The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1882-06-30 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

CHAPTER LVIII. DR. OLIVER RIME'S NEW PATIENT.  Dr. Oliver Birnie's consulting-room was generally pretty full in tke morning, and always with paying patients. He bad long since passed the "super " stage of the profession. Lest any intelligent reader should be unacquainted with this phase of medical practice, let me explain that it is the custom when young doctors are anxious to work up a reputation for being fashionable for them to engage a few supers —that is, to give advice gratis to a few selected persons, on condition that they come once or twice a week and help to make a crowd in the waiting. room.  A doctor's house, like a theatre, must be crowded if the proprietor would have a success. An empty waiting-room is like an empty pit, it dispirits the clientele. Let a patient have to wait a couple of hours, and he considers the doctor a great man ; let him find himself alone, and be shown in directly, and he imagines that the medical man can't be clever or he would be busier.  Dr. 13irnie was at home tor consultation till twelve, and his rooms were generally crowded with genuine patients. They were, nattuully, well-dressed, wellto-do people, for his fee was high. One morning, as the ladies and gentlemen at Dr. Birnie's sat glaring at each other amid the funereal silence which generally reigns in a doctor's waiting-room, the door opened, and a rough, hulking old man was shown in by the solemn attendant. He was about six feet, and broad in proportion, his hair and beard were grizzled, and his face was bronzed with exposure. Ile wasn't a nice-looking old gentlemanat all, and his get-up did not improve his appearance. He wore a thick pilot jacket, which was any thing but a fit, and round his throat was twisted a dirty white comforter. He took off his hat as he entered the room, and sidled awkwardly to a chair, sitting on the extreme edge, and eyeing the company nervously. At first the ladies and gentlemen wondered what such a huge, powerful fellow could possibly want with a doctor. They imagined he must be MTV, or something of the sort, and they felt it was like his impudence to come and sit down in their presence. But presently the great frame was racked, the fierce face became crimson, and the silence of the waiting-room was broken hr the violent coughing of the new-comer. ' That a man with a cough like that should need medical advice the ladies and gentlemen understood, but their astonishment was great when the door opened and the solemn attendant beckoned to this " navigator " to come out. The idea of the doctor taking such a person out of his turn!  It was strange, certainly, but lir. Bailie had lone it, and when the rough-looking fellow was shown into his consulting-room, he held out his hand, and exclaimed, quite familiarly, "Well. Josh, wherever have you turned up from ?" Then Mr, Josh Heckett told Dr. Dirnie a long story, beginning in England, then going to Australia, and coming back to England again, and the said story ended on the banks of the Serpentine. "Good gracious me!" said the doctor, "And you mean to say that Marston deliberately tried to murder you?"  " I do by !" exclaimed Heckett, bringing his fist down on the table till the surgical instruments danced again; "and he's done it, except as it's a slow death 'still of a quick 'un. I ain't been the same man, gun or since that there night. It's the wettin' and the cold as done it, This 'ere cod don't give me no rest night nor day." Hr. Birnie put something to the old men's chest and listened, then he put his ear to his back and made him draw his breath, and then the doctor's face assumed a grave, profound look. "Hem !" he said; "that's bad. You ought to have come to use before. How long have you had this cough ?" .4 Soon aster the duckin' it come on, and it's got was and wog. I bought no end o' lozengera and things off the Lamm, as they sea cures a cod in no time; but they didn't do me a bit o' good. So I thougt as I'd find you out and See if you upuld set me right. I ain't bothered you for a goad maa7 sears now.  (r) be continued.)