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AL-73
R. V. Waldrep Dr. Archie C. Waldrep
Red Bay, Alabama

I WANTED TO KEEP A GOOD HORSE

In 1903 Dr. Waldrep came to Red Bay to practice medicine, but he was
returning home from school, and just incidentally to practice medicine.
He's done right well by himself too. He can keep up a bunch of in-laws
on what he makes and not even feel it. He can sit in his office and puff
on his pipe and not worry about the expense of the tobacco he smokes.

But he is a dreadful gossip. He tells all about the people he doctors.
He doesn't mind telling you that Joe T. Beasley isn't sick. He just shakes
his head over him and points to the head.

But he can get dirty in his gossip. He was telling just the other day
how a woman into his office.

He puffed: "She was worried about her husband. I knew what was bothering
her." He stopped for a rich, ripe puff, and a wholesome contemplation. "Her
husband was in his wild stage, and he wasn't being true to her. I took the
woman into my consultation room, examined her, and I told her what was wrong
with her." His chuckle was full and fat, and not a bit in a hurry; for Dr.
Waldrep is in 70. The doctor told what was wrong with the woman, but it is not
fit for print.
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