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MY DOCTOR 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIE WALLIS MOORE 
 
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 NEW YORK 
 
 3be fmtcfterbocfeer press 
 
 J9J6 
 
"R^" 
 
 Copyright, 1916 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. WILLIE W. MOORE 
 
 MAY -6 1916 
 ©CI.A427975 
 
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 The Memory of My Husband 
 DOCTOR JAMES CLINTON MOORE 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little book was written because I 
 wanted a word picture of My Doctor (my hus- 
 band who had the experiences herein related). 
 
 That he was nearly six feet tall, broad 
 shouldered, and had clear blue-gray eyes, 
 that could look you in the face is of little 
 consequence, compared to what he did and 
 how he did it. 
 
 He was active in his own little part of this 
 busy world and loved the kind of work he did 
 in it. 
 
 He interested himself in the lives of those 
 with whom he came in contact. He mingled 
 kindly with the people in their every-day 
 affairs and their sorrows. He would have liked 
 to have shared oftener their joys, had he the 
 time. He did what he could for the people 
 and made it a second consideration what they 
 could do for him. 
 
 He claimed no perfection in anything — 
 neither am I claiming it for him. 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 These experiences herein related could 
 come to any family physician, similarly 
 situated. 
 
 I wrote the most of this with the help of 
 memory only. Memory softens experiences 
 and the average mind can hold only a few of 
 the many impressions. I am forced to make 
 a dim picture for the negative was taken 
 within a shadow. 
 
My Doctor 
 
 There are many homes the inmates 
 whereof take pride in speaking of some one, 
 as my doctor. 
 
 The doctor of mine, the doctor of yours — is 
 he who comes to us when Pain's intense vigil 
 keeps us in darkness and doubt. There by 
 our bedside the doctor uses his knowledge so 
 that we get relief from agony and his pres- 
 ence brings courage and cheer. 
 
 Suffering humanity of all walks of life 
 is the clay from which the doctor molds his 
 best, as the knowledge of his art suggests. 
 
 As the doctor lets his patients have that 
 which can be neither weighed nor measured, 
 the best of himself, his rightful position is 
 above all professions, save one. For he is 
 honor bound to disclose all his knowledge 
 and use his physical strength to its limit, if 
 his patient needs it. It is equally as much 
 
2 MY DOCTOR 
 
 his duty to keep from the public whatever he 
 may learn concerning his patient, if the know- 
 ing would be against the interest of those 
 who trusted him as their physician. 
 
 Real physicians are daily forced to confront 
 problems, and the right solution of them, 
 tend toward their best and noblest qualities. 
 
 When we think of the countless deeds of 
 kindness and mercy that the real doctors do, 
 in all their years, unselfishly in the name 
 of charity — sweet charity; when we ponder 
 these things in our heart, if in a better world 
 than this, there is a crown of a little more 
 jewels than others, it surely is in keeping for 
 the faithful doctor's brow. 
 
 This one, My Doctor, on a twentieth of 
 March nearly a half-century ago, was a new 
 baby. From the first he was called Jim. 
 It suited him. It never would have been 
 appropriate for him to have been called Baby 
 or Sonny by his parents, or Little Brother 
 by several sisters and a brother. Physically 
 he was never the pet baby style. Strangers 
 knew that baby was not Mary nor Susie when 
 his dresses were two yards long. Babies 
 wore very long dresses then. 
 
MY DOCTOR 3 
 
 This baby's father was probate judge of 
 his county. 
 
 The court-house was the center of the town. 
 It was the center of interest of the entire 
 county. 
 
 The Judge had a large home on a spacious 
 lot — a small farm. This home was a free 
 inn to all the possible voters of the county, 
 their families, friends, horses, and dogs. 
 
 The Judge and his wife believed and taught 
 their children that "A man's a man for a' 
 that." Jim was a boy "For a' that." He 
 was into everything other boys could do. 
 He climbed the peach trees, as soon as the 
 blossoms fell, to eat the green peaches when 
 he was a little one on the borderland between 
 baby -hood and boy life. 
 
 Occasions around the court-house were of 
 much concern to him. He was permitted to 
 go there often. He was either petted or 
 teased by the county officers whenever he 
 came in contact with them. They contin- 
 ually noticed him. A man never notices, 
 pets, and teases a boy, without he loves the 
 boy. 
 
 It was a great event when a jury gave a 
 
4 MY DOCTOR 
 
 verdict that a culprit must hang by the neck 
 till dead. Jim, with the other boys in the 
 community, practiced on the flock of his 
 mother's geese to be able to give points to 
 their friend, the sheriff. 
 
 Jim, with his crowd, made and remade 
 dams across the running stream in the far- 
 ther end of the pasture, increasing the size 
 of their swimming holes as their legs grew 
 longer. 
 
 His school and Sunday School experiences 
 were in common with other village boys who 
 had to attend both places of instruction. 
 Jim was careless about taking his books home. 
 His father said one night after supper, "Jim, 
 where are your books?" "They are at the 
 schoolhouse, sir." "Go right now and get 
 them. " There was never a time for a child 
 to argue with Judge Moore. It was prompt 
 obedience. The schoolhouse was on a hill 
 the opposite side of the town. At the foot of 
 the hill was the cemetery. Every stone, 
 stray animal, and even the breezes blowing 
 through the shrubbery are frightful objects 
 after dark near a cemetery to most young 
 boys, and Jim was no exception. Jim went 
 
MY DOCTOR 5 
 
 and managed to return with his books by 
 running both ways. 
 
 The old negro servant, Sarah, hurriedly 
 finished her night duties and went to meet 
 him. "Jim, honey chile, han' me dem books, 
 I'se come to tote 'em fur you. Don't you 
 nevah nigger lee' dese books no mo'." Jim 
 never did. 
 
 It was the fashion for little boys to wear 
 natural-colored linen clothes. Jim's mother 
 took pride in fixing her children to look well. 
 He detested the stiff, light-colored clothes. 
 He gloried in getting them soiled so he could 
 put on his dark pants and plain jackets. 
 
 Judge Moore knew boys must be kept busy 
 in doing something useful or they would busy 
 themselves otherwise. He owned the cotton- 
 gin of the town. The gin was then run with 
 a horse. Jim's first job was to sit upon a 
 beam and keep the old horse going slowly 
 around a circle — a monotonous job for a 
 live boy. 
 
 Fortunately, Jim's father was progressive 
 and soon installed steam power. 
 
 Jim was made happy when he began to 
 enter his teens by his father buying for him a 
 
6 MY DOCTOR 
 
 foot-power scroll-saw. He made balustrades 
 for all the pretentious homes near and the 
 money was his own. With it he bought 
 a gold ring. The ring did not suit his big 
 busy hand. One of the neighbor girls was 
 wearing it for him. When his mother knew 
 it she said, "Jim, go right now and get that 
 ring." 
 
 Jim had a wood-working establishment in a 
 corner of the smoke-house. His specialties 
 were scrollwork and beehives. He did this 
 between school hours, gin work, and being 
 general errand-boy for the family. 
 
 The next boyish business effort with Jim 
 was hauling. He lived in a town some dis- 
 tance from a railroad and still farther from a 
 navigable stream. 
 
 One of his never-forgotten experiences was 
 moving a prominent politician, who at that 
 time was a bachelor, to an adjoining county- 
 seat. This bachelor had a high beaver hat 
 that he wore on special occasions. He forgot 
 this hat until after Jim had loaded his wagon 
 with law books, book-cases, tables, chairs, 
 and trunks. The lawyer and Jim after talk- 
 ing it over decided it would be the best place 
 
MY DOCTOR 7 
 
 to put the hat on a chair-post at the top of the 
 load. 
 
 The lawyer and the boy soon forgot. Go- 
 ing over the rough mountainous road they 
 passed a rougher place than usual, which was 
 very jolting; the hat fell from the chair-post 
 and was mashed by the wagon wheels. 
 
 The lawyer looked serious. Jim looked 
 more so. He was thinking ' ' heavy lifting and 
 a long trip for a mashed hat." 
 
 When the destination was reached, the 
 lawyer said, "Jim, here is your money." 
 
 "But Mr. L , I broke your hat." "Oh, 
 
 Jim, I ran over it as much as you did. And 
 I agreed to putting it on that chair-post. " 
 
 For all the years afterwards the sight of 
 hats built on similar patterns to that one 
 brought to Jim's mind amusing memories of 
 that mashed hat. 
 
 After twenty-three years of honor and 
 labor — mostly the latter, of judgeship, Judge 
 Moore was defeated because he had served 
 the people too long. 
 
 The family moved to a nearby growing 
 city. Notwithstanding the new surroundings 
 
8 MY DOCTOR 
 
 and new conditions, a normal boy was a 
 match for circumstances. He soon knew the 
 city — the nearest way everywhere. 
 
 The city was in the beginning of the mak- 
 ing. It was not necessary to "column right" 
 or ' ' column left ' ' at the corner of every block. 
 Out where the ex- judge located the land was 
 in the acreage. It is now considered rather 
 near in ; the popular residence section. 
 
 Jim spent one year in the city schools. 
 There were only a few school buildings in the 
 growing city. Jim was fortunate in having 
 an unusually good teacher. The principal 
 of the school, who was a very capable man, 
 was the teacher of the advanced classes. 
 
 The next year Jim was sent to a prepar- 
 atory school in the town of the State Uni- 
 versity. After a year of good instruction 
 he was able to enter the Sophomore Class 
 of the University. At that time it was a 
 military school. 
 
 He graduated with no special honor, except 
 the captain's straps on his shoulders. He 
 was a member of a popular fraternity. He 
 said in reference to his college experience: 
 ' ' I killed time, spent money — did as most of 
 
MY DOCTOR 9 
 
 the other boys — studied very little. The 
 fact that I have been sorry about many a 
 time is, I did not take anything very serious 
 as I should have done." 
 
 About the time of his graduation his home 
 city had the calamity of an inflated land 
 boom. Judge Moore had his all invested 
 and lost. It was not long until Judge 
 Moore's death. There was a financial crisis. 
 There was nothing to do. There were too 
 many applicants for every position and every 
 job. 
 
 Jim had to go to work at something. He 
 went to a little railroad town in the county 
 of his nativity, and with little help learned 
 telegraphy. After becoming capable he was 
 given a position at the small salary of forty- 
 two dollars and a half a month, for twelve 
 hours out of every twenty-four, of responsible 
 work, mostly at night, as telegraph operator 
 for one of the main railroad lines near his 
 home city. 
 
 He held the position for several years. 
 One night after thumping the telegraph key, 
 reading messages, delivering the copies to 
 engineers and conductors, and going out and 
 
io MY DOCTOR 
 
 changing the signal, there was nothing to do 
 for an hour or so. He usually nodded then, 
 but that particular night he had no desire 
 to sleep. He said his mind kept busy- 
 as he sat there resting an elbow on an 
 instrument table with his chin upon his 
 hand. He had a square-cut chin and the 
 lines of his mouth were strong, both showing 
 abiding character, firm and indomitable. 
 His thoughts were: "Here am I working for 
 very little, at steady work, with scarcely 
 any prospect of rising. I have a good educa- 
 tion. What am I doing with it?" Then 
 he thought of two doctors he knew whom he 
 had been associated with all his life, and 
 who were making successful practitioners. 
 Then he came to this conclusion: "I can 
 do anything they can. I can. I will. I am 
 going to study medicine." 
 
 From that moment he had gone beyond the 
 "perplexity in the valley of vision, " and had 
 met face to face his best self, real, and terribly 
 insistent, denying defeat and demanding 
 recognition. 
 
 His resolution was not a repetition of the 
 noted one made by the Prodigal Son, but 
 
MY DOCTOR ii 
 
 there was this in common in their determina- 
 tions, l l I will arise and go. ' ' Whoever makes 
 these three advances has gone a long distance 
 toward covering the worst of the roughest 
 road. 
 
 This would-be doctor had no means. His 
 mother gave him the little that she had — not 
 enough for a comfortable year at school. 
 
 The years spent at medical study, were as 
 few young men would dare undertake. 
 
 The sessions were shorter than now. So 
 there were several months to work between 
 the school years. 
 
 He gave up almost everything that youth 
 enjoys and made out on the necessities. On 
 several different occasions he was forced to 
 take the flaps of his pockets to mend his 
 clothes. 
 
 His instructors thought well of him and 
 many of his colleagues loved him. He kept 
 his circumstances to himself as far as he could. 
 Once he was forced to tell his roommate. 
 It was a month before graduation. He had 
 written for a loan of twenty-five dollars. He 
 was almost out of money but he had a rail- 
 road pass home. He got no answer to his 
 
12 MY DOCTOR 
 
 letter. That morning he did not go to his 
 classes. When his roommate came in the 
 strong big young man had packed his trunk 
 and was sitting with bowed head. "What 
 is the matter, Moore ? Are you sick ? " " No, 
 Walker, I am worse than sick. I wrote for 
 a loan of twenty-five dollars and I can't get 
 an answer. I can not finish this year's work. 
 I will have to go home, work another year, 
 and go through this another year. It is two 
 more years' grind for me." 
 
 "You shall not do that Moore, I'll share 
 what I have with you." He (My Doctor 
 as a student) borrowed the money from 
 his roommate reluctantly but nevertheless 
 thankfully. 
 
 It was several months before My Doctor 
 was really enough of somebody's doctor to 
 have the small amount of twenty-five dollars 
 to return to his friend. 
 
 It was paid from the first money received 
 for doing the work of contract practice. 
 
 Soon after My Doctor graduated he 
 received his license to practice. Then he 
 began to consider where he would locate. 
 
 He had a friend who was a bright young 
 
MY DOCTOR 13 
 
 active doctor who had been established for 
 several years in a coal mining town, near 
 where the newly graduated doctor lived. 
 
 This established Dr. C had the best 
 
 general practice in his vicinity and a contract 
 practice for those who worked at a mine a 
 few miles away. He also had prospects of 
 getting another contract for another mine a 
 few miles farther in the opposite direction. 
 
 Dr. C formed a partnership with My 
 
 Doctor. They did general practice and had 
 two contract practices. 
 
 Contract practice has its advantages and 
 disadvantages (My Doctor would say mostly 
 the latter). It is a post-graduate school with 
 almost every branch of medicine and surgery. 
 Experience is the teacher and there is plenty 
 of material for the clinics. 
 
 For Dr. C 's and My Doctor's contracts 
 
 the head of each family paid directly or 
 through the office of the mining company 
 a small amount each month for the family 
 doctoring. 
 
 There were many emergency cases, when 
 the doctor had to think quickly and care- 
 fully. It was advantageous for My Doctor 
 
14 MY DOCTOR 
 
 to have the experienced Dr. C for a 
 
 co-worker. 
 
 It is easy enough when in the equations of 
 life we find 2 + 2 = 4 — that is, the exact 
 combination of known values is equal to 
 other known values ; but life or an undertak- 
 ing of it is not quite as we would like it best 
 when a + b = x — that is, a combination of 
 values not so clear to us, producing something 
 we do not absolutely know. 
 
 Medical practice has much of the figura- 
 tive algebraic equations. The human body 
 is not mathematically rule bound. My 
 Doctor during his first few months found 
 many things to cope with that were not 
 taught him as a student. 
 
 The first case of the kind was when My 
 Doctor answered the call of a miner to attend 
 his wife. Had it been a normal case he 
 would have known almost to a certain ty, but 
 he found complications arising and the 
 woman was almost reaching her limit of 
 physical endurance hoping to hold in her 
 arms a wee bit of humanity as her own. It 
 
 was several miles back to Dr. C . My 
 
 Doctor thought he knew what to do. If 
 
MY DOCTOR 15 
 
 he did and failed? He wrote this note and 
 
 sent it hurriedly to Dr. C : "Have 
 
 mercy on me C and come at once." 
 
 Dr. C made a hasty trip and with his 
 
 suggestion and aid all went well. 
 
 It is not necessary to describe coal mines, 
 whether tunnels or shafts, the owners, super- 
 intendents, commissaries, management or 
 mismanagement, though to a great extent 
 the doctor is interested in everything relat- 
 ing to the mines. 
 
 The miners, their homes, their lives, mostly 
 concerned the doctors. 
 
 The nearer mine was an old one. There 
 were very ordinary little homes. At one 
 time, either for ornamentation or health, the 
 places had been whitewashed. 
 
 The other mine was new. The little 
 houses where the miners lived were of rough 
 lumber, planked up and down. These homes 
 had one or two big rooms and an outside 
 chimney and a shed room. 
 
 There were only two wells in the entire 
 place of several hundred people to get water. 
 
 There was a boarding house similar to 
 
1 6 MY DOCTOR 
 
 the homes. It was two storied and had 
 about six rooms which often had as many as 
 fifteen or twenty boarders in it. The miners 
 were by forced custom and nature transient 
 beings. Circumstances and surroundings 
 were not conducive to health. The contract 
 doctor was kept busy — often unnecessarily 
 so. 
 
 A young miner a fine specimen of manhood, 
 physically, married a young girl only fifteen 
 years old. It was not unusual for girls so 
 young to marry in the mining camps. This 
 young man, either from ignorance or thought- 
 lessness or both, forgot that his child wife 
 was his to protect and care for, and because 
 of her youth needed his best care. 
 
 The child had become almost an invalid 
 before My Doctor was called. He tactfully 
 questioned and found his fears true. The 
 strong husband was roughly lectured. 
 
 In all walks of life, combined moral and 
 physical questions forever confront a busy 
 doctor. 
 
 Dr. C and My Doctor by their own 
 
 work and with their own money put in their 
 
MY DOCTOR 17 
 
 own private telephone system from their 
 town to the two mines. 
 
 After the telephones had been installed 
 for several months and were a success, the 
 proprietor of one of the mines, who lived in a 
 nearby city, began to dictate to the young 
 doctors how they were to use their own tele- 
 phones. 
 
 If they did not do as he said, he would 
 break up their contract, was the proprietor's 
 threat. 
 
 My Doctor was as angry as any experience 
 of his practice ever made him. The miners 
 were the doctors' friends. They, the doctors, 
 went to a meeting of the Miners' Union with 
 the trouble. 
 
 They moved the telephone to their own 
 private office, one built by themselves, away 
 from the coal company's property. 
 
 My Doctor had practiced for over a year 
 in the mining town. Then he married a 
 young woman he had known in the years 
 before his struggle began. They had written 
 to one another. He had been to her town 
 of a hundred miles' distance to see her, when 
 
1 8 MY DOCTOR 
 
 he could get away from his practice. She 
 wore the ring he had given her. 
 
 The wedding was the usual affair as the 
 paragraph above tells the usual steps to it. 
 It was an early morning marriage, with good 
 music and many pretty flowers, at her sister's 
 home. They were surrounded by a few 
 relatives of both families and her inner circle 
 of friends. There was no wedding journey. 
 
 She went home with him to help him best 
 serve humanity. 
 
 My Doctor's first conveyance after he 
 began practicing was a low framed buggy. 
 This buggy was pulled by a gentle gray 
 horse, "Old Fan." 
 
 Among his early calls was one several miles 
 from the mining town. He went on the call 
 before night. On both sides of the road, the 
 woods were thick with a dense undergrowth. 
 In many places outcrops of coal had been 
 worked by private parties which added to the 
 roughness of the naturally rough country. 
 My Doctor did not get started homeward 
 until after dark. By then it was raining — a 
 slow rain, that makes darkness doubly dark. 
 
MY DOCTOR 19 
 
 After riding about a mile My Doctor knew 
 he was lost. ' ' Old Fan ' ' came to a dead halt 
 and refused to move. He got out of the 
 buggy and felt around in the darkness to see 
 why they had stopped. There was a deep 
 place where coal had been dug in front of 
 them that was impassable. He stood there 
 in the rain awhile wondering if he had better 
 hitch and wait all night. He did not like 
 that idea. He was too wet to be comfortable. 
 He backed "Old Fan." "Let me see what 
 this horse can do. She knows this country 
 much better than I." The faithful horse 
 turned around and started off in the opposite 
 direction. She soon was in a familiar road, 
 as he could tell by the lightning flashes. 
 
 One mining camp was five miles away by 
 the good road and about three by a terribly 
 mountainous private way. It could hardly 
 be called a road. To save time — a doctor 
 young in his profession, as all youth, hurries 
 — the roughest way was the oftenest taken. 
 There had been heavy rains. There was a 
 swift mountain stream that emptied in a 
 nearby river. On one occasion when "Old 
 Fan" was driven to the stream she re- 
 
20 MY DOCTOR 
 
 fused to go into it. Coaxing and the whip 
 had no effect. My Doctor felt into the water 
 with a pole. He learned there was a deep 
 washout there at the crossing that would 
 have been perilous had My Doctor gotten in 
 it. He managed to turn around and go the 
 five miles* way to the mine. 
 
 There was out from My Doctor's first 
 location about three miles a beautiful spot 
 surrounded by mountains. Down in the 
 center was a lithia spring. Around the 
 spring were many varieties of native ferns 
 that grew to perfection on account of the 
 fertile soil and the shade. On the mountain 
 sides were a few cabins. Occasionally some- 
 one spent part of the summer there. After 
 one left the main road the way was up the 
 ditches for about the distance of a mile. At 
 some places there would be two ditches and at 
 others there would be one. A horse had to 
 be somewhat of an acrobat to keep himself 
 balanced. As for the load, either human or 
 the necessities of the people, it was jerked, 
 tossed, and tumbled. 
 
 The first summer of My Doctor's practice 
 
MY DOCTOR 21 
 
 lie had a patient — a child with a severe form 
 of diphtheria — out at the lithia springs. 
 
 He knew that the child needed a great 
 deal of attention, and he knew where she was 
 located she could not get it. He knew it was 
 impossible for her to be taken back to her 
 own home in the city in the condition she 
 was in, so he had the child, her mother and 
 aunt moved into the town to share his own 
 home with him. He made the sacrifice for 
 the distressed mother and the suffering 
 child. 
 
 In the little mining town there were no 
 quarantine laws. My Doctor was successful 
 in using the right means in keeping the con- 
 tagion from spreading, for not another person 
 took diphtheria from that patient. 
 
 Every day whether called or not, one of the 
 partnership doctors went to each mining 
 camp. Often both went to both of the min- 
 ing camps. Many times before they returned 
 there was a call to go in haste to see anything 
 from a well baby who kept crying because 
 his clothing was uncomfortable, to doing a 
 surgical operation upon a man with a frac- 
 tured skull. 
 
22 MY DOCTOR 
 
 It was the night after Christmas, and a 
 very cold one, for icicles were hanging two 
 feet from the tank in the back yard. The 
 telephone rang about the time My Doctor 
 was comfortably asleep. The call was to the 
 farthest neighborhood of the farthest away 
 mine, to see a boy about twelve years old. 
 It was an hour or more before My Doctor 
 could get his horse hitched and take the long 
 ride. After bedtime the doctor can make a 
 very safe guess of the place that he is needed, 
 by the lighted house. 
 
 After going in and asking a few questions, 
 he learned the boy was having digestive 
 disturbances caused from eating too much. 
 He could tell by the touch that the child had 
 some fever. He prepared to try his ther- 
 mometer. After placing it in the patient's 
 mouth the boy said, "I done bit it off, Doc. 
 Must I swallow it?" It would not be just 
 the thing to tell what My Doctor said. He 
 had only the one thermometer. It would be 
 a day before he could get one from the city; 
 besides he needed his money. 
 
 The doctors heard that some of the leaders 
 among the miners were talking of having a 
 
MY DOCTOR 
 
MY DOCTOR 23 
 
 strike. My Doctor and Dr. C were in- 
 terested for all concerned. Together they tried 
 to devise means to avoid the strike. They 
 talked with different members of the Miners' 
 Union. They were interested for the good 
 of all and worked for that. They were so 
 persistent and faithful that for that year they 
 were the means of preventing a strike. 
 
 My Doctor during a short visit to the city 
 had a conversation with a leading doctor, 
 
 Dr. C. W . This doctor told My Doctor 
 
 that he had heard of his good works up at the 
 mines — but up there he had gone as high as 
 he ever could. "Now the thing for you to 
 do, Moore, is to go to the people," was his 
 friendly advice. It was not a new thought to 
 My Doctor. He had already talked and 
 planned of moving. Now with him it was a 
 settled fact. When? Where? These were 
 his two questions. 
 
 He soon decided upon his new location. 
 After considering the matter with a brother- 
 in-law who had a railroad commissary in the 
 most industrial suburb of the town of his new 
 location, he thought it best to live as near the 
 
24 MY DOCTOR 
 
 commissary as possible. By doing so he 
 could more quickly know the real makers of 
 the town, the wage earners, and the wage 
 spenders, who were mostly iron molders 
 and men employed by the railroads. 
 
 The only place to be gotten was a small 
 cottage across the avenue from the com- 
 missary. His practice came slowly and his 
 fees slower. He knew they would and was 
 not disappointed in that respect. There are 
 usually a few people who have the trying 
 habit. Sometimes they are the ones the 
 established doctors are glad for another to 
 get. There are patients who have the idea 
 that no one has ever understood their con- 
 struction, obstruction, or reconstruction. 
 These are always playing the old game of 
 1 ' Puss wants a corner — Go to the next neigh- 
 bor" — doctor. They usually walk and al- 
 ways talk. Their talk may be seed that falls 
 upon the stony paths and the chattering 
 birds of discontent may fill their bills and 
 fly away, or more likely some of the talk 
 will fall upon good ground and yield its 
 hundred fold. 
 
 There are always new people moving into 
 
MY DOCTOR 25 
 
 the larger places. Their next door neighbor 
 tells them who is the best in the medical 
 profession near, their own doctor of course. 
 There is also a continual formation of the 
 next greatest partnership on earth — the great- 
 est mankind with God, the next greatest 
 man with woman when they take the mar- 
 riage vows. New homes are forever begin- 
 ning, into which sooner or later a doctor is 
 needed. 
 
 A benedict for a few months less than a 
 year had been master of his little home. He 
 came to have an important quiet short talk 
 with My Doctor. The result was a special 
 appointment for a near but indefinite time 
 for My Doctor to be master of ceremonies 
 for the most important event that so far has 
 affected the new home. The same man may 
 have come to My Doctor every two years 
 for the same purpose, but never with the 
 same secrecy and anxiety. 
 
 A knock on the side entrance door, moan- 
 in gs and groanings are heard. It is past 
 midnight. A man is brought with a shot 
 hand. My Doctor and his wife both arise. 
 
26 MY DOCTOR 
 
 She prepares water, towels, and other neces- 
 sary things. In the crowded up little home, 
 the patient and his several followers are 
 asked in the bedroom until the proper treat- 
 ment is given. 
 
 After getting back to sleep — another knock 
 — a neighbor comes to ask if he can call Dr. 
 
 (a physician several miles away) to come 
 
 to see the baby. There was nothing to do 
 but let him come in. My Doctor answered 
 something that the neighbor thought gave 
 him right of way to the telephone. When 
 he got there he was terribly impatient because 
 "Central" was not quick enough to suit him. 
 After he left, My Doctor permanently placed 
 that man in the superlative degree of fooldom. 
 Positive degree, fool, comparative degree 
 common fool, superlative degree fool. 
 
 The telephone was a wall attached one 
 by the side entrance door, diagonally across 
 the room from the bed. More than once 
 My Doctor had to leave his wife at home 
 alone, sick in bed, with a temperature of over 
 a hundred, and go to see some sick person. 
 If the telephone rang, it must be answered. 
 She would catch from chair to chair getting 
 
MY DOCTOR 27 
 
 the distance from the bed to the telephone. 
 She would get the message and be glad to 
 tell the doctor of a new call, forgetting that 
 the exertion had made her temperature 
 rise. Neither were glad that anyone was 
 sick, but if sickness was near My Doctor 
 was being called. 
 
 There was a time when messengers for the 
 doctor rode to the gate — for everyone had 
 fences then — and called out their "Hello, 
 here!" If not a "Hello" from the front 
 gate, a knock on the front door by the person 
 in search of the doctor. 
 
 In My Doctor's years of work, his messages 
 were most often telephone calls. The doc- 
 tors know that the telephone is one of the 
 most necessary parts of their equipment. 
 When anything gets the matter with it they 
 hurriedly see that it is fixed. 
 
 In all the years of My Doctor's practice he 
 had good service from the telephone system. 
 The "Centrals" were, almost without excep- 
 tion, prompt and polite. 
 
 In the years that My Doctor was a prac- 
 ticing physician his office was in a building 
 with a drug store or near enough one to be 
 
28 MY DOCTOR 
 
 used by him. The town doctor and the 
 drug store are each necessary the one to the 
 other. 
 
 In the country, the mining camp, and the 
 villages the doctor compounds his own 
 medicine. The town doctor writes his pre- 
 scription, has the family send it to the drug- 
 gist or often leaves it at the drug store 
 himself or telephones it in to them. The 
 prescription is the medium between the 
 doctor and the pharmacist. 
 
 Along with the home of the doctor and 
 his office the drug store is a medium between 
 the doctor and the people. Telephone 
 messages and calls are sent in to the drug 
 store and the druggist or his assistants 
 deliver them as soon as they can. 
 
 Between his hours of study and professional 
 calls, My Doctor had regular times — or as 
 regular as a busy doctor could have — for 
 going to the drug store. It was more con- 
 venient for some of his busy patients to 
 meet him there than at the office. 
 
 My Doctor understood what it was to do 
 the work of the pharmacist, and often com- 
 mented on his long tedious hours of ser- 
 
MY DOCTOR 29 
 
 vice. He was sympathetic. In showing at 
 all times, consideration, he got in return 
 true friendship and gentle treatment toward 
 himself. For "As in water, face answereth 
 to face, so the heart of man to man. " 
 
 My Doctor, during his early practice, 
 was for two years City Physician. It was 
 while he lived in the little cottage across the 
 avenue from the commissary. 
 
 His principal duty as a city officer was to 
 attend the sick prisoners of the little city. 
 It was working under difficulties. The 
 work was for the depraved and deprived of 
 both the negroes and the white people. He 
 had this experience concerning a boy about 
 eighteen years old. The young fellow was 
 arrested at the railroad station, and was tried 
 and condemned for vagrancy. He was fined, 
 but did not have the money to pay the fine, 
 so he was put on the streets to labor with the 
 other criminals. My Doctor thought from 
 the looks of the young prisoner he was out of 
 his element. After questioning the boy he 
 learned that the young fellow was the son of 
 a successful practicing physician in an adjoin- 
 
30 MY DOCTOR 
 
 ing state, that the mother was dead, that the 
 father had lately married again, and that he 
 (the boy) decided to show his resentment by 
 running away from home. My Doctor 
 wired the doctor-father who came and paid 
 the fine and took the boy home. In the 
 meantime My Doctor made it convenient to 
 have a fatherly talk with the horizontally 
 striped clad young fellow, encouraging him 
 to go home and begin in the right direction 
 toward "making good." He had the boy to 
 put off his striped garb and put back on his 
 own suit and look as well as he could under 
 the circumstances, when the father came the 
 following day to take his son from the city 
 prison. 
 
 Another duty as City Physician was to 
 attend those who were very poor, there were 
 always many who were sufficiently sick to 
 need a doctor. 
 
 There were contagious diseases to be looked 
 after and made record of and he had to com- 
 bine the records of the other doctors concern- 
 ing the same. The worst epidemic that has 
 ever occurred in the town, or little city, was 
 while My Doctor was City Physician — that 
 
MY DOCTOR 31 
 
 of smallpox. Smallpox is generally a re- 
 specter of persons. It was to some extent 
 then, but not absolutely. There were some 
 who, for some reason or other, had not been 
 vaccinated, and others who had been careless 
 and had not been revaccinated when neces- 
 sary and were afflicted with either smallpox 
 or variola. 
 
 A number of the negroes were smallpox pa- 
 tients. They were by nature night animals. 
 From combined sympathy and curiosity they 
 went to see their sick friends. There was 
 a county pesthouse, beyond the city limits. 
 The city had no guarded place for any con- 
 tagious diseases. If patients were not sent 
 to the pesthouse a guard, who was an im- 
 mune, one who either had had smallpox or 
 the milder form of the disease, was placed to 
 keep any one from going in where there was 
 a case — except the doctor. The doctor (My 
 Doctor) made his rounds and came home to 
 change clothes and use disinfectants. Per- 
 haps by the time he was ready to go out he 
 was called to see another smallpox patient. 
 Some days he would have to go home several 
 times to use the right preventative methods. 
 
32 MY DOCTOR 
 
 The best room in the little house was used for 
 disinfecting and fumigating, because it was 
 the one that could be most easily spared for 
 that purpose. 
 
 There was a father of half a dozen children, 
 who was a capable workman whenever he 
 would work. He drank and spent his earn- 
 ings faster than he made them, that is, he 
 was in debt to everybody who would trust 
 him. The little wife and mother did her best, 
 which was not much. That man had one of 
 the worst forms of smallpox during the epi- 
 demic. For several weeks My Doctor at- 
 tended him, going once or twice daily. He 
 took it upon himself to see that the patient 
 had the medicine he needed. By word nor 
 pocket-book did that man ever express a 
 "Thank you." 
 
 There was a big fat black negro woman, 
 "Aunt Lucy," who wabbled instead of 
 walked. She was My Doctor's patient. A 
 rather objectionable case on his part, but he 
 made the best of it. After she had gotten 
 well, she came to see if there was not some- 
 thing she could do for her doctor. What- 
 ever the other qualities are of the negroes, 
 
MY DOCTOR 33 
 
 most of them have one admirable one- 
 
 desire to express appreciation. My Doctor 
 had only a few negro patients and did not 
 want many. There were some who were 
 always his faithful followers, who believed 
 so implicitly in him that they stopped him 
 by the wayside to get prescriptions from him, 
 if he was too busy or for other reasons did not 
 care to go to their homes. He preferred 
 that most of the negroes should have a doctor 
 of their own race. To discuss the why would 
 be to tell of the conditions and tendencies of 
 the average of the negro race which would be 
 to digress from my purpose in writing. 
 
 Early in My Doctor's practice, mothers 
 began to name their babies for him. One 
 of the first babies to be given his name was 
 born in a shack at the woodyard — a wood- 
 chopper's child. The little one was dressed 
 in a bright red calico dress, with big white 
 polka dots on it. This baby had more than 
 babies usually have of hair, which was very 
 dark, and with his big eyes of a peculiar color 
 of blue that would later be brown was not 
 unlike an Indian baby, in his bright colored 
 
34 MY DOCTOR 
 
 dress. My Doctor's wife made that baby a 
 dress and carried it to him. The mother in 
 her simple way said, ' ' We call him now ' Little 
 Doc. ' Guess he'll alius be Doc. " 
 
 The young doctors, or the newly located 
 ones, can make their visits to the same places 
 (the abodes of the poor and humble), where 
 true charity goes. 
 
 There were many babies named for My 
 Doctor. Some were given his full name, 
 "James Clinton" or "James Moore," and 
 there were several given only his middle 
 name "Clinton." 
 
 A number of mothers gave My Doctor 
 their babies' pictures. He had a portion of 
 one of the side walls in his private office 
 ornamented with those photographs and 
 kodak pictures. They were babies he had 
 looked after physically, from the beginning 
 of their existence. 
 
 He loved that little bit of ornamentation, 
 for he had a tender feeling for the realities 
 that each little picture represented, and for 
 all the other little ones he had watched over 
 continuously, as their doctor. 
 
 The family physician appreciates the love 
 
MY DOCTOR 35 
 
 of the children and the true respect and sin- 
 cere trust of those that are older. He is at 
 his best when he feels that he has that con- 
 sideration. It is more than money. 
 
 When a doctor is greeted with, "I sent for 
 you because I had to send for somebody," 
 down in his heart he would rather not have 
 had the call. I remember My Doctor once 
 had a greeting like that. The next time he 
 had a call to go into that home he was ' ' Too 
 busy" to go, notwithstanding that the head 
 of the family paid his bills promptly. 
 
 The parts of the body and the functions 
 thereof are no more lowly vulgar nor coarsely 
 common to a real doctor than the parts of a 
 complicated engine are to an engineer, or the 
 pieces that make the piano to a piano tuner. 
 Our bodies are the only earthly reality that 
 those of any faith believe is promised eternity, 
 and all who trust in the Scriptures believe the 
 ' ' Body the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 in us"; then it is fit that all that concerns it 
 should be esteemed in the highest, purest 
 sense. 
 
 At one place after My Doctor had given 
 
36 MY DOCTOR 
 
 hours of faithful hard service, helping nature 
 bring on earth a new life, the father offered 
 to give as pay a mortgage on a sewing 
 machine. My Doctor did not want him to 
 do so and did not let him. That man paid 
 one dollar at three different times toward that 
 bill. He left the town and was never heard of 
 again. 
 
 Once a half -gallon of sorghum was all that 
 was given for a similar case; at another time 
 he was offered some collar ds. 
 
 There was a father who came back seven 
 years afterwards for the purpose of paying 
 in full the amount due My Doctor. 
 
 My Doctor could never figure to a mathe- 
 matical certainty who would pay him. There 
 was an honest woman who had a "ne'er- 
 do-well" husband. She called My Doctor 
 to see her sick child. "Doctor, I am sorry 
 to say it, but you know it. Sam will not 
 pay you for this call, but I'll pay you when 
 my cow comes in. " If the cow ever came in, 
 Sam drank the milk, for the bill was never 
 paid. 
 
 My Doctor did learn that the few whom he 
 had practiced for, that ever said the least 
 
MY DOCTOR 37 
 
 critical things concerning his work, were 
 those who were not responding to the "Bal- 
 ance due" they received. The most of My 
 Doctor's people for whom he practiced were 
 very honorable in their dealings with him. 
 He understood their circumstances and did 
 not expect the impossible. About as happy 
 as a paid-in-full ever made My Doctor was 
 when he received the check with the following 
 note : 
 
 "My dear Dr. Moore: 
 
 "For the honest, conscientious, sympa- 
 thetic, and able services rendered my wife, I 
 am now out of your debt financially ; but I feel 
 that I shall always owe you a debt of grati- 
 tude, which only a lifetime of gratefulness 
 can repay. 
 
 "Believe me, most sincerely, 
 
 1 1 Your friend, 
 
 J. L. C ." 
 
 A good friend of My Doctor kindly gave 
 him cinder for his driveway beyond his garage 
 so he could make the turn with his car and 
 not get in the mud. Soon after that this 
 
38 MY DOCTOR 
 
 friend had an injured foot. My Doctor 
 tended him and did not make any charge. 
 The friend appreciated his services to such 
 an extent that he sent a check anyway. My 
 Doctor returned it, after drawing a line 
 through both their names, and writing on it, 
 ''Back to the sender in appreciation of the 
 cinder." 
 
 I do not think My Doctor ever asked a 
 man directly, face to face, for the amount 
 due for professional work. Every two months 
 he mailed his bills. Twice, in the years of 
 his professional experience, he gave to col- 
 lectors bills that should be paid but had not, 
 and if there had not been the collector to 
 follow up their promises, would not. 
 
 When there were only two or three auto- 
 mobiles in the town and those few were used 
 for pleasure only, My Doctor decided to get 
 a car for professional service. Makes of 
 cars were in the beginning of their making. 
 There were no agencies near. 
 
 My Doctor had his wife get together all 
 the magazines in the home and those from 
 the nearest neighbor. He brought from his 
 
MY DOCTOR 39 
 
 office his medical journals. Together they 
 looked over the cuts of the advertised auto- 
 mobiles. The one making the prettiest 
 appearance with a nice curving dashboard 
 and other symmetrical lines was selected and 
 ordered. After it came a young man who 
 knew a little more than the average citizen 
 about automobiles, and who did not know 
 enough to justify him to boast about it, was 
 hired a half -day at a time to teach the art of 
 guiding the car. It would stay in the road 
 for the young man, which was more than it 
 would do for My Doctor. For several days 
 My Doctor stuck to the broad street in front 
 of his residence, that is, as much as he could. 
 The car would take a slanting run into the 
 park across the street. Then without any 
 warning it would be just as apt to try the 
 sidewalk on the opposite side of the street 
 for a part of a block if a shade tree did not 
 stop it. 
 
 When he had learned to keep the car in the 
 road he made his first professional call in it. 
 The patient was a little over a mile from his 
 residence. It was a very hot day that he made 
 the visit. Then he cranked, and cranked. 
 
40 MY DOCTOR 
 
 He melted all his starched wearing apparel 
 and the car showed him plainly that it was 
 not going to move. He went to a telephone 
 near, and called the young man who had 
 taught him how to run the car. The young 
 fellow came and looked at the spark-plug. 
 Early automobilists thought spark-plug as 
 people with sick cows once thought hollow- 
 horn the one certain trouble if not the only 
 one that was sure to exist. The young man 
 was being paid by the hour. He kept experi- 
 menting. He found a little something that 
 looked like a push button that had shaken out 
 of its socket near the floor of the car beneath 
 the seat. 
 
 That little car was like a degenerate person 
 — out of one trouble into another. 
 
 After My Doctor had been using his auto- 
 mobile for several months, and had mastered 
 as well as he could that car, he went to see a 
 patient who lived on one of the steepest hills 
 in town. The car went up the hill, but in 
 coming down the brakes would not hold. He 
 lost control. The car turned upside down 
 throwing him against a tree with such force 
 that an ugly gash was cut above his eye. 
 
MY DOCTOR 41 
 
 One of My Doctor's good friends saw the 
 accident. He called a street hack and 
 brought his doctor friend home. When 
 My Doctor was taken into his own home, 
 he was literally covered with blood and dirt. 
 
 Another physician was summoned. After 
 My Doctor was cleaned up the physician 
 who had been called arrived. He found 
 it was necessary to take seven stitches in the 
 horseshoe-shaped cut above My Doctor's 
 right eye. He also found that My Doctor 
 had a considerably injured knee. 
 
 That was about the noon hour. Before 
 night My Doctor was out with his head band- 
 aged and limping to see some of his own 
 patients, who wanted their own doctor. 
 Within a few days he was using his car, which 
 had not fared so badly as the doctor on 
 account of the accident. 
 
 He never tried the Twenty-fourth Street 
 hill again with any automobile. He would 
 always stop his car before he reached the 
 steepest part of the hill and walk a block or 
 more. He never was fond of walking. 
 Many times he took out his car to go two or 
 three blocks. 
 
42 MY DOCTOR 
 
 My Doctor wrote to the factory and told 
 them of the many difficulties that he was 
 having with the little car. After sending 
 several letters back and forth, the automobile 
 company agreed to let their best machinist 
 come seven hundred miles at My Doctor's 
 expense. He was to make everything con- 
 cerning the car right. He came. He tight- 
 ened up a few bolts, and said the car was as 
 good as it ever was. No doubt it was. That 
 is like saying to any girl, "You are as pretty 
 as you can be, " if she is gotten up in fairly 
 good taste. It is a safe statement to say 
 and stick to the truth in saying it. 
 
 That car was good to learn upon, if not 
 dependable to go from patient to patient. 
 
 Later My Doctor had several other cars. 
 He had some mechanical ability and learned 
 much about the upkeep of the cars himself. 
 
 His last car he loved, as he did the horses 
 he had owned, that gave him satisfactory 
 service before his experience with automo- 
 biles. He said all his cars were like the little 
 girl that had the curl that hung on her fore- 
 head. When they were good, they were very 
 good and when they were bad they were horrid. 
 
MY DOCTOR 43 
 
 My Doctor was daily coming in contact 
 with interesting experiences, amusing and 
 pathetic. 
 
 A mother came bringing in her arms a 
 large seven months' old. She came to inter- 
 view My Doctor at his midday rest hour. 
 His usual plan was after having his midday 
 meal to lie down and rest for a half -hour 
 before again starting on his round of calls. 
 
 This mother said, "Doctor, I want you to 
 tell me what ails this young un. " In her 
 quaint unlearned way, she wanted to know 
 why her baby refused to take his nourish- 
 ment as nature intended he should. My 
 Doctor picked up the baby and felt his flesh. 
 
 "Mrs. S you have been feeding him 
 
 something, haven't you?" "Yeah, I chewed 
 up bread an' taters and pies an' things fur 
 him most ever sense he wus a month old." 
 My Doctor said, "He is, as far as I can see, 
 thriving on it, for he surely is a fine looking 
 baby." After the mother left with the 
 child the doctor said emphatically: "I be 
 John Brown! If fools do not work their 
 children's guardian angels overtime, but 
 somehow the angels stay on their jobs." 
 
44 MY DOCTOR 
 
 The telephone rings, "Come at once. 
 Someone is hurt at the shop. " The doctor 
 to go without dinner and rest? To be sure. 
 The woman with the fat fed baby had taken 
 up his dinner hour. He could not make her 
 any charges for the time. Perhaps he will 
 get home about the middle of the afternoon. 
 Most likely supper will be his first refresh- 
 ments. 
 
 Night at the doctor's home is different 
 from that of any other home. The firemens' 
 halls where the paid firemen sleep are in some 
 respects similar. Most people when they go 
 to sleep know, to a certain extent, they can 
 sleep on until day, but a busy doctor never 
 knows how many times in one night his rest 
 will be broken. 
 
 In another respect the life of the busy 
 doctor is like the firemen who are employed 
 by the city — the worse the weather and the 
 more comfortably asleep they are, is the most 
 sure time for being called. Then, should 
 they get out of hearing of the telephones from 
 which they usually receive their messages, 
 some one of their best patients is apt to have 
 urgent need of them. 
 
MY DOCTOR 45 
 
 A disagreeable night, My Doctor had 
 been out in the rain and sleet. Another call 
 as he goes out to stand the weather again. 
 This is a part of it. " Look for me when you 
 
 see me coming. I am going to John Mc ' ' 
 
 or some such place where he is accustomed to 
 be going or expecting to be called. 
 
 When he had been over thirty hours of 
 steady going and serving, and had gotten home 
 and had had something to eat and had gone to 
 sleep (he was very fortunate in usually being 
 able to go to sleep quickly whenever he had 
 the opportunity), the telephone would ring. 
 The wife tries to answer it quickly and 
 quietly so the doctor can sleep a little longer. 
 She knows how badly he needs the rest. She 
 is sharing his anxieties about the lives he is 
 using all his efforts to save. He has told 
 her. She understands and knows the neces- 
 sity for the doctor's rest. The woman at the 
 other end of the line could not give the mes- 
 sage to the doctor's wife, although the wife 
 had asked with her softest gentlest tones, 
 " Can't you give me the message, please? 
 Doctor is busy now. ' ' She never could say 
 he was not in, but her conscience did let her 
 
46 MY DOCTOR 
 
 say busy when he was getting badly needed 
 sleep. That particular message was, ''Doc- 
 tor, I just gave my baby a dose of castor oil, 
 did I do right?" My Doctor's answers were: 
 "Yes ma'am, yes ma'am," and more than a 
 dozen more of the same replies, before the 
 mother of the oil-dosed baby ever got through 
 telephoning. 
 
 That mother got the information that she 
 did right in giving her baby the dose of oil 
 she had already given him. The doctor got 
 the information about everything that 
 mother knew concerning her baby, her home, 
 her neighborhood, also the best way to keep 
 an old hen from setting. He did not get a 
 thing to charge, not even a prescription, and 
 he did not get any more rest for ten hours. 
 
 There was a side-street merchant dealing 
 in the smaller staple things. His money 
 came slowly, and by nature and habit he did 
 not like to spend any of it. His wife was a 
 shrinking little woman. She seldom ever- 
 spoke and never came to a decision without 
 her husband's aid. He selected her and the 
 children's few clothes and the household 
 
MY DOCTOR 47 
 
 things. They looked like it. He always de- 
 ferred calling a doctor. If a calamity or se- 
 vere sickness occurred, My Doctor was always 
 called. That man paid before the doctor 
 left the house, but he looked at each dollar 
 with a farewell, as if he was looking to see the 
 date or some familiar mark, hoping to have it 
 again. 
 
 Somehow My Doctor had to be called into 
 that home often. Perhaps it was because 
 the head of the family gave regular dosings 
 to his entire household of the different patent 
 medicines that he could not sell that he had 
 in his store. The wife of this man never 
 called My Doctor until she had sent to the 
 store to ask if she might. She had her little 
 child go to the store for her husband that 
 he might send for My Doctor. The husband 
 was not out at the store. She had sent the 
 third time before the child found him. By 
 then on account of the hemorrhage and the 
 new snuffed-out life by her, it was too late. 
 When the doctor arrived her breathing rhad 
 almost ceased. 
 
 The head of the household had to send a 
 telegram to his mother-in-law. He stopped 
 
48 MY DOCTOR 
 
 expressing grief in every possible way long 
 enough to ask the doctor to write the tele- 
 gram. My Doctor wrote: "Mary dead, 
 come at once. " Then he gave the man the 
 message. After carefully reading it the man 
 said, "Doc, kaint you send ten words for a 
 quarter?" My Doctor assured him that he 
 could. The man wrote on to the message. 
 "Too bad, I'm so sad." Then he went out 
 to the store and telephoned it in, and had to 
 pay for an extra word over the quarter's 
 worth, for he did not know Tm was two words. 
 
 My Doctor often said "too bad, I'm so 
 sad, " whenever he saw a person that wanted 
 more than his money's worth in every deal. 
 
 There was a pretty mother of two fine little 
 boys, one having My Doctor's name for his 
 given name. My Doctor had been her doctor 
 since she came to the town as a bride. The 
 little woman was a busy housekeeper, and 
 always neighborly in times of trouble. She 
 had a sick neighbor, that neighbor had no tele- 
 phone. The sick woman needed some medi- 
 cal attention hurriedly. The little mother 
 went across the street in haste to her own 
 telephone to give the message. She fell and 
 
MY DOCTOR 49 
 
 hurt herself. She did not consider it serious, 
 but it was, although she kept busy doing 
 good, and her household duties. My Doctor, 
 for several years, used all the means possible, 
 but her physical condition did not satisfac- 
 torily respond to any remedy used. He 
 assisted the husband in making it possible 
 for that patient to go to one of the leading 
 specialists in a distant city. He wrote the 
 specialist in reference to the case. This was 
 the concluding sentence of his letter. "I 
 do hope you can be the means of helping this 
 patient, for she is the mother of two fine little 
 boys who need her. " 
 
 Little Nellie had some contagious disease, 
 scarlet fever, I think it was. The house 
 was quarantined. The older sister stayed at 
 her grandmother's. Nellie and her mother 
 were alone for several weeks except for My 
 Doctor's daily call. They both looked for- 
 ward from visit to visit of the doctor, es- 
 pecially Nellie. She had been going to 
 school and had learned to write letters. 
 She was very anxious to write to her relatives 
 and friends when she began to get strong 
 
50 MY DOCTOR 
 
 enough. Her mother said, "You can't do 
 it, dear. " Then she explained to her why. 
 Nellie said, "I know what I will do, I'll write 
 to my doctor. " So daily she had her letters 
 written when he came. He read them and 
 answered them orally, much to her enjoy- 
 ment. When she got well she said, "Doctor, 
 what would I have done for so long, if I 
 had not had you to write to?" 
 
 As the days are not all full of sunshine and 
 the breezes are not always balmy, there are 
 stormy rough places that come into busy 
 lives. My Doctor was really arrested. He 
 had the happy way of forgiving and forgetting 
 and looking back on events that had been 
 unpleasant for the time being, as amusing. 
 He never saw any fun in that experience of 
 being arrested. 
 
 One night he was down at a prominent 
 drug store. It was a little after dark. He 
 had not been home to supper. His usual 
 time for coming home was half -past seven. 
 While he was talking to someone in the drug 
 store the sheriff came in, and went over 
 and put his hand on My Doctor's arm and 
 
MY DOCTOR 51 
 
 said, "Dr. Moore, you are under arrest, 
 sir. 
 
 My Doctor knew the sheriff very well, so 
 he thought at first it was a joke, and said, 
 
 "The I am?" The sheriff got out his 
 
 warrant and showed it to him. My Doctor 
 was much angrier than in his contract ex- 
 perience when the mine owner was going to 
 take from him the telephone system. There 
 were some friends in the drug store who went 
 on his bond at once, so he was not taken to 
 prison. 
 
 The arrest was for the stated reason that 
 My Doctor had not reported a case of small- 
 pox. The warrant was issued under the 
 direction of the doctor who was at that time 
 County Health Officer. When My Doctor 
 came home, he was too angry to eat his supper. 
 He told his wife everything concerning his 
 being arrested. He used some expletives 
 a little stronger than adjectives in explaining 
 and describing. She was blessed in keeping 
 calm the few times in the doctor's life that 
 he felt and showed anger. 
 
 My Doctor, a week or so before being 
 arrested, had been out beyond the furnace in 
 
52 MY DOCTOR 
 
 the suburbs to see John O . When he 
 
 went, the patient had just begun to be sick. 
 The case had not advanced far enough for 
 any doctor to say exactly what it was. In 
 a few days My Doctor was informed that 
 the County Health Officer had taken 
 charge, pronounced the case smallpox, and 
 put up the yellow flag. My Doctor was 
 very busy with his other many duties, and 
 never went back and never thought anything 
 about it until his arrest. 
 
 My Doctor, after deliberating a little, 
 decided on his plans. He found out the case 
 would come before the probate court. The 
 probate judge was a man for whom My Doc- 
 tor had great respect. When he saw the 
 judge he told him of the arrest. He also 
 told the judge when the case came up he 
 would be there, but he was not going to any 
 expense about it. 
 
 The day of the trial the Health Officer had 
 the County Solicitor for his lawyer. He 
 had for his witnesses two well-known doctors 
 to prove that the patient had a real case of 
 smallpox. They went on with the case. 
 Then the judge asked My Doctor what he 
 
MY DOCTOR 53 
 
 had to say. My Doctor gave the facts of 
 his connections of the case. No court pro- 
 ceedings ever embarrassed him, for he was 
 used to seeing similar experiences when he was 
 a boy. When My Doctor had finished, the 
 judge said, as he looked at the three doctors 
 and the County Solicitor, "Gentlemen, you 
 have no case." 
 
 My Doctor went out of the court-house 
 alone, but remarked as he left, ' ' If some folks 
 had more business of their own to attend to, 
 
 they would not have so d much time to 
 
 attend to that of other people. " 
 
 There was a dear old maid who was gentle 
 to everyone and kind to everybody. She had 
 some money and time for whatever she cared 
 to do — one thing in particular was to keep her 
 hair dyed. It was at one time blondined, 
 another it had a reddish tinge, and perhaps 
 when you saw her again it would be brown 
 or streaked, but never gray. 
 
 She had long passed the periodical conflict 
 that her physical condition had undergone. 
 Several times yearly she would send for My 
 Doctor and in a squeaky stage-whispering 
 
54 MY DOCTOR 
 
 voice say, ' ' Doctor, you know at such times 
 as this I have to be so particular, etc. " By 
 her whispering to the doctor and her subdued 
 conversations with her neighbors and friends 
 she wanted it understood she was still young. 
 My Doctor had to deal with her sentimental 
 emotions rather than her bodily ailments 
 until she had an unfortunate accident. 
 
 This dear old lady went to a Hallowe'en 
 affair. There were several contests. Among 
 them was one in which apples were hung by 
 strings from a beam. The contestants were 
 each to eat an apple without touching it with 
 his or her hands. The old maid entered the 
 contest. She stretched her mouth and went 
 after the apple. Her young friends stood 
 around saying, "Go it Miss Fanny. I am 
 betting on you." She was the winner, but 
 hurt her jaw. She told My Doctor, "They 
 said 'go it* and I went it. Then I heard a 
 pop of my jaw. I did not feel anything bad 
 for a day or two. Now I can't chew anything 
 hard, and there is soreness all the time." 
 My Doctor treated her gently and patiently, 
 and was truly sympathetic for the several 
 months of slow treatment. He had a keen 
 
MY DOCTOR 55 
 
 sense of humor, and was often amused at that 
 dear old maid. 
 
 There was a young man and his sister — she 
 about twenty years old — living on a farm. 
 The young woman had some kind of spells 
 if things did not quite go to suit her. She 
 would faint, get unconscious, become rigid, 
 etc. Her brother would hurry for My Doctor. 
 After she had had several such spells, that 
 one particular time My Doctor did not hurry 
 and she had gotten through with one round, 
 when the doctor went in she was ready to 
 begin another. She always managed to find 
 a comfortable place to fall. My Doctor 
 saw she was making her preparations; as 
 she began her fainting, he grabbed her by 
 her shoulder and also her hair and gave 
 one a twist and the other a jerk. She did 
 not get unconscious that time. My Doc- 
 tor said: "Darn you, you have given this 
 good brother of yours and these other folks 
 enough trouble. It is high time for you 
 to stop this foolishness." It was a cure 
 and a permanent one. Never after did I 
 know My Doctor to use the same remedy. 
 
56 MY DOCTOR 
 
 He never said he regretted using it that 
 time. 
 
 My Doctor put his work and those for 
 whom he practiced, first at all times. There 
 was to be a merry party to take a trip to New 
 York. He had planned to go. His suit-case 
 was packed. The son of one of his good 
 friends came home with typhoid fever the 
 night before the party left. That settled it 
 for him. He did not go. The faithful good 
 mother needed her doctor (My Doctor) to 
 help be the means of bringing back to health 
 her handsome young son. 
 
 There was a young railroad employee. He 
 was so mentally quick with acute sense of 
 wit and humor that My Doctor enjoyed his 
 companionship, and claimed him as one of 
 his inner circle of friends. This young man 
 was hurt while tending to his regular work. 
 It happened in another town. My Doctor 
 was much concerned about him. Every day 
 he mentioned him. He took more than a 
 doctor's interest in the young man when he 
 could be moved home where he could give 
 him his personal attention. 
 
MY DOCTOR 57 
 
 Another young friend was a member of a 
 volunteer fire company. There was a fire 
 at a big mill. This young man fell from a 
 ladder which caused a badly fractured arm. 
 My Doctor was surgeon for the fire company, 
 an honored position without pay. He ac- 
 cepted it as his duty to attend the young 
 man. It was sympathetic patient work for 
 his friend. He knew the worth of the honor- 
 able young man. He knew the struggles he 
 had ; that many troubles had been in his life 
 that were not of his own making. 
 
 Among My Doctor's patients was a boy, 
 almost a young man. He was as much be- 
 loved by everyone who knew him as any boy 
 ever is. He became sick with a severe form 
 of pneumonia. My Doctor was intensely in- 
 terested in his case. He could get no good re- 
 sults from the means he used. He spent all his 
 spare time reading, hoping to find some knowl- 
 edge that he had not tried that might be 
 effective if used in combating the disease. 
 He asked the family if they cared to do so to 
 call in another physician for a consultation. 
 That doctor did not see anything else that 
 could be done. The disease worked quickly. 
 
58 MY DOCTOR 
 
 When everything had failed and the family 
 had been told so, my big strong doctor wept. 
 He said later in referring to it : ' ' It hurt me so 
 to see that boy go, but I don't believe any 
 power this side of heaven could have helped 
 it. " 
 
 In a simple little home out in the suburbs 
 lived a man, wife, and several children, and an 
 old great-grandmother. Oftentimes the peo- 
 ple of little means are big of heart in caring for 
 the dependent. As My Doctor entered, two 
 ladies who liked to do charity first hand had 
 just left. It was a warm day. My Doctor 
 put his hat wherever convenient, and went 
 over and took the hand of the sick old woman 
 who was in a bed in the corner of the best 
 room in the house. If he noticed it he did 
 not show it in anyway that things were only 
 partially clean and want was visible every- 
 where; with "the voice of Love, and the 
 smile and the comforting eye" he said most 
 likely the words that any real doctor would 
 have said. 
 
 The old woman began to talk of how good 
 it was for the ladies of affluence to come into 
 
MY DOCTOR 59 
 
 their poor home to do things for her. She 
 kept up her talk of the poor surroundings. 
 My Doctor said, ' ' Look here, Grandma, your 
 home is like their homes, and my home. 
 It is your castle. When you go anywhere and 
 stay any time, this is the best place in the 
 world to come back to, isn't it?" He knew 
 that a short time before that the old woman 
 had been glad to get back to that home after 
 trying to stay with another relative elsewhere 
 who was in considerably better circumstances. 
 He got the right mental effect to assist his 
 remedies. He also left a happier old woman 
 by his cheerful suggestion. 
 
 My Doctor always had some patients who 
 took the privilege of diagnosing their own 
 cases. Sometimes they would wait until 
 My Doctor entered the sick room and before 
 he could take off his hat, and be ready to give 
 his attention to the case, the patient had 
 made a diagnosis, and was ready for the 
 doctor to agree to what the disease was and 
 also to the treatment the patient suggested. 
 
 This is a written description and name of 
 her trouble, My Doctor received before he 
 
60 MY DOCTOR 
 
 could get to see the patient. "I am just so 
 weak, I can hardly walk and have had a place 
 in my stomach for some time. When it 
 first come, I could not lie on my back. It 
 would flutter like some live thing. But 
 now keen pains run through me like a knife 
 cutting, and I can feel like something running 
 on each side of my stomach. I have to have 
 something to eat every half -hour, if not my 
 stomach is just gnawing. I have all symp- 
 toms of worms. Bleave I got them. " 
 
 There was one case where an Irishman, 
 under the influence of whiskey, tried an 
 operation upon himself. 
 
 It was during Christmas week. There 
 were sure to be more or less fatalities during 
 the Christmas season, back in the years when 
 alcoholic drinks were sold on nearly every 
 corner and in the middle of most of the 
 blocks. Pat O'Reiley (that is not his real 
 name) was a hard-working fellow and equally 
 as hard drinking when the spells came on 
 him. Usually on holidays he had a round 
 of drinking if he had worked up till then, and 
 had the money. 
 
MY DOCTOR 61 
 
 Norah, his wife, had been accustomed to 
 seeing men drink. She accepted it as "The 
 way of 'im. " If he became too obstreperous 
 she locked herself and her family away from 
 him, or locked him into a room alone. 
 
 "Norah, me darlin', open the door and let 
 me in." The children had gone to sleep. 
 Norah was singing and mending the little 
 ones' clothes and paid no attention to Pat. 
 " Norah, I want to kiss the children good- 
 night and you too before you go to your 
 dreamin'. I just must kiss you, Norah, me 
 darlin'/' Still no answer. "Norah, if you 
 don't let me in I'll operate on meself, so you 
 will let me in." Norah laughed. Then she 
 heard a painful scream. "Norah, me darlin', 
 I'm dying — bleeding to death. Call me 
 doctor, call me doctor!" 
 
 My Doctor hurriedly went and as he 
 worked Norah told him the above conversa- 
 tion. He advised Norah to say nothing to 
 any one. "Pat is a good fellow. He will 
 soon be all right. Hope this will be his last 
 jag. It looks like this would be enough to 
 teach him to let the damnable stuff alone. 
 The fool came near bleeding to death. ' ' 
 
62 MY DOCTOR 
 
 "Faith and begorra, I'm thinking so too," 
 said Norah. 
 
 My Doctor was not much for religious 
 discussions. When he attempted to quote 
 the Bible, which was very seldom, he usually 
 got mixed as to the different divine writers 
 and their oftenest quoted verses. He would 
 give Paul credit for James's statement con- 
 cerning faith, then he would give his own re- 
 vised version as "Faith without works isn't 
 
 worth a . " He was always sure of the 
 
 simple principles of faith, and strong on 
 brotherly love. 
 
 There was a seriously sick man. My 
 Doctor had done all he could for him. He 
 noticed that the patient was very nervous, 
 with an expression of having something 
 important to say. "Well, what is it John?" 
 "Doctor, you have not told me yet, but I 
 know I am going to die, and I am afraid to die. 
 Doctor, I am not straight of this Heaven 
 and Hell of the hereafter." "John, that 
 need not worry you long. You can decide 
 that right now," said My Doctor. "In 
 the first place did you ever hear anything 
 
MY DOCTOR 63 
 
 bad of Heaven ? ' ' "No, Doctor. " " Well, 
 did you ever hear anything good of the other 
 place?" "I never did," said the patient. 
 "Well, you know which you would like best, 
 don't you?" "Yes, sir, but Doctor I've 
 been — " My Doctor did not let him speak 
 farther, but said himself, "You have been 
 little but you are big now. We can't keep 
 on being what we once were. We are always 
 changing. Bring that Bible here and some 
 of you good folks tell him the rest. If you 
 can't, get a preacher. He knows how and 
 would like the job." With a smile that 
 proceeded from "a wonderful strength in 
 cheerfulness," he left to see another patient. 
 
 There was a man for whom My Doctor 
 had practiced in the first years of his profes- 
 sional work. The man had unusual good 
 mechanical ability and was master mechanic 
 at one of the shops. There was a strike on, 
 and as he was considered one of the leaders 
 he was never reinstated to the position he 
 had held. Soon after that there was con- 
 siderable business depression. The good 
 workman lost his home. Then he left the 
 
64 MY DOCTOR 
 
 town for several years. Whenever any of his 
 family were real sick, he came back to talk to 
 My Doctor concerning the sickness. Later 
 he came back to town, but he had no perma- 
 nent work. A few days at one job and a few 
 days at another had been his employment 
 for a year or more. My Doctor learned of a 
 place that he believed would suit the good 
 man. The place was to be filled that day. 
 He (My Doctor) was the means of putting the 
 employer in touch with the capable man and 
 assisting him in obtaining a permanent job. 
 It was no money consideration to the doctor. 
 That workman was honest. He and his faith- 
 ful wife paid their doctor bills if they had to 
 make sacrifices to do so. It was for the 
 betterment of that family and the hope that 
 the children within that home could have 
 the advantages that the parents wished to 
 give them. 
 
 One night a little after nine o'clock there 
 was a telephone message given by a woman 
 with a high-pitched voice indicating that she 
 was much excited. She wanted My Doctor 
 to come at once. As a rule the come at once 
 
MY DOCTOR 65 
 
 people are not always the pay at once. Those 
 people always paid promptly. 
 
 My Doctor went out to the garage, and 
 had a little trouble in getting his car to start, 
 perhaps he was out there for ten or fifteen 
 minutes. In the meantime the message was 
 repeated in a man's voice for the doctor to 
 hurry. When My Doctor was told of that 
 hurrying message, he said, ' ' They must have 
 some sick visitor, for I am certain the man 
 and wife are the only ones that belong in that 
 home." 
 
 When My Doctor returned from the call, he 
 said that when he got to the home the man 
 and wife both met him at the door ; the woman 
 was wringing her hands, and gasping for her 
 words as she said: "Oh, Doctor! I am so 
 glad you are here. Poor Prince Tee Wee 
 has had two convulsions. " Prince Tee Wee 
 was the little pet dog. My Doctor said: "I 
 am not the one you want. You should have 
 sent for the veterinary doctor." 
 
 "No, Doctor, we know you and we do 
 not know him and we could not trust Prince 
 Tee Wee with a real stranger. " 
 
 My Doctor said he was so disgusted that 
 
66 MY DOCTOR 
 
 he felt like coming back home at once. He 
 decided he had gone to the trouble of making 
 the call. Let them pay him for it. So he 
 went into the house. The woman brought 
 out the little pet dog on a sofa pillow with a 
 towel folded beneath him. He said the little 
 creature looked like a small-sized sofa pillow 
 made of unsheared sheepskin, with a face 
 and head not much larger than a silver dollar. 
 The woman held out the little bundle toward 
 him. My Doctor said, in telling of it, "I'd 
 be dog-goned, if I was going to put that dog 
 on my lap. " So he told the woman she had 
 better do the holding. He did not try to 
 make a very careful diagnosis. He suggested 
 that if the adopted parents wished, he could 
 put the little Prince Tee Wee to everlasting 
 rest. There were objections from both the 
 man and woman. ' ' We could not stand that, 
 Doctor." 
 
 My Doctor's keen sense of humor came to 
 his aid. He took his prescription pad and 
 wrote two or three prescriptions of mild forms 
 of medicines used for babies and gave direc- 
 tions for that dog to be dosed every two hours 
 all that night. The woman said, "Doctor, 
 
MY DOCTOR 67 
 
 suppose Tee Wee is asleep?" " Well, Mrs. 
 Blank, just hold his nose and give it to him 
 anyway." 
 
 The drug stores close at ten. He had 
 Mr. Blank hurry to town with him to get 
 the medicine. My Doctor usually made 
 rather long calls, but he did not linger long 
 over the little dog. 
 
 Prince Tee Wee and his line of royalty may 
 be living yet so far as I know. Soon after 
 that, the dog, accompanied by the man and 
 woman, moved away from our town. 
 
 There was no hospital in the town. In 
 his experiences, My Doctor saw many times 
 where he desired very much to have one, to 
 get the results he wanted and believed he 
 could get, if the patient could have good at- 
 tention with aseptic surroundings. He made 
 the sacrifice of his own home, building a small 
 modern operating room and sterilizing room. 
 
 Several times he went to New York for 
 post-graduate study to learn more of opera- 
 tive work and medical and surgical electricity. 
 
 He gave his best of mind, strength, and 
 money. It was a losing undertaking finan- 
 
68 MY DOCTOR 
 
 cially, but it was a permanent beginning of 
 greater things in hospital facilities for his 
 town. For several years he had greater 
 opportunities for helping others. 
 
 Several young nurses were encouraged to 
 make the best use of the talents they had. 
 One ambitious young woman welcomed each 
 effort toward improvement and made the 
 best use of every opportunity. She con- 
 stantly was cheerful with expectations and 
 later realized her highest aspirations. 
 
 Many patients with various ailments were 
 brought back to strength. 
 
 There was a baby who had a deformity that 
 would have ruined her nappiness and those 
 who loved her. By the surgical operation of 
 My Doctor, she was made a normal child. 
 
 Laudable work of any endeavor goes from 
 one to another through the eye, the heart, and 
 the mouth, ever telling of any one who is 
 serving humanity for the highest good. The 
 afflicted baby was the means of My Doctor 
 having several similar operations to do that 
 were successful happy work. Successful 
 medical and surgical work was always happy 
 work for him. 
 
MY DOCTOR 69 
 
 A mother brought from a distant town, a 
 lovely daughter, who was suffering with 
 a terrible nervous affliction caused by a 
 serious physical condition. My Doctor told 
 them it would take time for the young woman 
 to be benefited. After several months of 
 faithful work on My Doctor's part, and 
 patience and willingness by the patient, 
 to use the means prescribed they were re- 
 warded with the results that he had hoped 
 and worked to get. 
 
 Among the hospital experiences was an 
 operation for extracting a bullet from the 
 leg of a young man. During the operation 
 and the after-treatment a deputy sheriff was 
 ever present as a guard. Likely in some time 
 or other legal officers have captive patients 
 in every hospital. That patient was known 
 as "The King of Turkey Heaven. " Turkey 
 Heaven is a mountain in an adjoining county. 
 At that time it was noted for being a strong- 
 hold for the making of "moonshine whiskey " 
 — the illegal making of whiskey. 
 
 That young fellow was the leader of the 
 gang of the moonshiners. He was a hand- 
 some type of the mountaineer class. He 
 
70 MY DOCTOR 
 
 was a decided blond with clear-cut features. 
 He had an unusual amount of caution. He 
 refused to take an anaesthetic to be made un- 
 conscious of his suffering while the doctors 
 probed for the bullet. He stood the pain with- 
 out flinching. He either had dogged deter- 
 mination or heroic fortitude or perhaps both. 
 
 There were many other interesting cases, 
 and some that had many amusing incidents 
 concerning them, that would be worth the 
 telling had the years between the then and 
 the now been more, so no one or no one's 
 relatives could be offended. Doctors' wives 
 have a ''Code of Ethics," though unwritten 
 and never discussed, of as high order as the 
 doctors have. 
 
 Dr. King, a Missouri doctor wrote: "The 
 Code is intended to hold doctors to a strict 
 accountability for their conduct toward each 
 other. It holds them just as firmly to a 
 strict accountability for their conduct toward 
 their patients and the public generally. The 
 Code is to the doctor the highest law in the 
 universe outside of the Bible, and if he does 
 not recognize the Bible, then it is the highest 
 law. What the Discipline is to the Method- 
 
MY DOCTOR 71 
 
 ist, the Confession of Faith to the Calvinist, 
 and the Articles of Faith to the Baptist, 
 the Code is to the doctor. It may be urged 
 that a gentleman does not need a code. 
 Neither do the healthy need a physician ; nor 
 the saints in Heaven need a savior. We were 
 all men before we were doctors. Men as 
 varied in our instincts, education, intelligence, 
 and desires as any other class of men. If 
 we could make the ideal doctor first, then 
 make the man to fit him, then we would need 
 no code." This is an intelligent doctor's 
 necessity of a Code of Ethics. The doctor's 
 wife knows a great deal of the frailties, 
 follies, and failures of humanity that it is 
 her duty to strengthen and encourage toward 
 the better things, and guard the knowledge, 
 concerning the doctor's patients as she would 
 wish them to do, if they knew the same or 
 similar facts concerning her. There are many 
 things not really wrong, yet people do not 
 want the world in general, and their next door 
 neighbor, in particular, to know about them. 
 
 When a real doctor is your doctor, you can 
 tell him the inmost secrets of your life. 
 
72 MY DOCTOR 
 
 No one but Luke, the beloved physician, 
 could have been told by Mary the most 
 sacred experiences of her gentle womanly 
 life. The Divine Power knew that it would 
 take an ideal doctor to learn the fact from 
 Mary to give to the world the singular circum- 
 stances of the connection of Divinity with 
 humanity. Mary could not have told Mat- 
 thew, who understood men better than 
 women, and who evidently was told the 
 early facts concerning Jesus, by Joseph. 
 Mary could not have told Mark with his 
 straightway conclusion of events, nor the 
 beloved John who wrote the God-given side 
 of the Word, presenting to us Jesus, as a 
 grown young man. She could and did tell 
 Luke. He was her doctor. He could under- 
 stand her maternal feelings and thoughts 
 — the things that she (Mary) had "kept 
 and pondered in her heart' ' until she had 
 made a confidant of "Luke, the beloved 
 physician." 
 
 The patients did not tell My Doctor of 
 just their bodily conditions. Less than a 
 week before My Doctor's death a refined, 
 gentle little matron said, while waiting down 
 
MY DOCTOR 73 
 
 at his office, "I tell Doctor everything that 
 concerns me and mine. " 
 
 The people tell their doctor of their ambi- 
 tions, hopes, disappointments, and family 
 troubles. The world is full of family troubles. 
 It is the worst side of human nature breaking 
 the laws of love, if not breaking, bending into 
 grotesque shapes which can seldom be 
 straightened into its former symmetry. 
 
 My Doctor was often able to give sugges- 
 tions which, when followed, made lives the 
 happier for the time being. 
 
 A man and wife had a misunderstanding. 
 Neither one was very wrong. Each one told 
 his and her inner circle of friends. Unfor- 
 tunately; they had not the same friends. 
 Each heard, "I would not do this," and "I 
 would not stand that . ' ' Fortunately they had 
 a good friend in common, their doctor, My 
 Doctor. Each went to him separately. In 
 his sympathetic way he saw both sides, and in 
 his own mind thought, "Them that God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder." 
 From the love of his heart toward each one 
 of them he had more than tact in dealing 
 with that man and wife and was able to give 
 
74 MY DOCTOR 
 
 advice, that was followed and added mate- 
 rially to the happiness of both of them. 
 
 Almost daily someone went to My Doctor, 
 to talk to him of the course to pursue 
 in reference to his own personal affairs. 
 Mothers from all walks of life went to tell 
 of their boys who were giving them hours 
 of worry, perhaps for leaving home, and, 
 mother-like, the blame was always on the 
 bad associates. 
 
 My Doctor loved boys. He was patient 
 with all that would work and tell the truth. 
 He encouraged many in ambition for knowl- 
 edge and position. Many times he trusted 
 them with money without interest that some 
 young man might have a chance to better 
 himself. With one exception they were 
 worthy of his confidence. 
 
 As a member of the Board of Education, 
 and as a public-spirited citizen, he was much 
 concerned and gave much of his time and 
 often gave his money that the boys and girls 
 of his town should have good educational 
 opportunities. 
 
 Those he ministered unto, as their doctor, 
 he was naturally more interested in their 
 
MY DOCTOR 75 
 
 children. At one time I know that he 
 stopped his conveyance, and called out to 
 a girl who was returning from school, and 
 loitering on the sidewalk with children whose 
 influence would be bad, ' ' Ethel, run on home 
 now." 
 
 A little mother said : ' ' We love the Doctor 
 to pass our way. He always smiles and 
 speaks to the grown people, and waves his 
 hand to the children as they call out their 
 greeting to him. " 
 
 My Doctor liked sincerity and unassuming 
 things concerning himself. He loved the 
 people he served. He was very human, and 
 longed for the expressions of appreciation 
 that they, who called him "My Doctor," 
 evidently felt but were oftentimes too busy 
 with their many other affairs to express. 
 
 After My Doctor's sudden death, which 
 occurred at the early hour of two in the 
 morning, many knew it before day. The 
 telephones in all parts of the town were 
 busy. Strong men in various walks of life 
 came and wept at the giving up of a beloved 
 physician and their best friend. Mothers 
 whom My Doctor had been with each time 
 
76 MY DOCTOR 
 
 they had been blessed with Love's crown of 
 motherhood came to weep with those left 
 within the Doctor's home. 
 
 Business and professional men came to show 
 their respect to a man whom they knew to be 
 worthy of it. Little babes in their mothers' 
 arms and small children holding to their moth- 
 ers' skirts were brought. One little one, bare- 
 ly old enough to talk, kept saying, ' ' Mamma, 
 what's the matter with Dr. Moore?" 
 
 The spacious home, the large verandah, 
 the yard, and the sidewalk were filled with the 
 people, when the earnest "Man of God" was 
 saying the last words over the lifeless form of 
 My Doctor. 
 
 There were a great many flowers brought 
 and sent into the home. The flowers were 
 mostly roses. There were thousands of roses 
 in the many floral tributes of respect and love. 
 Most of the flowers came from those whom 
 My Doctor had served. 
 
 "When blossom Life's sweet bud, at blush of 
 day, 
 When breath of withered rose at eve-time 
 steals away," 
 
MY DOCTOR 77 
 
 and the many years between. Eve- time has 
 its own time for coming. The minister be- 
 gan the services — "God does not count time 
 as we do." 
 
 THE END.