The Doctor's Carriage Scare

The physician’s carriage standing before a private residence is a notable sign of contagious disease, and a young lady school teacher in the Nineteenth Ward was forcibly impressed with this fact last week. There is a written rule which requires that in a case of sickness in the home of a pupil, a physician’s certificate of the absence of danger from contagion must be presented before the pupil shall be permitted to remain at school. A few days ago, as the teacher in question was passing the house of one of her young pupils, she saw a doctor’s carriage before the door. At once the thought of the terrors of contagious disease rose in her mind, and she arrived at the school house where she waited in anxious suspense until the little girl from the house in question was summoned, and she asked: 'Have you a physician’s certificate?' 'No, ma'am,' the child said. 'Then you must go home and not return until you bring a certificate from the doctor.' The child disappeared, but soon returned, clearly nervous, to the teacher, whispering: 'Please ma'am, but it’s a little boy babe, and the doctor says it’s at my house, but it isn’t catching.'