50 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



things can be done for the patient under the 

 veterinarian's suggestion which will hasten the 

 recovery and oftentimes he can prevent compli- 

 cations by seeing his patient frequently. 



Very soon after I started in practice on Frank- 

 lin Street I was given a contract for the veteri- 

 nary attendance on two hundred head of mules, 

 which were being used in grading the right of 

 way for a new railroad, east of Houston, running 

 through the lowlands, sometimes at sea level. 

 The main camp of this outfit was near Liberty, 

 Texas, about sixty miles from Houston, and 

 according to my contract I was to make two trips 

 to this camp each week. For this I was to get 

 fifty dollars per month for my services, medicine 

 and other essentials to be paid extra. When I 

 had held the contract for about two weeks a mule 

 died suddenly and I was summoned posthaste. 

 History and appearance, without autopsy, 

 pointed quite plainly to anthrax, and as we were 

 in a country where anthrax was common, I pro- 

 cured enough vaccine for the entire bunch and 

 vaccinated every one of them. Xot another mule 

 died. It may not have been anthrax, although I 

 was quite familiar with anthrax then, having seen 

 much of it while with the State Veterinarian. At 

 any rate I took no chances and the owner of the 

 mules was well satisfied. He had had experience 

 with this disease and he gladly footed the bill for 

 the vaccine. My contract had been running about 

 six weeks when the entire outfit changed hands 

 and another veterinarian got my job. 



Now, at the time of which I write, automobiles 



