The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-10-05
GLOVE POWDERS"
An Imposition that Thrives Upon the
Sickly Scntimcntality Of the Women.
Ffom The Mcw York Ercni,,y Post.

From The Ncw York Ercni,,y Eoa.
Ours is supposed to bc an age Of en-
ligbtcnment, and we are accustomed to
look with something like contemptuous
pity upon the super,titions Of.onr forefath-
ers, confident that we never should have
rcasnned 80 illogically as they cid but
there i, reason to believe that supcrsti.
tlOns oi The ab,urtlest surt are i,s common
now as they ever we're, the difference
between IL aud oIi grandfnthers lying
chiefly in orr smaller readiness to pro.
claim our belief IL charms, aud our faith
III pOrtents. Hard headed men of busi-
hess. who never grow visionary in the
matter OF al Investment, sometimes carry
buckeyes IN their trousers pockets as q
cure tor rhcuuiatlsm, or lucky bones To
keep off ill-fnrtune aud bankruptcy.
Every Quack in the land does thriving
business, trndng upon the insane cred
ulity Of snne men and women, and if
some charlatan should advertise paclolian
water atla dollar II pint, he would draw
money rcmitthnce5 even from Wall street,
ir all probability. The only wonder is
that no shrewd swiadler has made the
experiment.
Mr.. Anthony C0mst0ck Inns recently
made some arrests among the qilp"ks
who advertise love powders for sale at
uncommOnly high prices, and his discov-
cries are painfully interesting. The
transparent absurdity Of the pretense up
on which these male and female swim
dlcrs trade is not sufficient, it appears, to
protect even young women who have
heen brought up in intelligent fnmilics
and educated in good schools from falling
victims to them. They read ADVERTISE
ments in which some man or woman
offers for sale certain drugs, which. it is
alleged, If administered surreptiously,
will make the person to whom they are
given love the person who gives them.
The young %omen know, &c course, the.
this must be lie, in the very nature of
the case. They know, or they ought to
know, that the affections are not material
and are MOTTO be acted upon by material
agents. Thoy know that these adver-
tlsing quaoks cannot he better skilled in
the compoundine ofdrugs or more learned
i'll their properties than men of scientific
attainments are; and they know that
quacks arc necessarily persons Of bad
character, swindlers, cheats; and yet
they believe their transparent and self
evident falsehaods, and send money to
them, and get powder, which, in utter
ignorance of tho chemical nature of the
drug they give, they surreptitiously ad-
minister to some young man, refusing to
reflect that if 4 drug given openly will
administration cannot in the least change
either its nature or its influence
Two, at least, cf the letters which Mr..
Comstock secured were from young wo-
men of this city and Brooklyn who ought
to have known better, and there is here
lesson for parents. 1t is not difficult to
guess what sort of literature those young
women have been accustomed to read
The symptoms of arsenical poison are
not more certain than are those which
manifest themselves in such cases rs
these, of poisoning done 10 the intellect
by unwholesome literature Of the senti-
mental kind. These young women have
been allowed to grow morbid over senti-
mental romances, and their condition is
rs truly one OF mental disease as is that
of the veriest lunatic at Blooniingdale.
The recklessness with which parents
permit their children thus to poison and
debauch their minds is crying evil of
our time. and its ill results are not by
any means confined to such slips as those
which the young women have made in
this case. Sentimental suicide is not
uncommon, and worse things even than
suicide befali young women sometimes,
as The direct result of morbid sentiment
tality. that comes of long indulgence in
feverish literature.
Even when no startling revelation of
i'll is made, great harm may be done, and
many q wOman's life has been made
wretcted by the early stimulation of her
imagination, and her early schooling in
romantic notions of what life and love
and marriage are. On no other subject
whatever is it moro important that young
persons Of both sexes should have sound,
sensible, wholesome views; on 40 other
are unsound, senseless and unwholesome
notions more generally prevalent, end
upon no other is there so much sickly
nonsense written and printed. Every
wife learns, If she does not know it before
marriage, that good, sweet bread is more
potent than any love powder to retain the
affection of a man, and that tidy house,
a neat person and q cheerful face are
more winning in n woman sSan any
magical charm can be. Tho pity is that
these truths are not always impressed
upon the minds of maidens, and that
siva.y eea:si..5i,;as:sy - permitted. 10
tasten itself there instead.