Document text
January 11, 1939.
Dr. James -Stevens Brown (white),
Physician
Church street ad Fourth Avenue
Hendersonville, i. C.
Frank kassimino, writer.
Narnes changed by Edwin Bjorkman.
DOCTOR GRAY
Ortanal iiames Chanzed Names
Doctor Brown Doctor Gray
DOCTOR GRAY
The office smells of heat and people, and faintly of
the doctor's medicines. All morning long the street door
opens and closes, and through it comes a series of patients
in toil -worn clothes that express the nature of a country
doctor's practice. From all parts of tne county, from as
far away as the next county seat and aa near as the kud Creek
bottom lands adjoining the town, off the mountain ridges and
out of the hollows, the negro and the white alike bring their
ailments to old "Doc" Gray. Each weekday morning those who
are able come for treatment, or advice, or medicine, sitting
in strained silence in tie waiting room until one by one they
are ushered by the doctor hilLself into the inner office. There
tney tell of the sickness or pain that has interrupted their
days of ceaseless poverty and toil. Lostly t.leir faces are
furrowed and ridged with lines of premature age, ti.eir clothes
are streaked with dust or mud, according to season.
The doctor dismisses each patient with a comment, then
stands aside to let in the next in turn. Of small, round pro-
portions, nearly bald, with a brick -red complexion, a keen pene-
treting gaze, end earelerely elnd, :),ector cirey is the picture
of a country practitioner. ic began his ofetAlional career
ia 1”5 he year of the iitago Woridlstr. or forty—five
yers he hes been „Jving unstintiagly or his -tnowlodge end
skill to the rural inhabitants of the south, ;Airtioularly to
the peoole in the hinterland,- of -Jdestern North .,:sroline,
ir a hosier by instinct. it runs in hia family, is son is
one or the ledin4g eurgeous In the Etate. lie own teohnical
socomplishlents were never outetendln9, but he has enameled over
5,000 deliveries, witll not one loss of life at birth, end
once, by he uneven lint of an old...fashioned brass candle
old in the faltering hands of a child, he oerformed a delicate
prostiteetomy on in aced neero who ley writhing in pain uaon
a bed in fl cabin mill from the nearest hospital.
en the ante —room is cleared and the old doctor has a
moment to hinsnlf, he 1tc to relax in the c%air that site
in front of a battered roll -..topped des- and talk about the
days when he me!e his visits tstride old 3unconee„ a. white
mule ;olio had en ey t-,eit mai ft mind of !its own.
"I remember one night iter a oerticularly buay tey when
I fell asleep in the saddle, says the doctor. "It happened
a mila or cv, from home, on a road neither 3unceitAt nor I ad
trevorad before. guess that mule had the instinct of a
homing pigeon, though, for vitien I finally opened my eyes
o was nudiang my gate, anxious for the warmth or the stable
and the oats he new awaited tiit tl,are. Yes etre I regret
the passing of that animal, Ln s4te of the relative speed
sad coafort of the automobile of today, for the mao4lne isn't
in to permit me to indulge in the luxury of sleep an the
way hum from a late visit in the oountry, or see to it that
aa -;ht aafoly to m door.
i3xt si1e from the fact that we still hew, the door with
us, and that they do manage to 46va any babies, and at the
most „lutlandish hurt, many thiw have ehamv:ed in the eourse
or the 1-st half ocatury, hOw NA ever the country doctor must
over
devote/half of hi a tine to the ce e of those unable to COAO into
town for treatment. iad it seems that no matter haw far we have
Coale from the horse and bugey days of a bygne era r how far
we ivo /..ogressed in terms *of transportation and zood roads,
there still are times wllen the country doctor lust walk miles
titroh a.l kinds oe weether over storm.gatted .>aths„ or leave
hie car stuck fent in mud half way to his destination and pro-
oeed the rent oe the way an foot.
DI ell vividly a recent cell to administer to aa oil
woman livInt; with an only ehild deep in the fa tna$s of the
mooatelne, qn area of stubble-zrown roods and bottomless ruts
Her son awaited me beside the uiin road, end toetier,
rude sled drawn by oxen, we A -do the .oar climb to vdiere the
oil mountain woman awaited our ommitc racked on a bed of pain
efter sha had been. -lad* comfortable, and I had begun to stow
t Lags back into :ay bag t as'eed eatt r—of—fectly about the dis—
tance te the ?Ala road. I aould not conceal my estonieheont
n the youth Informed me it ea-- three miles, twylvi
'that's lime wey to eo for your mail," Dully he looked at me
a moment before he ventured to speak, veeeeens dontt never t
ao mail,/ he said, to thar aint ary call to walk that fur,
nohow, 3ut macay it would be right nice often we had eoee
neighbarefolks cloae by. The closest is two elle off.,
"I do not wiell to ive a felse impre!Tsion by this or any
othr illuetretion, for, indeed, euoh a anne of isolation is
the exception rether than the rule, end the radii), the automo—
bile, electricIty, oct1 ervices, aud even word—of.mouth in—
formation have made loag strides in conditions. Thus the gulf
been bridged te some extent 'between rural settlers and city
dwellers. The v-st imerovement ia rural schools, too, ?lays no
eeen pert in Improved aonditions, espooially in health. -;-roper
physical education, ,eeod gymnasiums for seorte ane: the athletioal
development thet results In the sound limbs of the athlete, en—
sure a better grade of parent in the morrow, although I can't
r000mmend the singular type or exercise indulged in by one
young girl.
"This iyaor thing, her moral nature undeniably warded by
the digraputable conduct of her ?arents, had gone estray and,
ac is often the case, soon aiecovered the price of her sin.
In her 7terplexity she confided her plight to so -,Galled friends
an promptly .7ot in return a good deal of vicious advice. In
the liht of.•:i-.t happened afterward, she ap)arently tried it
aLlt su.1 virlen it ?roved unreliable 4he devised a plan tnat
entailed high jumps from the roof of a burnt hoAng isainet
hope in hi: Inavakoned soul to dislodge hr responsibility to
life. Althou7;h she fniled in hex' purpose, end foun1 it imp.
;.,oseible to 4e1*ent netare, she alceompli8hod 1erhaps what was
worse namaly, :he br,..vtzht into the vforld a malformed ohild
who will -:orever releln t roblem to society. d, unfortun-
atoly or oth..irwise, de:iendin an one's viewpoint, this girl,
who Cr= thFA tile 03 defiaetly renouncA ell olail to chastity,
.71anatted to escape motherhood a seeond she nearly
'led in the attempt. it seems as te,u.211 notIlLais will irove
ti s c:,ildts present mode of life. Indeed, it is painful to
aontemolAte her ase i others likv it, if only Oeeaus of the
problem it .rents to apoiety.
"But fter 11 thlee nhrd, Gold is,Jcial Toblems that have to
°*a .cied by a country doctor
nicer t.AnE.;11 loom up undo-
niably more pleasant in e)htrast A I rile out into tne
coantry on sic!-: calls, and co about irksorle t, t nre
not a 7yart end „arcel of the city doctor's practice, I am
oonetct1y reminded Cy the ;vofusia gifts or :nature tt t an
better off, in a sense, than he. My colleagues in town don't
often s'et the cnance to p1 the first fruit f the rambline,
nountAin blacberry. No city praetitioner is called back to
the deym of hir ehildhod b7 th.1 enticW odor of nint Ind winter's
;Jason an- dine end ,,edar. No formal city rden can lrerent a
silt half o -,eautiful s the luljestie mountnin slopes lf the
countryside, blanketed with the pink and white of the rhododen..
dron, thi orane anl white w' the azalea, the splash of Atumnal
co1ort, or the ,I.osay carpets or green in tha fields. These
thins so-lehow eompanarite for loa hours or lr'or, for sleepless
nizhts, end For unrenumerative cel s in e lown-our of rain or
through thickets alive with snakes and the e4all vermin of the
forosts.
idnot the colatry ide alone, but le 7leople rrio inhabit
t eoiottea n ouroe of obeer, it :7)34 by the very nature
of their own celf-relien, Only a few months aio I received
a w moments aart two hurry ot11r fro l the neiGhbors of two
expectant mothers, t jumped into -sy cor rid drove to the cabin
of tt nearet eat% atid, upon egamillation, found tIlat her
time was not yet upon her and probably would not be for
vote tile yet.
o I loft her with the admonition to re.
lain quiet until 1 returned, then mY;de the drive to were
the other women lay in exesotant fever, with no time to
spare, whatsoever, to ;lake the delivery. ifter I hekl,
Aorilized my instruments with boiling water from a black-
ened iron kettle thit sat atop an equally encrusted stove,
left fiwil instructions for the care or the mother and
baby returned to the first extan„ only to find that she
already delivered herself of as fine and healthy a baby
aa 1 heva oNvr seen.
Z:ometiaes, thouh1 teome of similar situations
not l'ays as. nue° aful t IE: one have mentioned.
recz,11 heurin of one weA6..n Who, never uite well, and
ap7trently alone on both oeeasions, had delivered two s ill-
Orn babies. ben she became k4oeetant again, she vas a clear
owl() for a hoepial, where she mizht have every medieal aid
at her eaaaiend. Eiitten deep witl; the fans of eeverty„ how.
ever, too proud or too embittered by so=epreYtous rebuttal
to seek ciarity, this .itiful crenture lay to and unattended
in thd hour of her need. -4.1en finally help wee summoned for
her, death was lready moving in to brin her a;:ase:nent from
her sufferilv;e.
'At tha tame time that one is forced to sneak in admir..
stion o: frich stalwart souls, comethine, must be said at;ainst
a current social cystam th:,A, doesn't inelude adequate hoe..
pitelization for the indi6ent„ espeelelay 1.4 the poverty
stricken rural areas of the outh. The couatry dootor does
beet h afl, Out nasatimes nlr aetA le hot 7:Jod eneugh,
and se the forecoin7 illustration ?ointe out, there are eases
wtere sospitelizstion is absolutely neeew7erye
"I think too much of the reeyonsibility for ths care or the
needy sick is ?laced on the ehoulders of the country doetore Of
eouree, this in e stat.,ment, uot a complcInt. to doctor worthy
of tno title, whethtir ha be a humble country 2reotitioner or a
uoat h,aler la fah exalted ?ositiau, woulil over wItLhold his or
r services because a patient huppened to be without niA e4are
ov t..nis life's a :note it Wais becouse of 14rois
'..1aSed (),"4, tliat fact tint I bepAu the study of lediciae,
"2y :7at4er s a an of greet eomprion. ;atholvih he yeas
not skilled, did the best he eould to W.4110 the Illneeses and
,Pains of the sick ih ant. ti4Q68I beeeme 87focted by tiAs.
iien I ;row up I wanted to uaeoeo a lootar. y not
the funds to educate le, at leset aot eneu,h to eliire for e
mediael education without e tmeendous sacrifice t the expease
of th.1 fh.!..ily exchequer, but he offered t to school
on one condltion tnt ho 71ust have ny ?rotaise never to ros.
ruse to at anyJne rez,erdleas of condttio% or stLtion. I
promisod, an4 thet :fuer entered itas nedieel school, in ,;Ai.
tn ly senior year I studied at i:ort!:,walstera University*
iereI did e ..od deal of laboratory wort: lox out: of my in.
..Itzuotbra. Later, wien this 41an ihan called upon to tae over
tteiciial supervision of tile 411otsgo World's :rail., he re—
warded AO for my hlars of after olasework by appointing
mo to sot 315 one or h15 13istiodatc. A.ta tdisstrokd of ood
luo, ay entry into tlie ii3ld of Aodialas WAmf.
t%a Veir 0103 id, t returned tb tho coeas of :ay clUld-
aaoci anl, wit taat ,Iroaise to ly f:itner ciiways in tuo ow:ix of
ly launohed into tliis business of auaoming a oouatry doo.
tor. tow far I ivive )rocrot.:ed in tor la Jr tne promine .aa.64
to ly fathar do not c'A:.e to aljude;,; aktoolf. 1 oaa tall you
tA.s, nowovr, vc.ion Any eknswer t'ae question. ...an I left qi
azItive county to tetra ad praotioe in t4in ono, my books saawed,
beside Livered thousand dolLIrs of uncollacttad Ails, over three
:auncired antrios
1 ,Jobtt vant to ,!,170 anybody the impreion tLt I c.m
littlo bett,!..r finaneiel oonditialthan the ;eo;1 Iservo.
I ivve raised five ohltdren 1y carain..,e as country :_ootor,
!Iven them eollo e eduei-tions, unl %,etchul ertablieh
tomselves in 'ousiness. ,:,o,st of my ptEit 5Ve ;aid
their neeouW.n, or will lay th-lm w:.1 t7 -re t to do
O. ur.:,ble to iy a :.:ffileh often Orill:L fowls and
hams and vezetablam of all kinds, af011a Vtat the merIcet
Telles of t'aeir 04341sbe credit.sd to thoir accounts. Although
I not in.requently :tad 71yeolf overstouicad t eatables by
thew! exehenes, F fk,),31 that it woull not Ile rit:ht to turn
'.:own the offors,
HO
A:rays do :till, on the
uholo, and La te f ahost of cases tu-t eatirely of
the ctnrity sort, T. cat ri!ttly say thpt T flY fouud my
protessioa to et 1.:at a mildly otitoio
"Also thre lo the hiraorous cloA; to tie „Irof.eveion, oue
tll;' is tLe oc,ession for no little aAuse-Aaat. Toward this
ead 1 1-T;: reminded of a set of tripluts I broui;ht into the
or 1d, tn..; fi:.!,t of two ruch stets !J.,ve 12:,4 the privilei-jo
t 2tliver in 771y ion ov.r_t.lr. dt,Ay .occuitly tte father of
ti45 triplet, breright the 7irls into n:.. defied
to tell them a.:srt, now that they ‘11,.' rown t. be yeunc wo:Aen
who looted ss a1LOhs tixac coafese
Var7
rplexed for tic .loment, for hadnft imen tiw .2irls :or
e p:ood lacy years. tam I blippenud to rel.:lber the ease and
the eirelmstnneus :iertt.inia;.; to the btr:. )f t.e Jr1s.
born first, arid ws the smallest of the trio* I 7iood
out t! -,o yom. woman of thr, e.thtest stature and was told
th5t 1
04
hir correctly, The 71.1.1 nnTied ry was
the s,:fnoal born, I arriv4I unier circa- sneer that
WC 114 hor h -ad to be Termer nnl rounder than the °there.
ntroncth
wi&e7 liosta able to iden iry her
Vawdiatoly. The 3810 o, tii it vAte. az,rived at by tu. simple
of elit.ton the :lithos loft 0,1y. office :aYstified,
"TI..o other set
tLi o. ;,,irren
enfeij Irklwin;,;
rt.,ztin:j; eaaily„ I IrAe ly
ele tLni tf..if in prorosa
f
nrrivel, I toli some of the
otryieo
r7.ent onad by r):7,7
of r tettionerz
followed shuted
n, taut
tinfAl"
tri2letr was born .on the eve of the elee..,
a rdInc, That atht, mfter the babies were
(tellp gulps 0,f itfe air, and the mother
_ay veorliv bnek to town, whore an
Te Inaire- to a query about M7
boys tP t I heti ,ust oo,no from
hed broa-ht thrse new sons to a 'ran rtom r
ti s lannts affiliPtils, one
ieapod t t Oft sml in Vla stillnsis that
psendo-sorioas toner: flops, we can't hest
ay theael2nblienns nre ominr, three at