Show THE TRUE STORY OF THE confiding woman the cynical man and the bearded lady the scene is a comfortable sitting room mr lovengood Love good Is buried in a book and his alto la scanning the advertisements verti in the evening paper suddenly mrs lovengood Love good says bayl dear in a voice that makes mr love good almost drop his book well what Is it he says with a laugh another real genuine bargain offer 1 I dont know that call it that his wife replied but yes you might she continued tor it Is a bargain offer of free medical advice doubtfully write what for said her husband write to a woman the use of writing to a woman it you want to write write to a doctor the first question in sickness Is not a question of sex but a question ot medical ability and qualifications theres no sex in medicine anyhow it you want to write why not write to a man ot medical standing a specialist like dr R V pierce ot buffalo N Y you know hes a regularly graduated doctor you know hes a good one and at the head ot a great medical institution you know hes had thirty years experience and has with tho aid ot his staff of nearly a score of specialists treated more than halt a million women who freely confided in the integrity of the man and the skill ot the physician president gardell once said of dr pierce ho is one of the best men in the world and he Is at the lets hear all about it my dear said her husband but you know im a little dubious about your bargains your swans so often turn out to be geese well then its an offer by a woman physician to give tree medical advice by letter and it says its better to write to a woman because a man cant understand a woman just because hes a man and it says too that its just revolting to go to a man physician anyhow and sirs lovengood Love good stopped because she was out of breath 1 I bet you said her husband that the advertisement dont say ashes a woman physician why yes it does said his wife as she looked at the advertisement again well no I 1 guels it say ashes a physician but it means the same thing tor it says that it Is a woman whose experience in treating comans womans diseases is greater than that of any living physician male or female mr lovengood Love good chuckled and said what I 1 love about you my dear you are so ready to believe without question when theres a bargain in view it you were a little ansh id catch you every time with a rubber worm if I 1 put a bargain sign above the hook oh do be serious tor once cried mrs lovengood Love good then to be serious he replied this woman claim to be a physician she would claim to be a physician it she could because she Is trying to convey the impression in every other way than by a direct claim that ane la a physician she Is not therefore a physician and can never have practiced medicine yet no being a physician and therefore never having practiced medicine she claims to have had experience in treating comans womans diseases greater than any living physician now the question Is since she never practiced medicine where did she get that experience well that Is so mrs lovengood Love good somewhat reluctantly admitted but then she is a woman im not so sure about that even said her husband it looks to me as if some man was working the women with the bearded lady act bearded lady act do you mean to say that they have dime museum freaks for doctors why you must be foolish or else amazingly prejudiced cried bis wife you are too literal my dear said mr lovengood Love good what I 1 mean by the bearded lady act is tuat some man Is posing aa a woman writing over a wo mans signature or using a woman as a stalking horse assuming a comans womans character to mislead the bearded lady of the show is always a freak and generally a fraud the point is that you are asked to write to a woman the implication being that the woman Is competent to give and will give you qualified and valuable medical advice but as it specified that the woman Is a physician theres no infraction of the law the probabilities are that there a qualified doctor around the place and the whole so called medical correspondence is done by a lot of girl clerks oh mrs lovengood Love good interjected what it means then when they say that only women see the correspondence spon dence exactly my dear continued her husband and suppose the woman in the advertisements advertise mentis a real woman and not the bearded lady theres your dressmaker who is also a woman not to speak of mrs flannagan the cooks mother who Is a really excellent woman it a comans womans not a doctor then one comans womans as good as another and ita foolish going to a stranger hundreds of mile distant for the sympathy which friends at home can better supply and as tor a man not under comins wo mins dt because hes a man that Is the cheapest eort of claptrap who have done the doctoring in the past two thousand vears the men where must the modern bomin physician po for her knowledge to taught bv men and books written bv men it this woman who claims men dont understand comans womans diseases should ever take to the study i of medicine shed have to be taught everything she knew by themen who dont know anything according to her opinion the problem la how a man who dont know anything about comans womans can teach a women to know everything about them I 1 give atun then you write said mrs head of one of the best medical institutions in the world theres nothing new free consultation by letter my dear it has been a feature of dr pierces Pl erces practice for years in fact for more than a quarter of a century write to him because get the best advice and no string tied to it so to speak but queried mrs lov do you think even though dr pierce Is a qualified physician and ranks so high as a specialist he can treat disease by correspondence 1 I dont see why not answered mr lovengood Love good medical science is wheeling into line with everything else and dropping the hocus of the middle ages the divinity that hedged in the priest and physician is a thing 0 the past A man is taken for what he Is and what he can do of course the members of tho profession who are not specialists would naturally fight an innovation which took away their patients and their profits but when a new idea makes for pubic good it cant be destroyed they used to say no steamer could be built to cross the atlantic she carry coal enough one prominent englishman then leader in the house of commons in the heat of debate declared that it ever any steamer crossed the atlantic hed eat it machinery and all I 1 take it that the objections to treatment by correspondence have as little foundation in fact as the objections to the possibility of steamships crossing the atlantic it reminds me of that story about the man who had been arrested tor some offense heppt for a lawyer who when he had heard the story said why man alive they cant arrest you for that bue said the prisoner done it it does not seem to be any use to argue about the possibility of being treated successfully by correspondence with dr pierce when there are thousands of people to stand up and say we have been successfully treated we have been entirely cured by dr pierce and his staff of specialists then eald his wife it follow that any and everybody could treat successfully by correspondence it Is a movement in advance of ordinary practice by those specially qualified who have given special study and special effort to some branch of medicine Is that your idea precisely my dear mr lovengood Love good answered preparing to continue his reading you have got the whole thing now it because some one advertises to give medical advice by correspondence that you can necessarily assume the advice will be valuable or helpful anybody can make such an offer it is wise to go behind the promises and the claims made and see it they bear investigation in doctor perces ca e the closer the examination of his claims and record the greater the confidence which ho will inspire dr R V pierce Is at the head ot the invalids hotel and surgical institute at buffalo N Y a medical and surgical institution which in its scientific equipment its laboratory its staff of nearly a score of experienced physicians and surgeons and its variety of daily practice Is on a footing with any medical and surgical institute in the country and just here the infant heir of the house of Lovo good voiced a message to a woman who was in every way qualified to give him the desired attention which she promptly akl |