 Dr. Martin & Dr. Spivins The Whitewright Sun
Thursday, April 21, 1932 pg. 16 RECOLLECTION OF THE OLD TIME DOCTOR By Joe Sappington The modern doctors may be more scientific than doctors of forty or fifty years ago, but they are not as picturesque and spectacular as were their predecessors....it was different in the good old days when he [doctor] rode horseback and along the road could tell about how sick his patient was by the speed of his horse....What could be more awd-inspiring than to see an old-time doctor, under whip and spur, saddlebags popping and flopping, on his way to see a patient sick enough to die. WHEN DOCTORS WERE SPECTACULAR By far the most spectacular and picturesque doctor of the old school that I can recall was Dr. Martin. He was more than six feet tall, wore a wig, a long black frock-tailed coat buttoned up to his chin, a high-topped silk hat and cowhide boots, summer and winter. He had the funniest looking old horse I ever saw. This horse was about seventeen hands high, gotch-eared, sway-backed, ball-faced, and had a bad case of heaves and his name was "Shadrick." A stranger meeting the old doctor on a dark night, with his coat tails flying and Shadrick going in a mad gallop, might easily have mistaken him for the devil's witch. For many years Dr. Martin had no competitor in the village where I lived and his practice extended over a large part of the county. But finally another doctor appeared on the scene; he was also of the old school, who believed in giving much medicine, whether it was good for the patient or not. Am sorry to say that, like the Kilkenny Cats of classic lore, Dr. Martin and Dr. Spivins (that was the new doctor's name), thought there was one too many doctors and proceeded to act accordingly. KEEN COMPETITION Dr. Spivins practiced in a two-horse buggy and when he got a call, no matter whether it was urgent or not, he whipped his team into a long lope to attract the attention of the villagers. This competition was hard on Shadrick. In order to counteract the fanfare, the clatter of hoofs and wheels of his rival, Dr. Martin proceeded to ride Shadrick with greater recklessness and abandon. I had forgotten to say that Dr. Martin had a wife and a beautiful daughter and Dr. Spivins had a wife and a grown son who was soon to graduate in medicine. Well, to make a long story short, the son visited his parents during Christmas holidays, met the daughter of his father's competitor, fell madly in love with her and after a few stormy scenes between father and daughter and father and son, the two young people were happily married. After this fortuitous event Shadrick was treated more humanely; unless it was an urgent case, he was allowed to jog along in a trot, and the same could be said of Dr. Spivins' buggy horse. Nothing but a life and death case could urge the good doctors to whipping their horses into a lope....  Biography Index Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |