(Scene from the EARLY LIFE OF A BOSTON PHYSICIAN. By permission.)
Standing on the steps of the Astor House, New York, one cheerless forenoon
in early June, with my carpet-bag in one hand and my fresh medical diploma
in the other, with a heavy weight of sorrow at my heart, and only sixteen
cents in my pocket, I presented, to myself at least, a picture of such
utter despair as words are inadequate to express.[4]
My home--no; I had none--the home, rather, of my kind old father-in-law,
where dwelt, for the time being, my wife and child, was many hundred miles
away. And how was I to reach it? I could not walk that distance, and
sixteen cents would not carry me there. I looked up Broadway, and I looked
down towards the Battery. I was alone amid an immense sea of humans, which
ebbed and flowed continually past me. O, how wistfully I looked to see if
there might be one face amongst the throng which I might recognize! but
there was none. Strange, passing strange, not one of that host did I ever
gaze upon before! Where--how--should I raise the money necessary to take
me from this land of strangers?
"Pinny, sir? Just one pinny. Me father is broken up, and me mither is sick
at home. For God's sake give me jist one pinny to buy me some bread."
I turned my gaze upon the picture of squalor and wretchedness just by my
side. I need not describe her; she was just like a thousand others in that
great Babel.
"Here is doubtless a case of distress, but it is not of the heart, like
mine. Such poor have no heart. Skin, muscle, head, stomach! heart, none!"
"Where is your father, did you say?" I asked, mechanically.
"In the Slarter-house; broken up from a fall from a stagin' in
Twenty-sixth Street, sir," replied the beggar-girl, still extending her
hand for a penny.
"What is he doing in a slaughter-house, sis?" I inquired.
"The Slarter-house is Bellyvew horse-pittle, sir; that's what we Irish
call it, sir. Will ye give me the pinny, sir?"
[Illustration: "PINNY, SIR? JUST ONE PINNY."]
"O, yes, to be sure. Here are pennies for you. Go!"
I knew of a poor Irishman who was brought in there at the hospital a few
days before badly "broken up" from a fall on Twenty-sixth Street. His name
was John Murphy; they are all named Murphy, or something similar; so it
was useless to ask the child her father's name--probably it would have
been Murphy.
The conversation had the good effect of arousing me from my lethargy to
action. I must not stay in this metropolis and starve. I could not remain
and beg, like the Irish girl.
I went to Professor ----, the dean, and requested him to take back my
diploma, and let me have sufficient money to carry me home. He
complied--God bless him!--and I took the Sound steamer that afternoon for
the land of my nativity. What cared I if I was a second-class passenger; I
would in two days see my wife and my child!
* * * * *
I had reached home, and was in the bosom of my family once more, and
amongst my friends, in a Christian land; for which I "thanked God, and
took courage."
"Then pledged me the wine-cup, and fondly I swore
Ne'er from my home and my weeping friends to part;
My children kissed me a thousand times o'er;
My wife sobbed aloud in her fullness of heart."
I had a "call" to practise in a country town twenty-five miles from E----,
where my family was to remain a few days till I had secured a house to
cover their heads amongst the good friends who were to become my future
patrons, as a few of them had been previous to my going to college. The
stage, a one-horse affair, called for my trunk, medicine-case, etc., and,
having no money with which to pay my fare, I told the driver that "I would
walk along," while he picked up another passenger in an opposite
direction, "and if he overtook me on the road before I got a ride with
some one going to S----, he could take me in."
I walked bravely along a mile or more, and, hearing the stage coming, I
stepped from the road-side, secreting myself beneath a friendly tree till
he drove past. Issuing from my hiding-place, I trudged along till noon. My
darling little wife had taken the precaution to place in my oversack
pocket some doughnuts and cheese, and, when I had reached a clear, running
brook, I sat myself down upon a log, under the shade of the woods, and
partook of my very frugal meal, quenching my thirst from the waters of the
brook, which, like Diogenes, I raised in the hollow of my hand.
Thus refreshed, I picked up my overcoat, and again walked along. Before
dark I reached S----, pretty tired and foot-sore from such a long walk.
[Illustration: THE PENNILESS PHYSICIAN.]
The people, who were expecting me, were much surprised at my non-arrival
in the mail; but the unsophisticated driver assured them I had probably
secured a ride ahead of him, and I would put in an appearance before
nightfall.
About midnight the door-bell rang,--I stopped at the hotel that
night,--and a young gentleman asked for Dr. C. I answered the call at
once, which was to the daughter of one of the most influential citizens of
the place. The young man who called me was her intended. They had been to
a party, and she had partaken freely of oysters, milk, and pickles.
Never did fifteen grains of ipecac prove a greater friend to me than it
did on that occasion; and in an hour I was back to bed again.
The news of the new doctor's arrival, fresh from a New York college, and
his first "remarkable cure of the post-master's daughter" that same night,
spread like wildfire, and my reputation was nearly established.
[Illustration]