THE COLTEAUX HOSPITAL
(The following article was handed us by a citizen of Roberts who greatly appreciates the benefits to be derived from the new Hospital in Roberts and would like to have us all show our appreciation in some emphatic way. -- The Editor)
After all it is only natural to be both proud and pleased as we think of the Colteaux hospital, and consider that it is the only well equipped hospital within a radius of thirty-five miles. Roberts, with its less than 500 inhabitants, has been lifted out of the rank and file of villages, and given a position of distinction.
Who wouldn't be proud?
This is the greatest boost that has ever been given to our little village. That is, of course, if the project gets the publicity it undoubtedly deserves.
Publicity and Dr. John A. Colteaux however, never, never, meet by design, only accidentally. If the doctor only thought as highly of himself as others think of him; if he only lacked modesty, we would be sure of publicity by the car load.
As it is, if there is to be publicity, it must come from some other source. Dr. John is not musician enough to toot his own trumpet; and anyway, he is always far too busy looking after the aches and pains of those who come from miles to crowd his hospital. If only Bosworth was here. Having finished his life of Samuel Johnson, that classic among biographies, how he would leap to the task of writing the life of Dr. John Alfred Colteaux, M. D.
Bosworth would do full justice to the humble beginnings of our homegrown product. There would be never-to-be-forgotten pictures of John's school days, when he was showing that "the child is father to the man;" the village bakery and restaurant with John in baker's cap helping his devoted parents, but dreaming of other work that called him persistently to the larger service of suffering humanity; the years of struggle to make both ends meet as John plowed his way through the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery to emerge with flying honors as the valedictorian of a graduating class of 150; then the practice in his own hometown and the rapid spread of his fame as a skilled practitioner; the constant urge to possess himself of the very latest appliances known to surgery, that he might give his patients the best treatment possible; the always growing practice overflowing the cramped, restricted space of his old quarters; the search for a building that would give him the scope he needed for his work; and the buying of the largest residence in town and turning it into a well equipped hospital. What a wealth of material for a Bosworth, in detail, these bare outlines would make.
And the end is not yet. Dr. John is still a young man, and the world will ever beat a path to the door of the man who can and will serve it.
Do we really appreciate the services of such a man or have we taken everything for granted? Is the saying fulfilled among us that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and among his own people? Perhaps the only way in which we can be brought to realize the worth of our possession is in deprivation, to hear from afar the shouts of exultation rising from the throat of some great city that has been lucky in our loss.
Let me close this panegyric with two Why-nots. Why not a Roberts Commercial Club or a Chamber of Commerce? Every day brings a number of strangers to the hospital from all over the country. Is anything being done to encourage these strangers to take interest in the town outside of the hospital? What a chance for business for those who invite it. Why not get together and invite that business? Let these strangers who daily come within our gates feel that the whole town is glad to see them.
The other "Why-not" I wish to ask, has the advantage of being free from that taint of selfishness. Why not send a representative committee of our town people to wait upon Dr. Colteaux with the request, that, since he has honored Roberts by establishing a hospital here, he should set a day for a formal opening?
Dr. Colteaux has set a high mark in service to humanity in the opening of his hospital; let us, his fellow townspeople, show our appreciation of the man himself and of his noble work. A public celebration would be a good beginning.
--Roberts Herald. 31 January 1923.
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