Evening Star Newspaper, February 8, 1896, Page 16

16 MITLA’S RUINS Palaces, Pyramids and Tomix of Zapotec Kings. AN ANCIENT CHY OF THE NEW WORLD Mosaics, Columns and Fresco Paintings of a Vanished Civilization. THE HIDDEN TREASURE CITY —_+___ No. V. Editorial Corrospond=n-e of The Evening Star. E WERE AWAK- WV exes at a very early hour in the morning by the shrill voices of the choir boys in Tiacolula’s church, close to the window of our improvised hotel in this Mexi- can Indian village. The church to which our attention was thus attracted proved interesting, not merely from its youthful choristers, but from its magnifi- cent display of antique solid silver, which in some miraculous way escaped confisca- tion in the struggles between church and state during the reform era. And we cap- tured the best of our typical Zapotecs while he was cleaning some of this very silver in front of the old church building. A Man-Hunt. I have mentioned that Dr. Batres was collecting Zapotec types to exhibit in con- nection with his proposed address before the congress of Americanistas, then soon to meet in the City of Mexico. Dr. Batres had very definite and fixed fdeas of the facial and physical charecteristics of the different Indian tribes of early Mexico. In- deed. he had unalterably formulated in lec- tures and publications his theories on this subject. He had previously caught and con- fined in house in Mexico some cans who locked as Tarascans ough’ tecs ‘foltecs were readily to be cap- tured in the valley of Mexico or there- abouts; but his huzting ground of genuine Zapotecs was limited to the section of country which we were then visiting. A hooked nose projecting Iike a beak from a long face was the most conspicuous char- acteristic of Dr. Batres’s typical Zapotec. So our party made a specialty of carefully inspecting Indian noses on every occasion. The Jefe Pol.tico or M r of Tlacolula, a en, soldierly-looking old man, to whom Dr. Batres had letters from the Governor ” THE’ EVENING “STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1896--TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. of the elements, have assumed the appear- ance of natural conical hills, and it is only when one is pierced by the investigator that its artificial character is made plain. ‘These small mounds are pronounced by Dr. Batres to be in material and method of construction miniatures cf the great pyra- mids of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, twemty-seven miles from the City of Mexi- co. The latter pyramids have interiors of clay and volcanic pebbles, incrusted on the surface with a light porous stone, over which there was originally a coating of white stucco, such as was used for dwell- ings. The largest of Mitla’s pyramids is one which stands to the west of the main palace group, which we soon approach. It bears upon its summit a small chapel, the invariable Spanish substitute for the Indian temple which surmounted the pyramid in this part of the world. The initial of this article suggests the Indian temple and its pyramidal basement, and if for this temple a small, dilapidated chapel 1s substituted, one will have a picture in his mind's eye of the Mitla pyramid. Mexican and Egyptian Pyramids, All of these structures in Mexico bear a strong family resemblance, whether they re tiny, as at Mitla, or monstrous, cover- ing forty-five acres, as at Cholula, near Puebla. In every case they are the founda- tions of a temple or palace; whereas the Egyptian pyramid is a tomb and nothing else. The latter rose to an apex; the for- mer was truncated and bore a structure upon it which was accessible by a. stair- way. Height was the conspicuous feature of the Egyptian pyramid; area covered was that of the Mexican pyramid. The for- mer was, as a rule, made of stone; the lat- ter generally of sun-dried bricks. But there are brick pyramids in the old world, including one near Sakhara, Egypt. Hum- boidt, who did see the pyramid of Cholula, whatever may have been the case in re- spect to Tule tree and the ruins of Mitla, compares it with the other great pyramids of the worid. The dimensions are given in French feet, each of which equals 1.063 English feet: Stone Pyramids. Length Height. of base. Cheops, Egy; - Ss Cephren, Egy = 393 Mycerinus, - 162 Pyramids. Length Height. of base. 210 GIS Sakhara, E; Teotihuacan, Cholula, Mexico. 2 3 In Cholula pyramid the length of the base is to the perpendicular height as 8 to 1, while in the stone pyramids of Ghizeh the corresponding proportion is 8 to 5. The former was to be climbed to a surmount- ing structure like an artificial capitol hill, hence its grades were rendered easy by covering ar immense area with a compara- tively low mound. The latter was no more to be scaled than the exterior of any other monumental shaft, and it was pushed high in the air regardless of the steepness of grade. Chciula pyramid is consequentiy more than twice as large at the base as Cheops, the biggest of the Ghizeh pyra- mids, while it is considerably less than as high as Cheops, and very little higher than Mycerinus, tne smailest of the Ghizeh group. A short distance to the cast from the chapel crowned pyramid ef Mitla we care upon the best preserved of the ruins, the main or royal palace. Here many years ago four structures built on oblong mounds 17) 1, DOORWAYS OF MAIN PALACE. of Oaxaca, entered teartily into the spirit of the man-hunt. He brought up group after group of Zapotecs, typical or other- wise, to shake hands with our party in turn and to submit their nozes to a com- petitive examination. Nearly all of them found difficulty in believing that anybody would be so foolishly extravagant as to pay their expenses to Mexico, enabling them to enjoy the luxury of being in that city during the world-famous coronation of the Virgin of Guadalupe, merely out of in- terest in the shape of their noses, and the most effective work of the Jefe Politico consisted In restoring confidence In th? rectitude of Dr. Batres’s intentions con- cerning them. As a rule they were as sus- picious and timorous as a Washington col- ored boy would be if offered his expenses and something In addition to go over and exhibit himself at night to a Baltimore medical college. The group of young men, however, who were polishing up silver in front of Tlacolula church showed no un- easiness whatsoever. They were eager to avail themselves of so gcod an opportunity to behold the coronation of the Virgin, and they vigorcusly impressed upon the party of inspection the merits of their respec- tive noses. One selected from this group became the leader of the three typical Za- potecs finally chosen, and at intervals on our journey from Mitla until we saw them for the last time in Dr. Batres’s house in Mexico, these Indian exhibits would file solemnly into our presence and shake hands ceremoniously all around, amusingly suggestive of the delegation from Cambo- dia which haunted Wang in the comic opera. Mitia’s Famous Ruins. When our procession left Tlacolula fer Mitla, eight miles away, the Jefe Politico accompanied us. and in our visits to the Fuins served as cur guide, companion and familiar friend. At Mitla we found another hacienda converted into a hotel, where we were comfortably accommodated. Mitla is one of the famous ancient cities of Central America, and as a new world ruin {t is in the same class in point of in- terest with Palenque in Chiapas, Uxmal in Yucatan, and Copan in Honduras. Where a vast city once stretched its streets and raised its temple crowned pyramids an‘ wonderful palaces now all is solitude and desolation save for a miserable Indian vil- lege of thatched huts, and the fast disap- Fearing remnants of three or four palaces and a few of the countless pyramids of eges ago. Unlike the other notable ruins of Mexico witich are overgrown and hidden by luxuriant tropical vegetation, Mitla 1s exposed to the sun and wind of a desolate barren sandy valley, in its site resembling more the Egyptian ruins along the Nile than its new world neighbors. Whether Mitla was built by Zapotecs or Toltecs or @ race of men preceding both, whether it is 7 1,700 or 2,700 years old, whether the ancestors of its builders came from China or Cambodia or Egypt or West Africa, or were of American origin are questions over which the archaeologists may be per- taitted to quarrel undisturbed. No inscrip- tions are found here to give a clue, and the hleroglyphics discovered in the other Central American cities have never yet been deciphered, but await still their Ro- setta Stone. Leaving the cool court yard of our adobe “hotel,” with its orange and pomegranate trees and its surprisingly harmonious mon- key and parrots, we soon ceached the out- skirts of the modern Indian village, and began to run the gauntlet of antiquity ven- Gers, composed largely of girls and boys with ugly idols, masks and beads, collected from palaces and tombs. Some of the chil- dren had the sweet and plaintive voices ov the water girls of the Nile. The babies were more attractive than the Egyptian, since their teeth were just as white, while their eyes were not sore and ily-infested like those of the race upon the Nile, which is cursed with ophthalmia as with an epi- demic. After threading our way among umerous cane-built huts and spreading —— among the Zapotec chil- ren of tender years we came to the first of ancient Mitla’s exhibits, a recently exca- vated tomb of plain stone, without ornamen- tation or imscription. Near by numerous pyramidal mounds were scattered among the aouses. We examined one which had heen gut entipely through, and thoroughly ex- ¢avated. Like many other of the Mexican Pyramids, these mounds, through the action of stone and earth about six feet high faced a central court. The rorth and south builcings were about 130 feet long; the east and west mounds 120 feet. Only the north- ern structure, the one wrcse south front faces the ccurt, is reasonably well pre- served. Fragments of the east building are standing, traces of that on the west are visible, but nothing whatsoever remains of the south structure. A section of the front wall of the north building, containing the three entrances to the palace, is shown in one of the cuts accompanying ‘this article. The facing of the wall is of large stone blocks of different forms and sizes, so ar- ranged, without the use of mortar, that the surface is broken into panels of varying dimensions, filled with a so-called mosaic ef small blocks of stone, so set with rela- tion to one another as to form a great va- riety of patterns, twenty-two different fig- ures having been counted on this single wall. In ordinary mosaic tiny pieces of glass, marble or other material are ce- mented on stucco in various designs. Here columns are absent from the new con- tinent. He says: “Again: Columns are a distinguishing fea- Interior Court. ture of Egyptian architecture. There is not a temple on the Nile without them; and the reader will bear in mind that among the whole of these ruins not one column has been found. If this architecture had been derived from the Egyptian so striking and important a feature would never have heen thrown aside.” But this reasoning fails® Nile. As the’ story of the whitewashed, rain-washed fiiientents gtows more illegible every year, it’fs uifiikely that anybody will ever be able tradict Dr. Seler as to the meaning ich he has assigned to them from his{nsifection seven years ago. The palac of ;the Zapotec city do not now make vi itaposing ruins. They are not of sufficieit hvight to be impressive in ccmparison wWith’“the towering temples, pyramids, obélisks”and columned Halls of Egypt. The” Mifta palaces, the Cholula pyramid and t} le tree are all wonderfal in the surfa lea covered by them re- spectively, and cdmparatively insignificant in height. THé mosaics, primitive columns and fresco paintings, if the latter are an- cient, are thé’ unique attractions of Mitla. ‘There are heré no/#dols and sculptured sur- faces carved/'in “figures or hieroglyphics like those of which Charnay took casts in other ancient -cities of Mexico. In the whole Charn&y collection as exhibited in the Smithsonian and National Museum there is not a ‘cast from Mitla. It is a peculiarity of these New World ruins that it is the palaces which are built of store, and which still exhibit vast remains for in- spection, while in Egypt the palaccs were of perishable material, and have long ago disappeared, colossal temples supply- ing the existing ruins. Speaking of the Mitla palaces standing in his time, Du- paix says of them that they “were erected with lavish magnificence. * * * They combine the solidity of the works of Egypt MOSAICS. for there are columns in Mitla, though they are contemptibly insignificant in size com- pared, let us say, with the stupendous col- umns at Karnak. Adjoining the Mitla Hall of Columns is a wing, constituting the re- mainder of the palace, 61 feet square. It has a central court and four apartments, and is ornamented throughout with mosaic work of the kind described as seen on the facade. Cuts are given of this central court with its mosaic panels, and of one of the littie apartments, ornamented, when photo- graphed, by three parallel bands of mosaic work in attractive patterns, and by our pic- turesque friend, the Jefe Politico of Tla- colula. Mitla Mosaics. These mosaics, which are called grecques, resemble the arabesque designs among the Greeks and Romans, and are per- haps the most striking peculiarity of Mitla. There is nothing like them in any Other of the ancient cities of the new world, and a note in Humbold ‘ew Spain quotes M. Zoega, “the most profound connoisseur in Egyptian antiquities,” as making “the curious observation that the Egyptians have never employed this species of orna- ”* Dupaix, who visited Mitla in 1806, rays tribute to the grecques as follows: “But what is most remarkable, interesting and striking in these monuments and which alone would be sufficient to give them the first rank among all known orders of archi- tecture is the execution of their mosaic re- Hevos—very different from p!ain mosaic and consequently requiring more ingenious com- bination and greater art and labor. They are inlaid on the surface of the wall, and their duration is owing to the method of fix- ing the prepared stones into the stone sur- face, which made their union with it per- fect.” I quote from Dupaix with a great deal of pleasure, because Hubert Howe Bancroft, who confesses that he was never here him- self, and who, in his ‘Native Races of the Pacific States,” almost demonstrates that nobody else in his full senses was ever here, freely admits that Dupaix visited Mitla, yet refrains from intimating that he was im- pessibly far-sighted, short-sighted or color- lind. vgouth of the palace which has been de- scribed, and close at hand, is another simi- larly constructed in four butidings about a central court. Fragments only of the build- ings remain. The most interesting feature of this group is an underground gallery in the shape of a cross, the entrance to which is shown in one of the accompanying cuts. The walls are panels of mosaic work and show traces of red paint. At the entrance is a circular supporting pillar with a square base, called by the Indians “‘the pillar of death,” in the belief that whoever embraces HALL OF COLUMNS. the design, which is always rectangular or diagonal in character, is formed by the pro- Jecting heads of oblong-shaped pieces of soft sandstone, cut with the greatest ac- curacy and nicety, so as to fit for their whole length close together. The lintels of the doorways are immense blocks of stone, two of them being over nineteen feet long. The -vall is about eighteen feet high and 130 feet iong. The three doorways give entranc? to what may be called ‘The Hall of Columns, a room extending in length the full 130 feet of the palace’s width and about 36 feet wide. In a row in the center of the hall stand six stone columns, about fourteen feet high, each cut from a single block. Their shape and other characteris- tics are shown in the accompanying cut cf the hell. Humboldt says of them: “What distinguishes the ruins of Mitla from all the other ruins of Mexican archi- tecture is six porphyry columns, which are placed in the midst of a yast hall and sup- port the ceiling. These columns, almost the only ones found in the new continent, bear strong marks of the infancy of the art. They have neither base nor capitals. A simple contraction of the upper part is only to be remarked.” John L. Stephens, the American who did so much to entertain and enlighten the world in respect to the buried cities of Central America, did not visit Mitla, and generalizing from what he kad seen and failed to see in the other ruins he concludes that the Mexican archi- tecture could not have been derived from the Egyptian because among many reasons it must die shortly—or some time. The In- dians also take a deep additional interest in the subterranean gallery, because it is thought to lead to buried treasure. Fragments of Fresco Paintings. To the north of the main palace, and farther removed from it than the palace with the subterranean passage, is a third group of buildings, three in number, 284 feet long and 108 feet wide. A church has been built adjacent to or trenching upon the site of this palace, and the central of the ruined structures now serves, being re- paired. as the curate’s house. The portion of this ruin used as a stable is notable as containing some fragments of rude red*and black paintings, representing processions, and viewed as hieroglyphical and eccle- siastical and as indicating that this palace was devoted to the uses of the priests, while the first palace was the retiring place if seasons of sadness of the king, built above royal tombs. The most elaborate re- productions and explanations of these ex- tremely unsatisfactory fragments of paint- ings are those just published by Dr. Ed- ward Seler, who is at the head of the American department of the Ethnologic Museum of Berlin. In a visit in 1888 he dis- covered a series of these paintings in the curate’s stable, and after seven years of deliberation the discoverer has made up his mind what the pictures mean, and has given his views, handsomely illustrated, to the public. Dr. Seler comes to the conclu- sion that the story told in the unconnected fragments is nothing else than that of Quetzalcoatl, the culture hero of the Tol- tecs, as Osiris was the culture hero of the with the elegance of those of Greece.” Their beauty, says Charnay, can be match- ed cnly by the monuments of Greece and Rome in their best days. Humboldt com- ments upon “their symmetry and the ele- gance of their ornaments.” As the zoologist discovering a single bone can in an instant in his mind's eye complete the skeleton, clothe it with flesh and animate it with the life of ages ago, so the archaeologist gazing on_ broken, crumbling ruins“can reconstruct the beau- tiful and imposing architecture of the an- cient city, andirevel in the prospect which he beholds. ‘The strain upen the imagina- tion of the tyro in archaeology is some- times severe when he is cailed upon to follow, without ‘resting every footstep of the experi in these excursions. But even the mest unimagizative will be :mpelled by @hat he sees here to repeople in thought this ban desolate valley, to serd the Mitla streets in every direction Entrance to Underground Chamber. to far distant termini, on one side even to the fortress on a commanding eminence which still looks down upon the city’s site, to reise here and there scores of trun- cated pyramids, bearing on their summits primitive temples, undying fire, aud, per- haps, the shambles of human sacrifice, and to rebuild in pristine beauty and magnifi- cence the royal palaces and tombs that furnished the most notable sights of this ancient religious center of the Zapotecs. Ancient Cities of the New World. A visit here fills one with an irresistible desire to see the other ruined cities of the old New World—Palenque, with its stucco adornments, carved tablets, and hierogly- phics; Uxmal, with its magnificent buiid- ings and its sculptured facades of wonder- ful richness, and Copan, with its curiously carved colossal idols and its undecipherable hieroglyphics. And when the wonders of these and a score of other unearthed cities in this once densely populated region have been enjoyed, we may discover in the w explored wilds of Guatemala that silver- walled mysterious city pointed out at an inaccessible distance to Stephens, who‘ de- poses and says: “I conceive it to be not impossible that within this secluded region may exist at this day, unknown to white men, a living aboriginal city, occupied by relics of the ancient race, who still wor- ship in the temples of their fathers.” In this gleaming, aboriginal, hitherto inac- cessible city will be found when discover- ed the treasure house of the continent, in which the Indians secreted their accumu- lated treasure to baffle the covetous Span- jard. The discovery of these vast deposits of the precious metals may be the final mouthful needed to glut the world with sil- ver and gold. But more important even than the rifling of the American treasure house would be the gain of treasures of knowledge in finding through the language of the hidden city the key to unlock the hieroglyphics of Copan, Palenque and Yuca- tan. Among the precious stones to be se- cured here will be a new Rosetta Stone. Let the rush of our explorers be no longer to the north pole or the south pole or central Africa, but to this rich and fruitful field. The annual exodus from the United States into Europe will be diverted in the direc- tion of these places, including the aborig- inal treasure city, just as soon as the ex- tension of the Pan-American route carvies one within:the range of convenient access to them. Mexicol ought to uncover, protect and render accessible her buried cities, and as the Americam Egypt she would attract within her borders a countless host of tour- ist visitors annually, bringing thousands of dollars tu the empty purses of the bulk of her population. ‘The Indians at Mitla steal the pieces ‘of miésaic in the belief, based upon a tradition, that they will turn to gold. Mexico cam verify the tradition and coin gold from the mosaics by keeping them in place, vigilantly protecting them against vandals, and preserving them in full effectifeness as magnets to draw dol- lars from*=the great American traveling public. 5 THEODORE W. NOYES. Left Moge F&hn 1,000 Descendants. From the Utfee Magtning Herald. ‘There may be frequently seen at Saranac Lake, N. ¥., a half-breed Indian who comes in from across the Canadian border with snowshoes, moccasins and baskets to sell. His name is Macomber. The tribe to which he belongs holds a reservation twelve miles square, and is from the ive Nations. The reservation is known as Canghnaw- aga. His grandfather has died recently, aged 103, leaving considerable wealth. The old gentleman had been married three times. By his first wife he had six chil- dren, by the second, fifteen, and zhe same number from the third. t reckoning up how many grandchildren, great-grandchil- dren and great-great-grandchildren this old Indian had it’counted up over a thousand. Of the thirty-six of his children twenty- eight are still living, as are most of the grandchildren, er: grandchildren and great-great-grandehildren. BEAUTIFUL AND The Greatest American Prima Donna Made . Well by Paine’s Celery Compound. ‘There was never a remedy so highly recommended as Paine’s celery compound. ‘There was neve~ a remedy in such universal de- mand. For it makes people well! Every one amdag the thousands who have been delighted by the beautiful sonzs of Roma, the great Prima donna, recognizes in her one of the worid- famous singers. Born in California, she graduated with honors at Eastern musical colleges, and on her return to the coast, became first the prima donna at the Tivoli Opera House tn San Francisco. It was while making the tour with the famous Marine Band of Washington last season that the deautifal Roma felt the strain of travel, hurry and work, yet in the evenings she greeted great audi- ences with smiles and electrified them with ber voice. Could she have done this without her nerves were steadied and her strength built up by Paine’s celery compound? She says: “In Paine's celery compound I find a very much long-felt want for the worries and exhaustive cares attendant upon an active professional life. Paine’s celery compound brings restful strength to body and mind, invigorating the system and prolonging life.”” Paine’s cvlery compound has male thousands of people well It has saved thousinds of women from nervous prostration. It bas made the weak STRONG, It has cured where everything else failed. Innumerable testimonials as to tis wonderful value have been voluntarily sent to Wells & Richanison Co., who prepare it in Burlington, Vermont. Paine’s celery compound is the ‘most remarkable remedy for the blood atd nerves known to the 19th century. It is employed by the foremost physi- cians in curing kidney and liver troubles and the diseases due to nervous disorders, faulty nutrition and impoverished blood, producing results that seem Little short of the miraculous. Paine’s celery compound bnilds up the system, purifies the blood, regulates the nerves. ‘The weal and worn-out soon find their frames invigorated, their spirits raised and their strength renewed. Tt makes people well. It is as superio: to the ondinary nervines, bitters and sarsaparillas as strength is better than weake hers, WOMEN AND THE SUFFRAGE. Where They Can Vote Throughout the World and for What. From the Omaha Bee. The countries of the world where women already have some suffrage have an area of over 18,006,000 sauare miles, and their population is over 350,000,000. In Great Britain women vote for all elective officers except members of parlia- ment. In France the women teachers elect women members on all boards of educa- tion. In Sweden women vote for all elective officers except representatives. Also, in- directly, for members of the house of lords. In Norway they have school suffrage. In Ireland the women vote for the har- bor boards, poor law guardians, and in Belfast for municipal officers. In Russia women householders vote for all elective officers and on all local mat- ters. In Finland they vote for all elective of- ficers. In Austria-Hungary they vote, by proxy, for all elective officers. In Crotia and Dalmatia they have the privilege of doing so in local elections in person. In Italy parliament. In the Madras presidency and the Bom- bay presidency (Hindoostan) the women exercise the right of suffrage in all muni- cipalities. In all countries of Russian Asia they can do so wherever a Russian colony set- tles. The Russians are colonizing the whole of their vast Asian possessions, and carrying with them everywhere the “mir,” or self-governing village, wherein women who are heads of households are permitted to _vote. Women have municipal suffrage in Cape Colony, which rules 1,000,000 square miles. Municipal woman suffrage rules in New Zealand and at parliamentary elections. Iceland, in the North Atlantic; the Isle of Man, between England and Ireland, and Pitcairn Island, in the South Pacific, have full woman suffrage. In the Dominion of Canada women have municipal suffrage in every province and also in the northwest territories. In On- tario they vote for all elective officers ex- cept in the election of members of the legislature and parliament. In the United States twenty-eight states and territories have given women some form of suffrage. School suffrage in various degrees is granted to women in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kertucky, Massachusetts, Michi- yan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hamp- shire, New Jersey, New York, North Da- kota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Ver- mont and Wisconsin. In Arkansas and Missouri women vote, by petition, on liquor Hcense in many cases. In Delaware suffrage is exercised by women in several municipalities. In Kansas they have equal suffrage with men in all municipal elections. About 50,000 women voted in 1890. on Montana they vote on all local taxa- tien, In New York they can and do vote at school elections. The question of the con- stitutionality of-the law is still undecided. They vote also in many places in this state on local improvements, such as gas and electric street lighting, paving, sewerage and municipal bonds. In Utah women voted until disfranchised by the “Edmunds law,” when they prompt- ly organized to demand its repeal. In Pennsylvania a law was passed in 1889 under which women vote on local improvements by signing or refusing to sign petitions therefor. In Wyoming women have voted on the same terms with men since 1870. The convention in 1889 to form a state censtitu- tion unanimously inserted a provision se- curing them full suffrage. This constitu- tion was ratified by the voters at a special election by about three-fourths majority. Congress refused to require the disfran- chisement of women, and admitted the state July 10, 1890. And let it not be forgotten that in the Senate of the United States February 7, 1889, a select committee reported in favor of amending the federal Constitution so as to forbid states to make sex a cause of disfranchisement. Congress adjourned, however, March 4 following, without widows vote for members of reaching the subject. THE DOCTOR’S GRIEVANCES. Troubles That the Specialist Makes for the General ‘Practitioner. From the New York Sun. A physician with a large general prac- tice, telling of the drawbacks the general practitioner had to put up with, said: “One reason why so many young doctors take up a specialty and refuse general work is that the specialist can earn four times the fee of a general practitioner, and he gets it. There is no waiting for his money. The general practitioner works twice as hard for his one-fourth, and he has to wait until his patient gets ready to pay him. A physician, unlike any other professional man, cannot demand spot cash—I don’t mean that exactly, but if he should demand it, he would be regarded as a brute. He cannot refuse to answer any sort of a call that is made on him, his fee is comparatively small, and it’s a problem whether he gets it at all. “I am not speaking now of families that are poor and cannot afford to pay doctors. They are the best pay. If the money is in the house they pay on the spot. It’s the middle class that I refer to. That class is made up of persons who can pay, but, from one cause or another, neglect to pay, or can afford to pay a good fee and insist on paying only a small one. If there is a se- rious illness they ask the doctor if they had not better have a specialist visit them. The doctor, as a rule, tells them it is not absolutely necessary, but if they would feel more comfortable after the visit of a Specialist it might be well to have one. So they get a specialist, who comes to the house and iooks wise. He makes a thor- ough examination, and 99 times out of 100 he says that the regular physician is gi ing the proper treatment. If he has any suggestions to make they are minor ones. The family ask the fee. “The specialist says $50, $75 or $100, or perhaps a great deal more if the house looks as if the people could stand the charge. The money is paid on the spot. The regular doctor continues to treat tne case. The patient recovers. His bill ts perhaps less than the single fee of the specialist, but the patient kicks about it. He thinks doctors are robbers, and all that. But he never regrets the fee of tne specialist, and in a great many cases he actually believes that if the specialist hadn’t visited him he would have died. The regular practitioner gets no credit. The average man takes a certain pride in being sick enough to have a specialist visit him. The average woman takes more. She talks about it afterward: ‘Oh, I had Dr. So-and-So, the great specialist in this, that, or the other disease.’ “Just a few hours ago I was called to at- tend a_case, and the first thing I heard was: ‘We had Dr. , the great special- ist, when he was sick before.’ I treated the patient, and a miserable little fee, less even than the regular fee, was tendered. I said: ‘How much did Dr. charge you?’ ‘Seventy-five dollars,’ was the reply. I would not have asked the question, nor would I have said anything further had I not known that the head of the family was Prosperous, and could well afford to pay ten or twenty times the fee he tendered me. I sald to him: ‘Very well, sir; when there is any more sickness in your family you must send for Dr. and pay him $75. If you send for me I shall refuse to come for any such fee as this.’ The man felt insulted. “I don’t want to say anything that could be construed as an assault on specialists. I know their value, and I have the greatest respect for them, but there is certainly a reform necessary in the patients the aver- age general practitioner is called on to at- tend.” Sancta Simplicitas. From the Westininster Gazette. Doctors have many curious experiences, but the following production, which the London Lancet has received from a medi- cal man, to whom it was sent by a child, and which is printed as it was written, omitting only the name and address, would be hard to beat: Dear Dr. ——: I would be very pleased if you would let me have a baby for one ‘ea. We want it on the 4th of Febry for Mother's birthday. We would like it fat and Bonny, with blue eyes and fair heir. We Children are going to give it to her ourselves please answer at once. Yours sincerely, Archie —. P. 8—Which would be the cheaper a Boy or a Girl? The “P. 8.” especially is delightful, and shows how wonderful the ramifications of the commercial spirit are among us. <= HAVE YOU NEURALGIAT Something About That Ill That FlestT is Heir To. From the Youth's Companion. Though it may appear strange to us who think we are familiar with the commoner forms of neuralgia, or nerve pain, such as toothache, headache and the like, it is not easy always to say whether the pain we are suffering be really a neuralgia pure and simple. In point of fact, neuralgia is a name for @ condition rather than @ disease, and only implies that in the course of the nerve in question there is pain that is not caused by. any disease of the parts supplied by that nerve, or of the nerve itself. The causes of neuralgia, then, are to be found in conditions outside of the trouble itself. For irstance, there may be a tumor pressing upon the nerve and continually ir- ritating it. In the same way foreign bodies, such as bullets, may set up a persistent neuralgia. Ends of nerves, by becoming in- volved in the contraction of a scar, may bes come sufficiently compressed to give rise to unbearable pain. Sometimes veins that are near nerves, or follow their course through long, bony canals, become sufficiently dis- tended to irritate the nerve. Or there may be poison in the blood, like malaria, arsenic or lead, which, by lowering the general vitality of the body, contributes te a general nerve weakness and irritabil- y. In a large proportion of cases the real cause of neuralgia is so general as to he quite obscure. The exciting cause—or oc- casion—of a single attack of neuralgia is usually getting chilled, or over-exercising the part subject to the complaint. As many of us know by experience, the course of an attack of neuralgia is exe tremely varied. The pain may be continu- ous, remittent or intermittent, temporary or persistent, located at one spot or diffused over a large area, and may be shooting, aching or burning in character. By way of treatment we may use locally any good liniment, blistering, hot fomenta- tions or electricity. Iron and quinine are of the greatest value internally, where the must of course be resorted to in cases of a rheumatic origin. In these latter cases there is nothing like absolute rest and regular and nourishing diet. Morphine or other opiates should be use@ but sparingly in neuralgia, and never in cases of debility or old age. i : She Nearly Fainted. 4 From the Stratford (iowa) Courier. A lady teacher in one of the publio schools, in trying to explain tue meaning of the word “slowly,” Mlustrated it by walking across the floor. When she asked the class to tell how she walked she nears ly fainted when a boy at the foot of the class shouted, “Bow legged, ma’am!” 4 “What! fight with deah old ene era ©