Dusting Off the Old Ones was published in 1961 by W. B. Clarke, Miles City, Montana.
Angel of Mercy
Around the turn of the century there lived in our town a lady who was called more than once an "Angel of Mercy". This good person, who had a family of more than six children of her own, always had time for other folks' troubles. In fact, she took other people's troubles to heart to such an extent that she was practically on call night or day to go into other homes and administer to the sick and needy--and when we say "minister" we mean just that. She often took food that could very well have been used to feed her own brood, and took it into some home where special food was needed for the sick, or where food was just plain needed. In raising her own family, she depended a great deal upon homeopathic remedies. There not being a homeopathic physician here in Miles City, this good lady obtained a homeopathic "doctor book", which she studied and used to such an extent on her own family that her neighbors and friends allover town would call upon her to help them with their sick children or grownups. In case you are not familiar with homeopathic remedies, it is a system of medicine founded on the principal that "like cures like" and minute doses are prescribed. Some of the homeopathic remedies are aconite, belladonna and pulsatilla. More than once the wife of Miles City's richest citizen called upon this good woman for preseriptions for her two daughters. Besides prescribing from the knowledge of the symptons that she gained from the "doctor book", this saintly person always had in store verses and quotations from that grand old book, the Bible, that she would quote or read to her patients and their families, so that she really had an edge on most doctors, for she nearly always mixed her prayers and prescriptions in such a manner that they were bound to work. We are not going to mention the name of this wonderful person, but just wanted to let you know that there were such persons in Miles City, as well as some of the other kind that we tell you about.