Article November 10, 1898 Issue

THE HAROLD FREDERIC CASE

Although the "yellow Journals" on both sides of the Atlantic have not seen fit to adopt the advice of Captain Sigsbee, concerning the sinking of the Maine, to "suspend judgment" in relation to the case of Harold Frederic, the conservative, unbiased better judgment of the people has done so, and will continue to do so.

If the hot-headed, one-sided writers of inflammatory editorials had stopped to think just a little, they would not have given vent to such unreasoning and nonsensical philippics.

To illustrate: If, before pouring forth their flamboyant volleys they had thoughtfully perused the able article of Dr. Morrison, published in this issue, on the direful effects of the anti-toxine remedy, and then learned that the physicians attending Mr. Frederic had adminstered this remedy to him, would they have declared he was "murdered" by the physicians? Or if, not having read of the dangers of this remedy, they had been informed that anti-toxine was "duly and regularly" administered, and a Christian Scientist had not been called, would they have had a word to say about Mr. Frederic having been murdered? If the attending physicians, had given Mr. Frederic a bread pill, and there had been no Christian Scientist around, our learned editorial friends, and all who sympathize with them, would have been entirely satisfied, the physicians exempt from all blame, and Harold Frederic's death, in true orthodox fashion, charged to the agelong list of casualties already "booked" against an inscrutable but all-wise Providence. But, at the sick man's request, a sincere Christian woman is called in, after the physicians have shown their inability to cope with the case, to pray for the dying man; and although his suffering ceased, at the instance of his friends who trusted the wisdom of the physicians rather than the efficacy of prayer, Harold Frederic was again turned over to the physicians and died in their hands, and then the inane cry goes out through the press that Mr. Frederic was "murdered."

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