CHAPTER VIII 



IN PRACTICE AT HOUSTON 



On leaving Milwaukee this time my plans 

 were to return to Houston and remain there 

 until such a time as I would have an opportunity 

 to find an opening for a good practice. Hous- 

 ton, itself, was a fairly good location at that 

 time. It was a city of about sixty thousand with 

 a grand country surrounding it, and there were 

 only three veterinarians there, meaning, of 

 course, graduates. Of empirics there were a 

 number, but these never caused me much con- 

 cern. Any graduate of ability need have no fear 

 of the best non-graduate that ever put a blister 

 on an abscess. (Where the empiric usually has 

 the advantage over the young graduate is in the 

 art of handling people. Most of them are past 

 masters at this and the young practitioner as a 

 rule does not give this part of the business much 

 attention. He relies too much on his actual pro- 

 fessional ability. As far as ''delivering the 

 goods" is concerned, I say again, no non-grad- 

 uate, be he ever so good, can stand with a 

 graduate of average worth. I have "bucked" as 

 many different empirics, some of the best of 

 them included, as any graduate in the country 

 and I never yet found it difficult to make them 

 lay down. But more of the details later. 



I proceeded to Houston once more, arriving 

 there this time in the early part of February. 



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