Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... THE UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT OF DR. MCCALL i. When in the month of June, 1864, Dr. Anson McCall came to Last Chance, his broad face and broader waistband favorably impressed the four men who loitered about near the doorway of the Miners' Home. The truth of the tradition that only the bluff, genial, whole-souled and enjoyment-loving disposition generates fat had often been proved to them by personal observation. Therefore it was that none of the four, at sight of the new arrival's abnormal abdominal girth, hesitated for an instant to grant him the kindly consideration his possession of these attributes deserved. Colonel Bill Steppes, the leading placer-owner thereabouts, reciprocated the doctor's cheery " How d'ye do, ' by bestowing upon him a most complacent nod; observing which, Jim Cowle, the Colonel's partner, awkwardly imitated the example, and then turned a bleared eye upon Bill with the watchful look of one prepared to follow his further 142 precept in the matter. And, in his turn, Sleepy Bob, the herculean, red-haired and heavy-lidded pianist at the alliterative Heavy Henry's hurdy house further up the gulch, being the third to meet the doctor's eye, responded by beaming lazily down upon him in good-humored toleration of his presence in Last Chance; the Sheriff, Con Bull, contenting himself, after a brief examination of the doctor's rounded contour, with a contribution to the general good-will in the shape of a brusque nod of approval. Thus was Dr. McCall ushered into Last Chance. And, taken altogether, it was quite a flattering reception to a "pilgrim," being, even to a man of his avoirdupois, a decided waiver of the custom in vogue among the old timers of the community, which custom was to bestow no recognition whatever upon...
