 child and in the rush |