The Cancer Doctor and the Constable

"Dr." I. B. Hettinger, the great German physician, who claimed to cure cancers and tumors where all other physicians failed, and who was arrested a few days ago on the charge of practicing without a license, has disappeared from the city and taken with him his young and handsome wife. Where they have gone is a matter of speculation, but the general opinion is that they took the Umatilla Tuesday morning for San Francisco.

The doctor's experience in Seattle was brief and unsatisfactory, and when last seen by Constable Fitzgerald he was sweating under what he termed the "humiliation heaped upon a German gentleman." Dr. A. B. Kibbe swore out the warrant for his arrest, and Constable Fitzgerald had to wait quite a while for him to return. In the meantime Mrs. Hettinger entertained the smiling constable, who is considerable of a humorist in a quiet way.

"Do you desire to see the doctor professionally?" asked Mrs. Hettinger.

"Yes," replied the constable, as he thought of the warrant in his pocket, "that is what I am here for." Then he went on to explain that he had a lump in his throat once and was afraid it might be a cancer. Mrs. Hettinger thawed out and told how she met the doctor in a little town in Indiana while he was treating her mother, and that he was a great physician. Incidentally she said he would weigh about 280 pounds. Just then the door opened and in came the doctor himself.

"He'd throw a 280-pound weight clean through the ceiling," thought the constable, but he said nothing further than to take the doctor on one side and explain the warrant. Then they went to Justice Caldwell's court and the bonds were fixed at $25 cash or $100 with sureties.

"I do not know much about your laws and customs here," said the doctor, "but I am a physician of thirty-two years' practice and cure when others fail. I am, sir, a gentleman and expect to be treated as such."

This outburst was occasioned by the refusal of the justice to release him on his personal recognizance. Finally Constable Fitzgerald accompanied the doctor in search of bondsmen, as he swore he had only $25 to his name. First they went to the Butler hotel, where the prisoner said he expected to get Proprietors Hamm & Schmitz to help him out. He did not seem to see either of them, however, and asked Fitzgerald to wait a minute while he went upstairs to see a friend.

"I love your company so much, doctor," said the wily constable, "that without $50 I could not think of leaving your side." Then the poor gentleman said he would put up his $35 watch, but with a twinkle in his eye Fitzgerald replied that he had a bushel basket of such remembrances at the office already. Then the doctor decided to return to his rooms at the Occidental hotel to see if he could find the cash. On the way up the hill he said:

"I am a German gentleman, sir, and have treated you as a gentleman. It is a great humiliation, sir, for a gentleman to be forced to parade the streets under a guard."

"Just think," replied the constable, "how much of a humiliation it must be, sir, for a constable of Seattle, sir, to parade the streets with a corn doctor—I beg your pardon, cancer doctor."

When the hotel was reached the doctor made one more effort to get the officer to remain downstairs while he went to his room. It was no use, however, for Fitzgerald followed him to his very door and then stopped. He did not care about going in, as there was only one means of escape, and that by the window. The bare thought of the doctor with his several hundred pounds of avoirdupois sliding down a rope was not to be thought of, Fitzgerald thought, because the rope would surely break. Soon the door was opened, and the constable received the $50 and a few parting words from Mrs. Hettinger, not spoken in the same manner as when he was waiting to see the doctor on "professional business."

Last Tuesday morning Dr. Hettinger and wife departed from the Occidental hotel, taking their magnificent trunks and small straps. They said they were going to Whatcom, but it is probable they went to San Francisco, as the Umatilla left about the time they went away.

The doctor's case was called in Justice Caldwell's court yesterday morning, but the only representative the defense had was an attorney who was to come to defend the doctor but had not tendered his retainer. The attorney thought his client would return today and appear for trial, so the case was continued until this afternoon.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Morris said yesterday afternoon that he had been informed on good authority that the real occupation of "Dr." Hettinger was that of a teacher, formerly in business at Minneapolis.

It is understood that the state has the intention of making other arrests of alleged quack doctors.