A journey half across one of our Western States disclosed one Osteopath in the meat business, one in the real estate business, one clerking in a store, and two, a blind man and his wife, fairly prosperous Osteopathic physicians. This was along one short line of railroad, and there is no reason why it may not be taken as a sample of the percentage of those who have quit in the entire country. I heard three years ago from a bright young man who graduated with honors, started out with luxurious office rooms in a flourishing city, and was pointed to as an example of the prosperity that comes to the Osteopath from the very start. When I heard from him last he was advance bill-poster for a cheap show. Another bright classmate was carrying a chain for surveyors in California. I received an Osteopathic journal recently containing a list of names, about eight hundred of them, of "mossbacks," as we were politely called. I say "we," for my name was on the list. The journal said these were the names of Osteopaths whose addresses were lost and no communication could be had with them. They were wanted badly, it seemed. Just for what, aside from the annual fee to the American Osteopathic Association, was not clear. I do know what the silence of a good many of them meant. They have quit, and do not care to read the abuse that some of the Osteopathic journals are continually heaping upon those who do not keep their names on the "Who's Who in Osteopathy" list. There is a large percentage of failures in other professions, and it is not strange that there should be some in Osteopathy. But when Osteopathic journals dwell upon the large chances of success and prosperity for those who choose Osteopathy as a profession, those who might become students should know the other side. CHAPTER VIII. THE OSTEOPATHIC PROPAGANDA. Wonderful Growth Claimed to Prove Merit--Osteopathy is Rational Physio-Therapy--Growth is in Exact Proportion to Advertising Received--Booklets and Journals for Gratuitous Distribution--Osteopathy Languishes or Flourishes by Patent Medicine Devices--Circular Letter from Secretary of American Osteopathic Association--Boosts by Governors and Senators--The Especial Protege of Authors--Mark Twain--Opie Reed--Emerson Hough--Sam Jones--The Orificial Surgeon--The M.D. Seeking Job as "Professor"--The Lure of "Honored Doctor" with "Big Income"--No Competition. But what about Osteopathy? Why has it had such a wonderful growth in popularity? Why have nearly four thousand men and women, most of them intelligent and some of them educated, espoused it as a profession to follow as a life work? These are questions I shall now try to answer.