The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1920-01-03
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

circle reaches.
1 daresay that short while back, if
Sir William Osler on his death bed,
had known that his brave message OF
der the ocean to his friends in America
had caused the tightening of the heart
of a newspaper man whom he had never
met it would have occasioned him both,
surprise and pleasure.
And Thursday morning when | picked
UP The Age-Herald and read the cable
gram that the funeral Of Sir William Os-
Ter, the noted physician, who died at OK
ford, Monday. was to be held from Christ
Church cathedral, Oxford, on January l,
my whole New Years thought was tinged
with sorrow at the passing of a man
whose life was devoted to the service of
humanity.
We are a peculiar people, but there is
no use railing at our idiosyncrasies,
for Americans are just a bit moret hui
man, it seems to me, than the Euro
peans and because of their newness have
not learned the art of concealnent. It's
the unusual or bizarre which gets on the
front page The name of Sir William Os-
Ter was one cherished in the medical
world, but meant absolutely nothing
whatever to the man in the street until
one day he picked up his paper and read
in bold headlines that the noted physi-
clan, Dr. William Osler, says, Men
when they get to be 90 years old ought to
be chioroformed, because their usefulness
ends then
Now, here was something to write
about and every editor in the land
caught the bait and swallowed it, and
then through his paper hooked all the
suckers in the land until it became the
topic of the day, and was talked about
in medical circles, discussed at ministers
conferences, became the subject Of con-
versation at bar associations. was joked
about in clubs, laughed over at social
gatherings until at last a new word to
meet the "oslerized" came into
circulation
For long time 1 looked upon it as
just a silly remark, which was never
intended to be made public, or thrown
out in the heat of debate and not expect
broke and every funny Photographer in the
land harpooned Oser and the comic
pictures played him up, and the cartoonist
took a shot at him, and then his pame
became a household word throughout the
land.
4 Now, this man who for years had given
his time unselfishly to study, research
and practice, and whose medical works
were recognized authorities on both sides
OF the Atlantic, and who had received
nearly every honor that his own profess
sion could bestow upon him, and with
the right to put a whole alphabet of
symbolic scholarly letters after his name,
like M. D., W.. r. S., F. r. c. p, LII. d.,
from McGill, Toronto, Aberdeen. Edin-
burg, Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins
universities: with honorary membership
in the learned societies of the world, be-
came famous through being misquoted.
What he really said was: when
man nor wax nor honey can bring home,
he should, in the interests of an institu-
more laborers room. He must walk
with the boys. else he is irrevocably lost.
To keep his mind receptive, plastic
and impressionable he must travel with
the men who are doing the work of the
world. the men between the ages of rs and
smile of the hive and the bee the sting
is withdrawn from the statement and
the advice for those in place and power
to keep their minds fresh was in keeping
with his own way Of life.
And who is this man who, dying. leaves
behind place in the medical wrold
which will be hard to fill, for when the
great war broke out he was pre-eminent
in service, both in America and England?
He was the son of a preacher. another
child of the manse,' to add to the long
string of notable and noble men sired
by the ministry. He was born July u
in Tecumseh, Ontario. Canada. set this
all out to add glory to thos ewho first
saw the light in villages. He was a,
small-town man who grew big enough
until his fame ran around the globe.
IL he had ever said such foolish thing
as was attributed to him, that men of
60, being at the end Of their usefulness
ought to be chloroformed, his own life
would have been REPUTATION of the
propriety of such heroic treatmnet for
the ages, for he came into his own after
he had passed the dead line attributed to
him, for he was nearer the SEVENTEEN
than the sixtieth mark when he got the
chance to cash in for it's full value the
splendid preparation which he had laid
up against the time when England needed
his services.
In these days when at last the medical
fraternity through a long campaign has
been enabled to raise the standard of
graduation and require better facilities
and teaching from the medical colleges
it might be well for them to set out fully
the stages through which DR.. Osler went
in order to reach at last his pinnacle Of
greatness. | give it here because unfor-
tunately there has always prevailed in
America an idea that there is a short cut
to everything, and this was responsible
for the way the old-time. ill-fitted and
mis-named medical schools used to grind
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