The Weekly Visitor

A Good Man's Bad Luck.—Mark Twain's account of the good boy who, unlike his prototype in the story-books, is continually getting into trouble by behaving his best, is paralleled by the following recent report of the misadventures of a doctor in Lyons. As Dr. Monnet, the good man referred to, was passing along the streets, he saw a drunken man fall down and seriously injure himself. The benevolent physician hurried to the fallen and stupefied man, helped him up, and led him to a neighboring drug store, where he bound up his wounds and gave him a soothing potion. Scarcely had he finished his work, when the drunken man turned, and struck him violently in the face. The doctor left in disgust. But, as he was hurrying on his way, the druggist came running after him with a bill of one franc and eighty centimes for the medicine given to the patient. The doctor refused to pay it and went his way. Some days after, the doctor received two official letters, one calling on him to pay the druggist's bill, the other summoning him to court to testify with regard to his drunken patient. The doctor, who was a busy man, neglected both letters. He was soon after visited by a bailiff, and compelled to pay a fine of forty-eight francs, and also for the prescription, a total of forty-nine francs eighty centimes. Worse than all, the scandal aroused by the visits of the police so damaged his reputation before a prospective father-in-law that he missed un beau mariage.