<TITLE>05. Par 17-18</TITLE>L-17 So then, when we went in to see little Dr. Sam, he was setting in there with his hands folded, just a very fine man. He was, well, the doctor had brought Billy Paul, and my son, and so forth. We were very good friends. He eat at my house and so forth. We just bosom friends.
And he said, "Bill, I want to ask you something." Now, we know one another well enough till I don't have to call him "Doctor." I just call him "Sam," and he calls me "Bill." And so he said, "Bill, I want to ask you something." Said, "What do you think about this city? Don't you think it needs a clinic?"
And I said, "Sure, any city needs a clinic, good doctors."
He said, "Well, I believe this city needs it."
I said, "I do too, Sam."
And he said, "Well," he said, "do you think I'm worthy to--to have--to have this clinic?"
And I said, "Are you figuring on it?"
And he said, "Yes."
I said, "I don't know any other doctor that I would rather say that--that I thought was worthy of having it." Now, he's a rough, hard-boiled little fellow, but he's... I always called him a turtle; he's soft on the inside, but hard on the out. It's just a shell he pulls hisself back in. God knows the heart of a man. Everybody would've said Saul of Tarsus was a hard man too, but God knowed his heart. The church choose--chose Matthias, but we found out that God took Saul, the little hook nose, high-tempered Jew to--was nothing to make something out of him.

L-18 Now, and so this man said, "Well, I want this clinic." And said, "You know, Bill, that I--I'm--I want to serve the Lord," he said, "but I'm just too mean."
I said, "Oh, I don't know about that."
He said, "But I--I try in my work to do what I can for the Lord." He said, "I--I--I... There's some of those colored people come up." Said, "They need operations, and they haven't got no money." Said, "You know I operate." And that's true. Anybody that hasn't got the money, he goes ahead, does the work anyhow. He's a famous surgeon.
And I said, "Well, oh, I--I believe that."
He said, "I want to ask you something." Said, "Could you ask the Lord for me?"
And I said, "Yeah, sure."
He said, "I got a little sense... Where do you think that clinic ought to be built?"
I said, "I don't know." I said, "If you was back up another place, that's a flood country, and they built a flood wall." I said, "I'd get this side of the flood wall."
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Well, there's a lot, a big place up here on a certain corner."
He said, "Well," he said, "the undertaker's done got that place. They're building a undertaker establishment."
And I said, "Well," I said, "then what about down there where the old Pfau Oil Company was?"
He said, "That's taken up. They're going to put an ice cream place in there." He said, "I've got an ideal place, Bill," but said, "somebody bought it ahead of me," said, "some elderly lady in Kentucky." Said, "It's where the old departmental school was down here."
And said, "I know an old man's kind of sweet on her." And said, "You know what? I believe if I could give him about three hundred bucks, and you would..." Said, "She bought it for six thousand dollars." Said, "I'll give him about three hundred dollars to--to get her to sell it to me, and I'll give her ten for it."
And I said, "Now, Sam, looky here. You ain't bribing God on nothing." I said, "If you're going to talk to God, we got to lay it out right here smooth. There's no bribing about it at all." I said, "We just can't do that with God."
He said, "Well, I didn't mean it that way, Bill. But that's a dandy lot."


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