A fool and his money are soon parted, but doesn’t everybody know what\u00a0happens to his money? Wei I~ I wonder. Do you know what happens to the money\u00a0wh i ch the government takes from you in taxes?<\/p>\n
Recently one of the poll i ng servi ces took a survey of the country on th is\u00a0question: How much of the people’s money — your money does the federal\u00a0government p I an to spend dur i ng the current year end i ng June 30, 1952? Thirty four\u00a0per cent had no idea at a I I and wou I dn ‘t even venture a guess. Th i rtyeight\u00a0per cent made guesses of less than five billion dollars. Of that number,\u00a0more than a hundred persons guessed about a mi II ion dollars. Only 4 per\u00a0cent came close, with the highest guess 75 bil lion. Actually Congress has appropriated\u00a0over 91 bi II ions for the present fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Right now every wage earner in the U. S. is working two days a week to\u00a0pay local, state and federal taxes. Anything that has cost you two days wages\u00a0a week, that has sky rocketed your living expenses, that has made your dollar\u00a0worth only 47 cent’s, is very definitely your business. It is your money that\u00a0is being used. You may need it badly one of these days. You have every right\u00a0to insist that, if you must part with it, it shall be used prudently and\u00a0wisely. A fool and his money are soon parted!<\/p>\n
I want to turn aga in ton ight to one last reference to Dr. Ambrose Howard\u00a0of Sidney. You have already heard about his wi II and about the long letter\u00a0from his son in far away New Or leans. Now let us take a look at the ledger\u00a0in which the doctor kept his accounts with his patients.\u00a0That ledger covers the years from 1805 to 1815. It reveals much about\u00a0the common il Is of the countryside, the treatment and the medicines, and most\u00a0of all the fees charged and how they were collected.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you reca II that I to Id you on a former broadcast that Mr. Arthur\u00a0EI lis of Fairfield Ridge owns the very instrument with which Dr. Howard used\u00a0to pull teeth. There were no dentists in rural Maine in 1805. In the smaller\u00a0places, extraction of teeth was divided about equally between the physicians\u00a0and the blacksmiths. In the larger vii lages, as in Western Europe, the barber\u00a0was the usual tooth puller.<\/p>\n
I was Interested to learn how much Dr. Howard charged for yanking out a\u00a0tooth with that ugly gadget now in Mr. Ellis’ posseSSion. The ledger tells us,\u00a0for repeated again and again is the item, “Extracting tooth, 17 cents”.\u00a0Thanks to my investigation of many of those old account books, kept in\u00a0the early years of the 19th Century, I can tel I you why that charge was the\u00a0seemingly peculiar amOunt of 17 cents. Why wasn’t It in even fives, either\u00a0fifteen or twenty cents, or better sti II, just a quarter of a dollar?<\/p>\n
The answer is that it took people, especially in the rural districts, a\u00a0long time to get used to the new U. S. currency. Ever since the Pi Igrims\u00a0landed at Plymouth Rock, al I New England had traded everything In terms of\u00a0pounds, shi I I ings and pence. When the new nation decided in 1787 to go on to\u00a0a decimal system of currency, the ordinary merchants and dealers adopted a convenient system of evaluating the new money in terms of the old, and it was a\u00a0system that had no re lat I on to the va I ues In i nternatl ona I exchange. The traders\u00a0arbltrari Iy established a dollar as equivalent to six shillings. So in\u00a0many of the old accounts you will find a given item charged at threeshillings,\u00a0and perhaps even on the same page you will find the same item charged at 50\u00a0cents.<\/p>\n
Now, one sixth of a dollar is 16 2\/3 cents, and its nearest whole figure\u00a0is 17 cents, Dr. Ambrose Howard charged 17 cents for pulling a tooth, because\u00a0probab Iy for a hundred years the regular charge for that service had been one\u00a0shilling.\u00a0This shilling unit shows up In other services of the doctor. His usual\u00a0charge for letting blood — one of the commonest treatments in his day — was\u00a034 cents or two sh I II I ngs. The same was h Is charge for a bott Ie of e I Ixl r of\u00a0paregoric, and his 50 cents for a bottle of Jaundice bitters was of course the\u00a0customary three shillings.\u00a0That charge of 17 cents a tooth was subject to a cut rate for a wholesale\u00a0Job. In 1814 Dr. Howard charged Walter Parkman $1.25 for extracting al I\u00a0of his upper teeth. That must have been quite an ordeal In those days of no\u00a0anesthetics.<\/p>\n
Dr. Howard brought a lot of chi Idren into the world. In many Sidney families he ushered in one every year for hal f a dozen or more years. He had a\u00a0regular, flat fee of $3.00 for delivering a chi Id. The item, appearing more\u00a0than a hundred times in his ten year ledger, Is recorded “Operation obstet.\u00a0$3.00”. That Item appears In the account of James Thatcher, whose wife Dr.\u00a0Howard attended every year from 1807 to 1812, and every time for every baby the\u00a0charge is the same — $3.00. Mixed among the other Items charged to James\u00a0Thatcher is this one: “Two visits to the school marm boarding at your house,\u00a0$1 .00”.<\/p>\n
The pain which some of those old time patients endured without anesthetics\u00a0can be imagined when we note in the ledger that Dr. Howard charged John Matthews\u00a0$2.00 for “examining a wound of the head, extracting the pieces of fractured\u00a0cranium, and dressing the wound of your wife’s brother”. Samuel Hovey\u00a0owed the doctor $3.00 for two operations, one extracting a tumor from his\u00a0wife’s cheek, and the other for removing a tumor from his servant girl’s back.\u00a0How did Dr. Howard’s patients pay their bi lis? As you would susgect, payment\u00a0was seldom made in money. Currency — paper money — was deservedly\u00a0unpopular. It was always at a discount from its printed value, and frequently\u00a0It proved worth less. Specl e — gol d and sl I ver coins — represented the on I y\u00a0respected money, and they were scarce. My great-grandmother Blake — of whom\u00a0you have heard me speak on other occas ions — often to Id me that in her own\u00a0childhood in the 1830’s the family would often go an entire year without seeing a go I d or s i I ve r co in.<\/p>\n
I f Dr. Howard got few of his fees in money, he got them I n a Imost everything\u00a0else. He credited Samuel Blaisdell with 67 cents for half a bushel of\u00a0beans, and with $1.33 for pasturing a heifer; James Sturgis met part of his\u00a0bi I I with $3.67 worth of mi II refuse boards. Ebenezer Morse worked off $3.50\u00a0of his bi II by chopping wood for the doctor, and also got credit of 38 cents\u00a0for half a bushel of beets. For the extraction of those tumors from his wife\u00a0and his hired girl, Samuel Hovey paid the whole $3.00 in English turnips.\u00a0Jonas Pe rry owed the doctor $11 .76. He pa i d I t off, mak i n9 hats for the\u00a0doctor and his boys. Obadiah Longley ran up a four year bill of $20.85. He\u00a0pa I d I t by hand I ng over to the doctor 11 pounds of bacon, 22 pounds of cheese,\u00a0a hay cutter, a bushel basket, a half bushel basket, 12 pounds of flax, a\u00a0bushel of oats and 89 cents in cash.\u00a0David Daniels apparently had no cash. After giving the doctor two bushels\u00a0of wheat, three pecks of beets, 3 pair of sheep, and getting credit of 50\u00a0cents for driving those sheep to the river, Daniels gave the doctor his note\u00a0for $4.43, the balance of the bi II.\u00a0Lev i Moore apparent I y had a big fam i I Y that needed a lot of attent i on.<\/p>\n
From 1808 to 1814 his bill totaled $34.26. The articles for which he was cred ..\u00a0i ted in payment I nc I uded woo I, potatoes, vea I, an ewe sheep, corn, and two days\u00a0harrowing with his oxen. During those six years he parted with just one dollar\u00a0in cash, and when the doctor closed the ledger, Levi still owed $4.64.\u00a0Some of the patients, like Joseph Clark, paid mostly in labor. Clark\u00a0chopped wood, made fence, picked rocks, planted garden, and reaped oats for\u00a0Dr. Howard. Evidently he still found time to go fishing, for among his creditson\u00a0the doctor’s books are two shad, 16 cents and 8 pounds of corned fish,\u00a050 cents.\u00a0WI II lam Ambrose had an easier way of meeting his bl II than by Joseph\u00a0Clark’s wood chopping and rock picking. He put out his 12 year old son, Samue\u00a0I, to work for the doctor for eleven days at 50 cents a day. Amos Ba I ley\u00a0a Iso sent h is boy to work for the doctor for four ,days at the same rate.\u00a0Joshua Howard mayor may not have been a relative. Anyhow the doctor\u00a0charged him fu II fees — a tota I of $16.52, and managed to co Ilect a II of It\u00a0except ten cents, by getting the use of Joshua’s time harrowing with four oxen,\u00a0103 pounds of beef, half a ton of hay, twenty pounds of mutton, and four bush …\u00a0e I s of potatoes.<\/p>\n
By no means did Dr. Howard collect all his bills. Like every other country\u00a0doctor, and probably every physician of our own day, he had plenty of uncollected\u00a0and perhaps uncollectible accounts. Henry Nuttredge was a patient\u00a0from whom the doctor took a lot of blood, but little pay. He bled Henry seven\u00a0times in the year 1809 at 34 cents a bleeding. Medicines raised the total to\u00a0$3.68. The doctor got 5 bushels of potatoes, then after three years had\u00a0e lapsed he wrote in the ledger, “gave him ba lance of $1.85 on account of ci rcumstances”.\u00a0Jabez Howard owed $3.00 for one of those “operation obstet’s”.\u00a0He got credit of 60 cents for putting a gutter around the chimney of the roctor’s\u00a0house, but he never paid the remaining $2.40. So there was at least one\u00a0youngster in Sidney a hundred and fifty years ago who cOuld claim he was\u00a0brought Into the world for 60 cents.<\/p>\n
The one reference to Waterville In Dr. Howard’s ledger is not comp I imentary.\u00a0On the debit side are these words: “Capt. Ebenezer Bacon of Watervi lIe,\u00a0medicines for your wife, $1.00”. The credit side is completely blank. Capt.\u00a0Ebenezer never did pay.\u00a0One of the oddest Items of credit Is this one: “Daniel Purinton, for\u00a0use his hOLlse for vend ue II \u2022 That, as most of you know, is the 0 I d Eng I ish\u00a0term for auction. Apparently the doctor held an auction In Daniel’s house\u00a0and credited Daniel with a dollar on his bl II.\u00a0Sometimes, of course, the doctor lost a patient and had to collect his\u00a0bill from surviving relatives. The honesty and family loyalty of people a\u00a0century and a half ago is clearly shown by the frequency of such credit references\u00a0In Dr. Howard’s ledger. In six years Ablal lovejoy ran up a bill of\u00a0$15.36. It had begun In 1806. In 1813, after Ablal’s death, his sons Stephen\u00a0and WI II lam paid the bl I I In full, also paying at the same tIme a btl I of $5.83\u00a0contracted by Ab i a I ‘s w I dow \u2022<\/p>\n
Although Dr. Howard owned considerable property, it evidently was unnecessary for him to part with any cash for his town taxes. He could more than\u00a0meet them by his attent I on to the town poor. And when he treated the poor of\u00a0other towns, that was real gravy, for it was about the only services for\u00a0which he regularly received cash. In 1808, for Instance, he made two vIsits\u00a0to the poor of Augusta, and received from George Reed, the Augusta Town Treasurer,\u00a0$3.34 in cash.<\/p>\n
I t was Dr. Howard’s usua I practl ce to charge fu II fees to everyone, then\u00a0grant unusual credits by way of philanthropy. Just once In the whole ledger\u00a0do we note a deliberately reduced fee, in kindness to a bereaved widow. It\u00a0was a reduction from that established $3.00 for delivering a child. In 1806\u00a0he entered this item In the ledger: ”WIdow Rebecca Davenport, delivering\u00a0child, $1.00″. The doctor was called two years later to see that child, for\u00a0in 1808 he recorded, “opening abcess on your chi Id, 17 cents”.<\/p>\n
Not al I the accounts in the old ledger deal with medical servlces.and\u00a0med iclnes. In 1808 he sett led the estate of WI dow Ab I ga II Rob Inson~ His\u00a0cha rges we re these:<\/p>\n
3 days examining claims of your husband’s estate, $3.75
\nday as commi ss i oner of your husband’s estate 1.25
\nJourney to the Fort 1.25
\n2 Journeys to Fort and Hook\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2.50
\nPay i ng a note\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9.44
\nPaying sundry bil Is\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a014.00
\nOrder on Esq. Thomas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4.80
\nMedicines
\nTotal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $ 37.50<\/p>\n
How did Or. Howard get his money for those expenses? Very simple. He\u00a0took one of the widow’s horses and credited her with the exact amount of his\u00a0bill, $37.50.<\/p>\n
Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #138, broadcast on March 2, 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}