Ohio College of Dental Surgery - Alethian Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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got back. Bill said he would never pull another tooth again as long as he lived, and I guess he never has since. U One day last summer I was playing Croquet and didn't feel like being disturbed until I had finished my game, when a fellow came along and said he wanted a tooth out. Thatls strange, I said, I just had to pull a tooth a few minutes ago. It ain't often I pull more than one in a day. It was a tough job I had, I went on. I took the man out to the barn and dragged him across the barn floor three or four times before I got it out. 4' ' Is that possible?' says the fellow. 'IVell, this doesn't ache so bad now, so I guess we'l1 let it alone for today. Very well,', I replied, so away he went and I finished my game in peace. He never showed up again, either. But the funniest thing of all happened a couple of l i mlb' years ago. I went into Johnnie Hurd's store one day, and a stranger was saying just as I got in : 'Yes I was in your town, Mr. Hurd, about fifteen years ago. I ain't likely to forget the visit, either. I had a dreadful toothache, and some one sent me down to an old doctor who tackled my jaw with a hog hook. He nearly killed me before he got the tooth out.' Why, how do you do, my friend, I said, stepping around in front of him and smiling as I offered him my hand. How do you do? I didn't recognize you at first. Iilll the doctor. Now I'1l explain about that hog hook. You see, I keep different kinds of instruments for different species of animals, and so, naturally, when a hog comes along I just use a hog hook. That's all. And with that I turned around and walked out of the store, leaving the fellow standing there gaping and speechless. ' ' WWW 0 O f -.4419 3 X may' ' ,1.-5 :-fl , -:bfi-'Vi '- gi J. .Tr --,-. I 'I 1,,gj , ,fini . tl,-tt. e ' Amy' px ' ' M I f '-f . K X ?? uh' 3.5. 11,0 L-V my ...ff ,.1,' .ff .'s','lg,fp 1 q .VW Ilyqilili' SQ' A t Rh: ' . i'I:'- il I ' W! if I A ' V sf i . if IO6

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n...4.l-hL..AL..4ll'4-. ,L l ,- The Doctor and the Teeth - AY, Doc, have ye seen the fine kit o' tools the new dentist brought to town with him?l' inquired the village patriarch, as the old man turned down his coat collar and disclosed his wrinkled, pippin-like countenance. No, I haven't, and I don't want to,', he snapped, and an angry light gleamed in his watery blue eyes. Kit of tools !'l he added, contemptuonsly. Don't talk to me about kits of tools. Haven't I held for the last lifty years that only one tool was needed to pull teeth with? Haven't I actually pulled teeth with one tool for fifty years, and did you ever hear of me hooking that instrument onto a jaw that something didnlt break loose? I guess not! he concluded with decision, as his questioner, apparently cowed, shook his head in the negative. That's right, Docf' returned the patriarch meekly. Something always breaks loose, sure enough, whenever you hitch onto a man's jaw with that ol' turnkey o' Q IW ai m - Kfjtj D. yournf' I have always maintained continued the old doc- tor, in a more sprightly manner, as his brow cleared, that the old-fashioned turnkey can't be beat. All you have to do is to be sure of your holt and then give the I I I I I 1 I I I IO proper yank. I'll allow it takes experience to keep from breaking the side of the jaw, but practice makes perfect. It's wonderful, though, how afraid some people are of that old instrument of mine. Seems like a man never forgets it after he has had it used on him once. I remember a few little incidents about pulling teeth that amuses me every time I think of them, con- tinued the old doctor, visibly brightening as he struggled with his memory. When Bill Brown was a young fellow he was doing some Work for me one day when a stranger drove up and said he had the toothache. I had just hitched up to drive out in the country, and was in a hurry, so I just called Bill in and said: Excuse me, but I'm in a hurry, This is my assistant, Dr. Brown. just sit down on the halfkbushel measure there and he'll 'tend to you. Doctor, this gentleman has a toothache, just get the turnkey and yank the tooth out. Bill looked kind of helpless, but he started for the house, and just as I got up to the corner, more than two hundred yards away, I heard a most unearthly screech. I knew that Bill was wrastling with that tooth, so I just whipped up and drove along. Bill got the tooth all right, but he took half the stranger's jaw out with it, I found out when I

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It was toothache ailed poor jenkins, and his jaw hummed night and day, Like a beehive in the orchard depths in honey-making May. He tried everything to stop it that he'd heard or read about, But he didn't try the dentist-for he wouldn't have it out. There it stayed, that hateful, twisting, grinding torture in the jaw, Like a grinning littledemon with the nerve clutched in his paw. Jenkins couldn't keep from howling 3 he would groan and curse and shout, Till the neighbors thought him crazy- but he wouldn't have it out. Jaw and cheek and tongue were peeling from the stuff he applied, And he couldn't sleep the imp off, for it woke him when he tried. He was sore and weak and wasted, and his tooth jumped like a trout g But he clinched his fists and bore it-for he wouldn't have it out. A BAD TOOTI-1. IO L-.IWW So he languished, wrenched and anguished, for a fortnight black with pain 3 Then he rushed to find a dentist-and turned weakly back again. Awful visions rose before him, filled his trembling soul with doubt, And he shrunk back to his torment-for he wouldn't have it out. Deeper, blacker grew the anguish that was eating up his soul, Till his very life seemed ebbing through that little angry hole. And the imp kept twisting, twisting, with the bitter spite of gout. Till poor Jehkins writhed and whimpered, but he wouldn't have it out. I will live it down ! he muttered 5 and he went his feeble way, Till the pain grew like a storm cloud, blotting all the light of day. On the last verge of endurance, with just strength to crawl about, He went cowing to the dentist, and 'twas fun to have it out.