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S. R. HOWARD. 
send the bill, or call and tell them you need the money right 
away. Even if they don’t pay you then, they will when they 
call again. Do not itemize an account unless requested to, 
but put all down on your books. Some charge for going to 
a case of death, others do not. Even-handed justice is the 
basis of all lasting reputation. 
Do not without a certain amount of reserve, remove warts, 
encysted shot or perform other minor operations for friend¬ 
ship’s sake. How you would condemn yourself if your friend 
or his animal would contract a malignant growth, tetanus, 
etc. I know of a case where a harmless looking growth was 
removed by a surgeon from a friend’s horse, which shortly 
died of tetanus. Another, an acquaintance of mine, a veteri¬ 
nary surgeon, inserted a seton for spavin which caused the 
chronic condition known as elephantiasis. In both these cases 
the services had been volunteered, and no remuneration ex¬ 
pected. Some will be quite affable during your attendance, 
and quite different when you present your bill. If they pay 
you part of it, do not give them a receipt, but credit them 
with the amount on the bill before them. 
The life of a veterinarian is not always a happy one. He 
must endure all temperatures, trudge at noon or midnight, lace 
contagion and inhale noxious vapors, encounter the filthiest 
kind of filth and the worst of stinks, and perform many dis¬ 
tasteful and disagreeable and disgusting duties. He deserves 
far better treatment and a much more comfortable support 
than he receives. 
After a lifetime of toil as a veterinarian, how few have accu¬ 
mulated a competence ! I can count all 1 know in this country 
upon my fingers, and they tell me it is the dollars saved in the 
first years of practice that roll up into sufficiency. Let us be 
honest, true and just in our minds and be governed accord- 
ingly, if we never get rich. Don’t be in a hurry to locate any 
place—many mistakes are made this way. An office in a 
livery stable is desired by some, but by all means have a 
private room for your pharmacy and consultations. 
Be sociable, but don’t talk too much, and do not hand-shake 
and harmonize and associate unreservedly with the coarse, 
