The Funny Side of Physic: Or, The Mysteries of Medicine, Presenting the Humorous and Serious Sides of Medical Practice. An Exposé of Medical Humbugs, Quacks, and Charlatans in All Ages and All Countries.Crabtre, Addison Darre
History
The Funny Side of Physic: Or, The Mysteries of Medicine, Presenting the Humorous and Serious Sides of Medical Practice. An Exposé of Medical Humbugs, Quacks, and Charlatans in All Ages and All Countries.
Crabtre, Addison Darre
Medicine -- Anecdotes; Quacks and quackery
The "fortunate" ones entertained us, on the barge, with the marvellous
revelations that had transpired within the hut. One married lady was
assured that she was yet single, but would marry in a six-month. A
double-and-twisted old maid was told that her husband was in California.
But the most absurd revelation was to a well-known respectable middle-aged
lady, who was inclined to believe in the foreseeing powers of old Mother
Milliky until now, who was told that she was "soon to receive a letter
from her absent husband, also in California for the last five years; that
he had become rich, and was soon to return; but that her youngest child, a
year old, was inclined to worms, and might not live to see its father
return!" All this wonderful information for a ninepence.
* * * * *
_Secret of finding lost Property._--In Hopkinton, Mass., there lived a man
named Sheffield, who professed to tell fortunes. The postmaster of that
town told my informant that old Sheffield received from seven to ten
letters per day from the fools who believed in his foreseeing powers. Once
the surveyor, with a large gang of men, was working on the highway, and
while they were at dinner an ox chain was stolen. The overseer, happening
along before the rest of the men, saw some one unhook the chain, and steal
away to a field adjoining, pull up a fence post, and deposit the chain in
the hole, replace the post, and return. He "lay low," and as the thief
passed he discovered him to be old Sheffield, the fortune-teller. He kept
his own counsel, and, the chain being missed, a committee of three was
appointed to visit the seer, to discover by his art where the stolen
property was secreted.
Mr. ----, the overseer, and others, called on Sheffield, who got out his
mysterious book, and figured away in an impressive manner, and finally
chalked out a rough plan of the ground on the floor, and again consulting
his book, he solemnly declared that he had discovered the property.
"You follow this line from the spot where the chain was unhooked from the
plough, so many rods to this line fence, go along the fence to the seventh
post, draw it up, and the chain will be found beneath, in the post-hole."
The two men were struck dumb with astonishment, for they believed in the
mysterious powers of old Sheffield; but the overseer exclaimed, in words
more impressive than elegant,--
"Yes, you infernal scoundrel, and you put it there, for I saw you with my
own eyes."
THE MAGIC MIRROR EXPOSE.
Not long ago the body of a once beautiful young woman was taken from the
Merrimack River, below the factories at L----. She was unknown at the
time, and this was all there was given to the public. To the world she was
merely--
"One more unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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