A PHYSICIAN
A Physician 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 Possessed of Devilsschool 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 Emancipation Assures Successcollector. 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."