A sure Cure.—Henry Ward Beecher is currently reported as having once written to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes as to the knowledge of the latter respecting a certain difficulty. The reply was characteristic, and encouraging.
“Gravel,” wrote the doctor, “gravel is an effectual cure. It should be taken about four feet deep.”
The “remedy” was not, however, so remarkable as the following:—
“Time and Cure.”—A good-looking and gentlemanly-dressed fellow was arraigned on the charge of stealing a watch, which watch was found on his person. It was his first offence, and he pleaded, “Guilty.” The magistrate was struck with the calm deportment of the prisoner, and asked him what had induced him to take the watch.
“Having been out of health for some time,” replied the young man, sorrowfully, “the doctor advised me to take something, which I accordingly did.”
The magistrate was rather amused with the humor of the explanation, and further inquired why he had been led to select so remarkable a remedy as a watch.
“Why,” replied the prisoner, “I thought if I only had the time, Nature might work the cure.”
Dye-stuff.—During the cholera time of 1864, in Hartford, Conn., a little girl was sent to a drug store to purchase some dye-stuff, and forgetting the name of the article, she said to the clerk, “John, what do folks dye with?”