The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-09-19
CHARACTER SKETCH OF
AN IRISH VILLAGE
THE PARISH DOCTOR.
Continued.

(Written for the Intermountain Cath
olic)
Anyone who knows anything about
an Irish wage will tell you that the
next important parsonage after the
parish priest is the parish doctor. the
former the physician of soul, the latter
the physician of body, and this village
about which | write had its DR.. Gerald.
| Thee priest and doctor in Ireland are
generally bosom friends. loved and
trusted by rich and poor alike, and
they deserve to be, for nowhere in this
wide world had the people in their
hours of darkness and misery such
friends as the Irish priest and doctor
DR.. Gerald's house. with a neat sur
gerry attached, stood a little below the
parochial residence. l see the doctor
| standing on the steps of his hall door,
with his fine setter dog Jim looking up
wistfully at him and Wagging his tail
as much as to say Master are you not
going to shoot today?" A fine framed
man the doctor is, not a superfluous
ounce of flesh on him. Clean shaven.
with small gray eyes that peep out at
YOU keenly from under bushy eye
brows, nose short and slightly turned
up: firm. compressed lips. and a slight
, stOop in his houlders. There at his hall
door 1 see him this summers evening,
and a country men stands before him
nervously lingering the rim of his hat.
which he is holSing in his hands. The
doctor fixes those small keen gray eyes
him and asks:
What is the matter?"
Peggy Grimes is rale bad. sor, an
she STINT me fur We"
BY the Great Frederick Git was the
doctors only curse. where he got it l
l., l.
in your body, and in Peggy Grimes TO
boot" and taking his hands out of his
trousers pocket the doctor looks
around as if seeking for some weapon
to carry his threat into execution.
Turning again to the countryman, who
by this time was making for the gait,
he thundered at him:
Take yourself off out of my sight
and tell Peggy Grimes that I won't go
BY the Great Frederic, I won't CO."
and the doctor, opening the hall door,
bangs it behind him.
There lis dead silence in the doctors
house for about five minutes, then "a
voice rings out:
Jane
YES, doctor"
Tell Joe TO yoke the horse to the
trap; the gray horse, mind"
YES. doctor"
And. Jane. put some meat and a bit
of a chicken, if you have it. and some
jelly, into my bag. and leave it in the
trap. for. by the Great Frederic, Peggy
Grimes might be hungry"
Rough in speech fussy to a degree,
but a heart of gold had DR. Gerald. |
During the thirty-seven years of work |
there was no sick call left unattended |
if he was we'll and at home. and in his |
district there was no such thing as |
red tickets that badge of poverty |
which the poor people find it so hard |
to bring TO any doctor when they re-
qulre his services and cannot pay for
them. Money the doctor never had, for |
though his practice was good his earn |
ings went in charity, charity known |
only to himself and to his God. He |
had a nabit of talking to himself when |
alone, and when driving along the |
roads to or from sick calls, the people |
working in the fields could tell the sort |
of humor the doctor was in by tho |
sound of his voice. If you listened you
would hear such phrases as these:
BY the Great Frederic. 1 forgot
cough bottle for Murphy
''Those bullocks of mine won't be
ready for the June fair; I paid old
skinfiint John too much for Them
"A fine girl that Miss Reidy. a down
right slashing fine girl I wonder was
nice to her: but I am too old" (He
was a bachelor. Tn to dine with
Father Tom today, You mustn't forget
that, my boy. His mutton is far better
than mine, and his claret is a dream"
There goes the Great Frederic (the
people called the doctor nothing else)
says Jim Scully, the village ne'er-do-
we'll. to the men working with him in
he fields. See here. boys" Jim went
m. ''he mixed a cough bottle for me
ovid about three weeks ago. an I
,nly took one sup ov it an it nearly
burned the inwards out ov me. I gave
he rest ov it to Cauth Mulready for
lis pains, an she rubbed the whole of
t into her back. an be the livin' piper,
Sud. it cured her completely"
In the shooting season l see the doc
or hurying home after his round of {
ick calls. and then hey no, he Shout |
ers his gun. and accompanied by Jim,
lis dog. he sets off to where the par {
ridge are reported to be. The farm
RS had nearly all of them, a covey or
wo of partridge, for the doctor, and
hey used to be delighted to see him
oming. The mistress of the home !
leads always got brace, and the i
ervants and herds were always the s
i1llBt DN llle uOClOI WISH. OIG Oh the
alter class would accompany him over |
he farm and point out to him the f
aunts of the birds. If the doctors {
i'm was bad, his attendants would be I
ure to say: 'Ah. doctor, they were I
90 far away, o rthe wind was agin We Y
r the cartridge was bad" The miss
'ould be left on a hundred causes. but {
he doctors sure aim was never called
lto doubt. A parsonage that often t
ung after the doctor on his shooting {
rips to carry the dead birds was Bar $
ey O'Dea, known by the people I'M |
er no other name except Soda Wa /
er, not, indeed, on account of his love
f temperance, but because of the op- {
osite extreme. | myself had often the t
leasure of being second gun with the c
octor. and certainly without fear Of {
XaggeratiOn, / say that I never en- \
Dyed anything more in my life than /
he scenes that took place between | I
carney and the doctor. Barney never I
ould do anything quite right. Wheth I
r he acted so on purpose or not. 1 do 7
OF know, but If there was a wrong a
lace in the wrold to be in, Barney c
-ould be in it: and IL there was '
'rong word TO be said, Barney would t
ay it. When Barney would commit c
n objectionable mistake the doctor t
'ould ground his gun, and in stern,