[Sidenote: A Physician]
[Sidenote: Possessed of Devils]
[Sidenote: Emancipation Assures Success]
who has recently been selected by vote of the members of his profession
to a position of honor among them, and who is conspicuous for his
enjoyment of such healthful recreation as only much younger men usually
enjoy, whether he did not consider anger and worry habits of the mind,
and not as necessary ingredients. "Certainly," said he, "and I know it
to be true by the best possible evidence, the evidence of experience."
After some further questioning I was able to get from him the following
story: "When I was a boy I had an ungovernable temper which brought
from my neighbors the prediction that I would come to some bad end. At
school I was known as one of the four or five 'roosters.' There was
scarcely a day that a ring was not formed, and some of us 'roosters'
did not engage in a fight. I followed my studies pretty closely,
however, in pursuance of a natural inclination to be 'on top,' but
without any laudable ambition in connection with them, and finally
graduated in medicine and began practice. I suffered great annoyance
from horses and servants, and quarreled with them constantly, and got
mad at my patients if they showed any unreasonable tendencies; until
one day it came to me as a sudden revelation, that, what most hindered
them from getting well, was the very thing that possessed me the
greater part of the time, and made me disagreeable to myself and
others; and I resolved to master myself as I had tried to master
others. From that time I date my success in life, and certainly my
happiness. I will not allow anything to worry me. If a driver or other
servant does not please me, I do not quarrel with him, but pay him off,
and let him go with the best of feeling. I have a collector who is very
faithful, and very candid at the same time. When he fails to collect an
account that is due, I sometimes ask him the reason, and he repeats to
me what my patient has said. One day I questioned him about an account
that had been long overdue, against a patient whom I met cordially
every day at the club, but who was evidently 'short' at the time and
suffered annoyance from collectors. 'What did he say?'said I. 'He said,
sir, "Tell the doctor to go to hell," replied the honest collector.
Most men would have taken offense at the message, and prosecuted his
patient for the debt, or 'cut' him, or expressed anger in some way; but
I simply didn't go where he had ordered, and never referred to the
matter with him. We are the best of friends now, and he is one of my
warmest advocates."