"They'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable."
"Democritus, dear droll, revisit earth,
And with our follies glut thy heightened mirth."--PRIOR.
A ONE-EYED DOCTOR AND HIS HORSE.--A NEW EDIBLE.--"HAVE THEM
BOILED."--"BEAUTY AND THE BEAST."--A LOVELY STAMPEDE.--AN ECCENTRIC
PHILADELPHIAN.--THE POODLES, DRS. HUNTER AND SCIPIO.--SILENT
ELOQUENCE.--CONSISTENT TO THE END.--WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE.--FOUR BLIND
MEN.--DIET AND SLEEP.--SAXE AND SANCHO PANZA.--MOTHER GOOSE AS A
DOCTOR'S BOOK.--THE TABLES TURNED ON THE DOCTORS.
We love to see an eccentric individual--something out of the common
routine of every-day, humdrum life. But what is often taken for an
eccentricity is sometimes put on for an advertisement.
Nearly all great men have their oddities or peculiarities. I might give
many little interesting sketches of some physicians' oddities right among
us, but for too great personality. I may, however, work in a few.
The eccentricities of some doctors lie in their dress. Of this, I shall
speak under the head of "Dress and Address." Others lie in personal acts,
in their walk, manners, and conversation.
I know of one physician who delights in the worst looking old horse he can
obtain. The doctor himself has but one eye. His old donkey-like beast
corresponded. Report said that he cut out the left eye of the horse to
gain that desired end, which, however, is discredited. The beast was also
lame, which defect the doctor would never admit.
"What _you_ ignorantly term 'limping' is only an expression of good
breeding--which I cannot attach to all whom I meet on the road. It's
bowing,--merely bowing. You never see him do it unless somebody is in
sight. Gid-dap!" And so delivering himself, the old doctor would drive on,
chuckling softly to himself. When his old horse died, he was presented
with a fine young beast, which he declined to accept, but scoured the
country till he found a high-boned, rib-bared, foundered, and half-blind
old roadster.