Personally he is sleek and unctuous, is always found among the godly,
takes more interest in foreign missions than the every-day affairs of
life, and fully expects to occupy a seat in the parquet of the New
Jerusalem.
The money wrung by the basest of false pretenses from his poor
unfortunate blind victims, does not disturb his slumbers. If he has
any conscience at all he fortifies himself with the thought that
"Jesus will bear it all," and lets it go at that.
Blind people, or those with failing eyesight, beware.
A close second to the above-named grafter, and in the same nefarious
business, is Dr. M----.
This man's advertisements read very much like those of others in the
same line of work. He also cures without the knife, but uses the
scissors. His treatment is the same--boric acid and water.
This can do no possible good except in slight inflammations. It
cannot cure cataract. It may be set down as a truth (ask any honest
physician) that cataract is incurable except by surgical operations.
Yet these men continue to advertise its cure, claiming to have a
specific remedy that will absorb it. Dr. M---- is wealthy, all made
out of the blind. While other men are giving of their wealth to ease
the lives of these poor unfortunates, they are being systematically
robbed in the most heartless and shame-faced manner.
Priceless is sight. A man or woman threatened with loss of it will
give up their last dollar for a prospective cure. In this way these
so-called "eye doctors" fatten on the credulity of their victims,
doing them absolutely no good and quite often a serious injury.
Dr. M---- is also a devout church member. He can be seen hanging over
the pew of a fashionable West Side church every Sunday. There he is
hailed as a good brother by his fellow members, many of whom are as
great, if not as successful, a grafter as he is. They use the cloak of
religion in which to serve the devil.