Medicine: Doctor's Friend

When you are young you steer away from doctors; they mean sickness, suggest unpleasantness, death, even. But old people like doctors. Many rich old men make their doctors their best friends. When last week in Manhattan a bust of Dr. George David Stewart, president of the American College of Surgeons, was unveiled in his presence in the Carnegie Lecture room of the Bellevue Medical College, many old and wealthy men stood by with bare heads. One of them even tried to make a speech. The people gasped when they saw him come forward. It was George F. Baker.

George F. Baker, 88, the Grand Old Man of Wall Street, made another speech once, 146 words long (TIME, Dec. 15, 1924). But this time he couldn't get it out. He swallowed once or twice, looked at the great doctor who had tended him for years, then swallowed and said: "I would like to make a speech but I cannot." The crowd clapped and Mr. Baker sat down.