human
I am always glad to hear anything kind of my profession. He spoke simply and his manner Alice thought engaging.
gpt
It _is_ a high calling--and I know of but one higher. We hear the complaint that nowadays medicine is a savagely mercenary profession. If a measure of truth lies in the charge I think it is due to the fact that doctors are victims of the mercenary spirit about them. It’s a part of the very air they breathe. They can’t escape it. The doctor, to begin with, must spend one small fortune to get his degree. He must spend another to equip himself for his work. Ten of the best years of his life go practically to getting ready. His expense for instruments, appliances, and new and increasingly elaborate appointments is continuous.
human
But doctor, Fritzie Venable leaned forward with a grave and lengthened face,
gpt
Quite true. When you find an ambitious doctor, unless his energy is restrained by a sense of his high responsibility, he may be possessed of greed. If a surgeon be set too fast on fame he will affect the spectacular and cut too much and too freely. I admit all of this. My plea is for the conscientious doctor, and believe me, there are many such. Nor must you forget that, at the best, half our lives we are too young to please and half our lives too old.
human
Hamilton said the other night, observed Robert Kimberly, filling in the pause,
gpt
No other professional man is called on to do that, observed Bryson.
human
Indeed, the saddest of all possible proofs of the difficulties of our calling is found in the fact that the suicide rate among doctors is the highest in the learned professions.
gpt
I had no idea of such a thing. Had you, Mr. Kimberly?
human
I have known it, but perhaps only because I have been interested in questions of that kind.
gpt
Oh, dear, she exclaimed,
human
Don’t let us talk about suicide.
gpt
Suicide, he went on,
human
By no means.
gpt
You conclude then that sane men and women do commit suicide?
human
Frequently, Mr. Kimberly.
gpt
I am glad to be supported in my own conviction. The fact is, he went on in a humorous tone,
human
I am forced either to hold in this way or conclude that I am sprung from a race of lunatics.
gpt
Robert, protested Dolly,
human
The insanity theory is in many cases a comfortable one. But I don’t find it so, and I must stick to the other and regard suicide as the worst possible solution of any possible difficulty.
gpt
If every act of a man’s life had been a brave one, he continued,
human
Well, I don’t care what you are _considering_, Robert, declared Dolly with unmistakable emphasis,
gpt
I am going to tell you Francis’s views on the subject anyway. He has the most intense way of expressing himself and the pantomime is so contributing. ’Suicide, Mr. Kimberly,’ he said to me one day, ’is no good. What would a man look like going back to God, carrying his head in his hand? Well, I am back, and here are the brains you gave me.
human
What did you do with them?
gpt
I blew them out with a bullet!
human
But who is this Brother Francis, asked Alice,
gpt
He is one of the fixtures at The Towers. A religious phenomenon whom I personally think a great deal of; an attendant and a nurse. He is an Italian with the courtesy of a gentleman worn under a black gown so shabby that it would be absurd to offer it to a second-hand man.
human
Does the combination seem so odd?
gpt
To me he _is_ an extraordinary combination.
human
How did you happen to get him?