Transcriber's Note
The following Table of Contents was not present in the original and hasbeen added for the convenience of readers.
Remaining transcriber's notes are located at the end of the text.
A FEW PRACTICAL FACTS FOR SENATOR EDMUNDS
IRAR'S PEARL
THE FIRST REGIMENTS OF U. S. COLORED TROOPS
THE OLD TUNE
BOTH SIDES OF THE COUNTER
IRISH NORAH TO ENGLISH JOHN
BELLA'S BUREAU
A SHOT ON THE MOUNTAIN
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
THE PASSING SHOW
REVIEWS
A STORM ASHORE
Vol. II.FEBRUARY, 1889.No. 3.
I am a physician practising in a small manufacturing town, andam doing very well so far as getting business goes—might even beable to save a little money if it were not for the bad debts. Theymake my income pretty small, considering the amount of hardwork I am compelled to do; and the time spent in endeavoring tocollect my bills takes a great many hours which, in justice to mypatients who pay, ought to be used in brushing up my medicalstudies and trying to keep abreast with the rest of the profession.
It is hard to get out of a warm bed at night and tramp off a mileor so to look after a patient when you are not certain of ever gettingyour pay, and it seems to grow worse instead of better. The numberof people who, because of their poverty, need a doctor the mostare on the increase; and yet so long as they are not poor because ofvicious habits, one really hasn't the heart to refuse when called upon.I hear a great deal said about the prosperity of the workingmanand the high wages he receives, but observe as a matter of experiencethat only a few are able to save enough to carry them through a fewweeks' illness, let alone paying the doctor, who is forced to waitmonths and sometimes even years for his pay, getting it then a dollaror two at a time.
To be sure, some of my patients own homes of their own, but themost of them are in debt, a mortgage being about as regular anattachment to a workingman's house as a chimney.
Wages, too, are not quite so high as they were when I beganpractice: they fell pretty low at one time, and then, when human[Pg 322]nature could endure it no longer, came a strike. The employerswere horrified; there never had been a strike in this town before:the working men, women, and children all received high wages."There is John Smith, for instance—earns eighty dollars a month.There is Miss Jones, who makes two dollars a day. There are somewho earn even more." True enough! But one day I was called tosee John Smith lying dead on his kitchen floor; fell dead on cominghom