894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



Duffy malt whisky people. They manufac- 

 ture forged letters letters purporting to 

 come from people toward a hundred years 

 old. They have been shown up repeatedly, 

 but it seems to make no difference. They 

 have discovered that their lies travel faster, 

 and go where the truth can not possibly fol- 

 low to stop their forgeries and falsehoods. 



Look here, my friend, do you know how 

 many medicines there are nowadays that are 

 offered absolutely free of charge? You are 

 not to pay a copper until you are better. 

 When you are better, then you pay something 

 or buy some more. Well, perhaps not all of 

 these medicines depend on some stimulant 

 like opium, cocaine, or something of that 

 sort; but a large number of them do. I 

 have been trying so many of them that Mrs. 

 Root says I will kill myself in testing medi- 

 cines. But I am sure I shall not, for God will 

 help me while I test them, in order that I 

 may talk intelligently in these Health Notes. 

 At a gathering of the whisky-men several 

 years ago the speaker exhorted his hearers 

 to remember their customers were dying off 

 all the time; and he said they should com- 

 mence with the boys and "create an appe- 

 tite. ' ' Now, these quack doctors are creat- 

 ing an appetite. They get to be millionaires 

 in the business. They give away samples 

 of their vile drugs until their patients can 

 not get along without them. Then they get 

 his money and send him to a drunkard's 

 grave or, may be, to a worse place. When 

 you get exhilaration by outdoor exercise, by 

 a cold-water bath, by a drink of pure spring 

 water or a glass of milk, it is all right; but 

 beware when you get into a fashion of de- 

 pending on powerful drugs. A certain per- 

 son in our own neighborhood found out that 

 he could get vim and enthusiasm by the use 

 of headache powders. He pretty soon be- 

 came satisfied that these powders were go- 

 ing to be his ruin, and confessed as much to 

 his wife, and said he was going to chop right 

 square off, no matter what it cost him. But 

 he deceived his wife after that. He kept on 

 with the drug until the family were obliged 

 to send him to an asylum; and in a few weeks 

 he went out of that SLSylnm— cured? Not 

 much "cured." He went out of that asy- 

 lum to the cemetery. These fiends in human 

 shape ransack the earth for stimulating 

 drugs. Samples are not only coming to me 

 by mail, but they are laid on my doorstep. 

 Do not take any thing which is not sanction- 

 ed by your family physician. Cultivate the 

 acquaintance of your nearest doctor. Make 

 him your friend and adviser; and do not be 

 backward about paying him for his services, 

 even if he does tell you something, that you 

 knew already and had forgotten. Pay him 

 his usual fee. A relative of mine who is a 

 physician says people have got into a fashion 

 of thinking that the doctor ought to give the 

 people advice free of charge that will enable 

 them to get along without a doctor; and the 

 great progress that is being made just now 

 in the way of prevention instead of cure is 

 making it "hard sledding" for the doctor. 

 He is generally put on the board of health 



to look after the sanitary conditions of the 

 town, and is expected to advise the people, 

 collectively and individually, how to avoid 

 being sick; and then when they get their ar- 

 rangements so there is nobody sick in the 

 town at all, the doctor's occupation is, to a 

 great extent, gone. He does not get any 

 money for what he has done, and I am afraid, 

 dear friends, he does not even get the thanks 

 of the people. Look out for your family 

 physician as you would for the pastor of your 

 church. See that he is not forgotten and 

 neglected when he is laboring unselfishly for 

 the good of humanity. If you have any 

 money to spare for medicines, give it to the 

 good doctor. Do not send it to some city 

 quack who would just as soon see you in 

 your grave within the next three weeks as 

 not, providing he can get a good slice of your 

 hard earnings. 



A few months ago I saw an advertisement 

 in one of the papers that just exactly hit 

 one little trouble I was experiencing in my 

 old age. Just for the fun of it I described 

 my symptoms. A very kind letter (?) came, 

 informing me that the great physician was 

 so overwhelmed with business it would be 

 several days before he could get to my case; 

 but he kindly asked me to be patient. The 

 average person would have taken this to be 

 a personal letter; but I saw at once the 

 whole thing was printed, but carefully word- 

 ed, of course. In a few days the great " M. 

 D. ' ' said that, as my case was peculiar, he 

 had spent a great part of one forenoon over 

 it; and in perplexity he had called in another 

 "great expert." Together they spent the 

 afternoon, and finally decided that I could 

 not live more than a little while if I did not 

 have relief at once. It was a grave trouble. 

 This, like the other letter, was, of course, 

 printed. In a postscript the good doctor 

 added that about $25 00 would fix me up in 

 good shape. In about a week I got another 

 letter saying that he and his learned friend 

 felt troubled about me because I did not re- 

 spond; and as it might be that I had difficul- 

 ty in raising the $25.00, he had decided (out 

 of the goodness of his heart) to stand $15.00 

 of it himself. If I would only send him 

 $10 00 the medicines would come by first 

 mail. Well, I let this letter drop to see 

 what more was coming. About once a week 

 appeals of different kinds kept coming. You 

 see they were anxious about my critical con- 

 dition. Finally one came begging for some 

 acknowledgment of some sort, even if it 

 were but a few words on a postal card. 

 Then I replied something as follows: 



"My good friends, if there is any doctor 

 of any sort belonging to your institution who 

 cares to take the trouble to write me a per- 

 sonal letter I shall be very glad to receive it. 

 But you are just wasting your postage- 

 stamps in sending me printed blanks pur- 

 porting to be type- written letters. We are 

 pretty well posted here, and think we can 

 distinguish a personal letter from a printed 

 one picked out from a pile of blanks. We 

 may be mistaken, however, for the imita- 

 tions now are getting to be so well done they 



