900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



ROBBING SICK PEOPLE. 



On page 8] 3 I closed my talk about robbing 

 sick people, with the following words in re- 

 gard to giving cash in advance, no matter how 

 responsible or rtliable the person is who gives 

 the order. Here is the story: 



The boy who helps in the garden, and acts 

 as messenger to go to and from the postoffice, 

 was crippled at birth. His mother came to 

 see me when he was quite a little fellow, and 

 wanted to know if I could not find a place for 

 a little unfortunate crippled boy. I did find 

 him a place, and he has been with us until he 

 is now almost a grown- up man. One of his 

 legs is about two inches shorter than the other; 

 but this does not seem to interfere with his 

 riding the wheel, in the least, and in this way 

 he makes himself quite useful. Some years 

 ago an agent visited him and tried to get him 

 to invest $35.00 in an artificial foot that would 

 permit him to wear a common shoe, and walk 

 as straight as anybody. When I found out 

 about it I wrote the firm. They are called the 

 Improved Extension Shoe Co., Cincinnati, O. 

 They said they could fix him out all right ; 

 and if they did not succeed it was to cost 

 him nothing ; but they could not furnish the 

 shoe, even to a well-known firm like; our own, 

 without cash in advance. I remonstrated, but 

 they declared it was their invariable rule with 

 everybody. But they promised fair and square 

 to refund the money if they could not make 

 the thing work. They were very courteous 

 and polite until they got the money and sent 

 the shoe. After that, they rather seemed to 

 lose interest in the matter. There were delays 

 and mistakes; and after we had invested quite 

 a little more money (besides the $35. 00) in 

 sending him to Cleveland, to let one of their 

 agents make exact measurements, there was a 

 long delay, and then they said the agent had 

 lost the dimensions that cost us so much 

 trouble to get. Finally they got a shoe about 

 right — at least he started off and walked with 

 it pretty nearly as straight as anybody ; but it 

 hurt his foot from first to last so that it was 

 entirely impossible for him to get along with 

 it, or do any thing with it on. It seemed to 

 crowd his whole weight down on to his toes. 

 This machine that cost $35 00 seems to me 

 ought not to cost more than about $3 50 ; but 

 I was quite willing to pay this price provided 

 the boy could be enabled to go around like 

 other people. I explained to them that I fur- 

 nished them money solely to do a boy a kind- 

 ness, and wanted them to take the apparatus 

 back at some price; but, like the Electropoise 

 folks, a thing that cost $25.00 (or $35.00, if 

 you choose) when you bought it, is not worth 

 even 25 cents when you want to sell it back. 



Now, then, my advice is, not to send cash 

 in advance for any of these new and untried 

 novelties — that is, unless the amount is so 

 small you can well afford to lose it. If you 

 yourself have no financial standing and rating 

 in commercial reports, ask your merchant or 

 grocer, or whoever you do business with, to 

 manage the thing for you. Any firm which 

 has a really meritorious article, will be glad 

 to send it to any responsible business man ; 

 and you probably know that any farmer with 



even a. fairly good credit back of him can get 

 almost any agricultural implement, not to be 

 paid for until he has tried it. This course of 

 doing business will sift out the humbugs and 

 swindles very speedily. 



In regard to appliances for the deaf (see p. 

 812, Nov. 1st issue), I would advise you to 

 consult your family physician ; for as a rule 

 he is informed on these matters, and knows 

 all about ear-trumpets and similar aids for 

 deaf people ; and if the case is beyond his 

 experience and skill he can probably tell you 

 better where to go than anybody else. There 

 is no end of frauds connected with doctoring 

 the e}-es and ears. Beware of them. 



Mr. Root: — In your August loth issue, page 623, un- 

 der Health Notes, you quote from a letter from P. 

 Hostetler, and further on make some comments. In 

 this connection I wish to enter a " Plea for the Phy- 

 sician." I am a graduate of the Jefferson Medical 

 College, having spent several of the best years of my 

 life there, and am as familiar with the wards of the 

 above-named hospit.il as I am with my own house. 

 The part I most object to is where "the charge of $100 

 or $500 is a shame and a disgrace to the present age." 



The Jefferson College hospital is kept up by endow- 

 ments, and by the fees paid by students; and cases of 

 unusual interest and of the proper kind are selected 

 for operation before classes/; ee of charge, except, per- 

 haps, for their hoard of SI. 00 per day. You don't sup- 

 pose for an instant that any hospital could care for, 

 board, and supply surgical dressings and medicines 

 for the insignificant sum of SI. 00 per day, and long 

 keep open doois, unless there were some other source 

 of revenue. 



Speaking from my personal experience, $400 or 

 $500 is not a cent too high for such capital operations; 

 and the surgeon who is capable and fitted for their 

 performance can not afford to do them for less. They 

 are not common nor of every-day occurrence, even in 

 the largest hospitals. I have been in practice since 

 1888; and after the first five years I have only ill 

 health as a reward for my labors. 



Idaho Falls, Idaho, Sept. 2. B. F. Jonks, M. D. 



My good friend, I stand, at least to some ex- 

 tent, corrected. You remember I expressed 

 surprise that a surgical operation like the one 

 mentioned could be performed for so small a 

 sum of money. It did not occur to me that 

 the circumstances were such as you mention. 

 Of course, I am familiar with this kind of work 

 since you mention it. The skillful physician 

 or surgeon who saves a life that would have 

 been lost, without question, but for his skill, 

 certainly deserves a fair reward. What I had 

 in mind, when I uttered the words you wrote, 

 is charging enormous sums and not benefiting 

 them after all. I do not know that surgeons 

 very often deserve to be called "quacks;" 

 yet cases have come under my notice where 

 I think surgeons, who perhaps had skill, were 

 guilty of criminal carelessness and indifference 

 to human life. Our daily papers are giving, 

 sometimes, reports of cases of this kind. 

 What I had specially in mind is described in 

 the following : 



I read your articles in Gleanings about Electro- 

 poise. I have one for which I paid $25.00. I used it 

 faithfully five months, but received no benefit. It 

 may help some folks by stopping their filling their 

 systems with medicine and giving nature a chance to 

 work. What I would stop is the specialists. They 

 put out glowing advertisements, and claim they can 

 do wonders, and jew a person out of $500 or $1000 be- 

 fore they do any thing for them, and then leave them 

 worse off than when they began. I paid one noted 

 specialist $300 in advance to cure me, without specify- 

 ing any particular time. He sent me medicine for a 

 year, and at the end of that time I was in bed suffer- 

 ing extremely; and instead of medicine he sent a let- 



