THE DOCTOR AND THE BRIGAND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 33, 2 November 1929, Page 28

THE DOCTOR AND THE BRIGAND

Gold has not the power to move everything. When people in Shiraz heard that the young English surgeon from the Government Hospital had performed a wonderful operation and saved the life of an important Persian Minister, they must have said: “Now he has made a useful friend!” No one could guess that he had made a far more useful one when he stepped out of his door one day to find'a man lying wounded and helpless ■in the road. The wounded man was a brigand, and ‘he had been punished for his crimes in.the ruthless.manner associated with Oriental justice. Never more would he be able to walk; he, would have to crawl- about forever; a beggar whom nobody would pity and naughty boys-could stone. But his wounds ’were frosh. The young English doctor carried the poor rogue into the hospital and operated. The operation proved successful, and a day came when the brigand walked out of the hospital cured and happy. After that Dr. Wollatt could go about alone in places 0 where other people dared not go even with escorts; and this provided him with many chances to help mank sick people. Then war-clouds rolled up. 'There was danger from the Bolsheviks. Foreigners had to flee from the danger zone, and their flight was full of peril. But Dr. Wollatt and his young family went in safety because the brigands had posted guards all along the route from the interior to the coast. With most people, a French cynic said, gratitude is only a strong desire for greater benefits to come, but gold could not have bought what gratitude brought the doctor then.