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Historic EVENTS in and around Welland

‘BATCH’ GETS A MARRIED MAN’S DOCTOR BILL

And he has to Come all the Way from Toronto and Prove that He Never had a Wife

[Welland Telegraph, 11 October 1910]

H.G. Wiltse, of Toronto, general agent of the Niagara Navigation Co., was received in our fair city on Wednesday in a most melancholy and dejected frame of mind. He came on an errand such as few men in his position have ever been called upon to perform.

Truth to tell Mr. Wiltse was served with a bailiffs warrant, summonsing him to appear in Division Court at Welland on Wednesday morning. He had to answer to the serious charge of having neglected to pay his wife’s doctor’s bill. The doctor in the case hails from Niagara Falls and he had a lengthy bill, including several treatments for housemaid’s knee and also $18 for a confinement.

Mr. Wiltse deputed the bill though not on the grounds that the charges were excessive. Having been a bachelor all his life until the very day of trial, he could not well see how he could have contracted the expenses referred to in the bill.

But he walked into court with a heart heavily palpating, for one never knows what may be proven in a court room. The doctor got one good, square, searching look at him and then threw up his hands. Mr. Wiltse was the wrong party.

Mr. Wiltse was naturally overjoyed as any faithful bachelor should be, to learn that he had no wife and family and consequently had not doctor’s bills to settle, but it ruffled him a bit that he had to come all the way from Toronto to make the claimant aware of the fact.

In view of the circumstances set forth on the Wiltse case, The Telegraph advises its readers to make careful scrutiny of doctor’s bills. If an innocent bachelor is to be charged heavily for confinements, what assurance has the man of the family that he is not being charged for twins and triplets when the doctor brings but a solitary unit to join the family circle.

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