Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-04-28
"poc,n AN uNsuNe SAMARITAN,

"C0C," AN UNSUNG SAMARITAN.
An Iowa weekly, interviewing a
physician asked him why he didn't
take a trip and get away from business
for while, He explained that he
could not leave his practice. that it
kept him busy and that he had TO have
all o. 1t in order to get along. He
couldn't take the chances of leaving it
to care for itself. Some other fellow
might be called TO a half dozen or more
of his families in emergency and by
possibility annex two o. three of them.
Then TOO, ne needed the money and be-
yond that the average physician with
the average practice usually has a case
ina, he ought not 10 leave.
Doc" in his automobile. and fur
co2t looks the pink Of prosperity and
this is one of the places where the
eye deceives US. Generally he isn't roll
ing in wealth or piling up treasures in
the bank, and mortgages and farms
TO the extent we imagine. In these days
he needs the auto and must have it.
! Every sick call is hurry call. If he
has worries he has learned to control
them and conceal them for his face
must carry the hope that comes with
hiEl TO the bedside. Financial Difficult
ties do not press upon him as upon
some men for the best doctor is gem
orally the poorest business man. He has
cuitivated optimism. He had 10 or get
cut OF the profession that sees more
heart break than all other lines of hui
man endeavor. He applies to himself
be philosophy and stoiscism learned
Of the suffering and sorrow of Others
bravely as any man in the world He
works hard and in comparison TO the
importance and responsibility and bur
den of his labor is the worst paid man
! in the professions. He has come to ac-
| cept this philosophicallv. Sometimes
when he meets in medical societies and
repeats with others the story of his
wrongs he goes up town mad and sues
| some fellow who is able to pay and
won't and who has owed him for de-
cade. But this is sporadic. 1t isn't even
contagious and never gets epidemic
It's like an isolated case of variola.
/ just breaking out and doesn't spread
The average doctor is an unsung
Samaritan. He rarely passes by on the
other side. Stokes may be dissolute,
vile, lazy unfit to feed to alligators; SO
far as Stokes himself, is concerned
Doc" would write his death certificate
with satisfaction and contest
But when Stokes decent wife calls
over the phone and tells Doc" that
the baby is sick and says: DOC, I
know you never get paid but what am
1 to do?" the physician begins to peel
his pajamas and get ready to tramp
ten blocks at midnight down to Stokes
and he may pass Stokes drunk as he
goes on his way. Every physician has
his quota of poor and deserving and
his other quota of poor and underserv-
ing that he takes care off, from who
he never got a dollar from whom he
never expects a dollar, and best of all
doesn't care whether he ever gets a
cent or not. If the books of the physi-
clans in the city of Marshalltown
might be published they would furnish
the records of a great charity, a
charity that would overbalance all the
rest and that fell like the gentle dew
from heaven, silent, sweet and revivi-
4 flying. No clamor of brass and clash
of cymbals accompanies this marvel
GUS charity. And the men who offer
it make little account of it's magnitude
1t was always the doctors way. And
while it remains his way true charity
that suffereth long and Is kind will
not have faded from the earth. Doc
tors rarely get rich tho they earn for
tunes; they rarely take vacations the
they work hard; and some of the rea.
sons are obvious.
! When the accounts OF good and evi
are drawn on the day Of final settle.
ment Doc" will collect. It's a long time