t person could not afford
so expensive a method of "benefiting his fellow men." Letters come to
him by the hundred, from simpletons who have "taken his bait," asking for
his valuable recipe. He sends the prescription, and notifies the party
asking for it, that if the articles named in it cannot be procured by him
at any drug store convenient to him, he, the "retired physician,"
"clergyman," or "nervous lady," will furnish them, upon application, at a
certain sum (generally averaging five dollars), which he assures him is
very cheap, as the drugs are rare and expensive. The articles named in
the prescription are utterly unknown to any druggist in the world, and
the names are the production of the quack's own brains, and, as a matter
of course, the patient is unable to procure them at home, and sends an
order for them with the price, to the "retired physician," "clergyman,"
or "nervous lady," and in return receives a nostrum compounded of drugs,
which any apothecary could have furnished at one half the expense. In
this way the "benevolence" of the quack is very profitable. Men have
grown rich in this business, and it is carried on to an amazing extent in
this city. It is done in violation of the law, and the benevolent
individual not unfrequently falls into the hands of the police, but, as
soon as released, he opens his business under a new name. As long as
there are fools and dupes in the world, so long will the "retired
physician" find an extensive practice.

LXXIX. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

The letters "Y.M.C.A." are familiar to every city and town of importance
in the Union, and are well known to be the initials of one of the most
praiseworthy organizations in the world. It is needless to enter into
any general account of the Young Men's Christian Association, and I shall
devote this chapter to a description of the means employed by that body
to carry on its work in the metropolis. A writer in _Harper's Magazine_
has aptly described the headquarters of the Association as a "Club
House." "For such it is," he adds, "both in its appliances and its
purposes, though consecrated neither to politics, as are some, to social
festivities, degenerating too often into gambling and intemperance, as
are others, nor to literature and polite society, as are one or two, but
to the cause of good morals, of pure religion, and of Him who is the
divine Inspirer of the one and the divine Founder of the other."