"Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg.
- Irvin S. Cobb
- Date:
- [1915], ©1915
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: "Speaking of operations--" / by Irvin S. Cobb ... illustrations by Tony Sarg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
17/78 page 11
![NOW that the last belated bill for ser¬ vices professionally rendered has been properly paid and properly receipted; now that the memory of the event, like the mark of the stitches, has faded out from a vivid red to a becoming pink shade; now that I pass a display of adhesive tape in a drug-store window with¬ out flinching—I sit me down to write a little piece about a certain matter—a small thing, but mine own—to wit, That Opera¬ tion. For years I have noticed that persons who underwent pruning or remodeling at the hands of a duly qualified surgeon, and survived, like to talk about it afterward. In the event of their not surviving I have no doubt they still liked to talk about it, but in a different locality. Of all the readily available topics for use, whether among friends or among strangers, an op¬ eration seems to be the handiest and most dependable. It beats the Tariff, or Roose¬ velt, or Bryan, or when this war is going to end, if ever, if you are a man talking to [11]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29817675_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
