Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-12
SANKEY'S INSTANT RELIEF.


Ho,c the Evangelist Once Made a Tour Of the
Country IN a Gaudy Wayon.
The Troy Budget makes the revelation
that few years ago, Mr.. Ira D. Sankey was
peddling a liniment that he called Instant
Relief He travelled with snowy wagon.
and sang songs to his own accompaniment
on a melodeon. thus attracting multitudes.
to whom he sold the preparation.
The writer well remembers the travelling
establishment to which the Budget briefly
refers. The wagon had broad. high box,
was gaudily covered with red and gold, and
was drawn by six plumed horses Soon
after nightfall tho spirited team would dash
into the most frequented square of city or
village. drawing the vehicle to a favorable
spot for the accommodation of
large audience. Flaring torches were then
lighted and placed in convenient sockets. A
melodeon in the wagon was openco, and Mr..
Sankey I he Buaget says it was certainly he,
and the statement accords with the writer's
vivid recollection of the man) took his place
behind the instrument. He sang several
current songs. usually sentimental. but some-
times comic. playing an accompaniment. BY
that time a dense throng had collected, and
everybody wondered what was meant by the
free entertainment. They found out imme-
diately, for Mr.. Sanky. standing at the tail
board of the wagon. delivered a harangue on
/ the wonderful '.Insant Relief that he had to
sell. Three assistants took bottles of the
stuff from boxes, and made ready to sell. Mr.
Sankey's address is clearly recollected as hav-
/ ing, in its delivery, the style of a religious
exhortation of the fervid kind. He
spoke of the ills that flesh is heir to. and es-
pecially of the various aches with which
the human body is afflicted. Then, with a
bottle of 'Instant Relief held aloft, he de-
clared that he brought the glad tidings of a
sure and instant cure. He did not, he said,
ask anybody to take his word for it: but he
would on the spot relieve anybody who had
earache, toothache, or bellyache. In short,
no pain could withstand Instant Relief
He kept urging the afflicted to come to the
wagon, much in the manner that the revival
lists bcseech sinners to come to the peniten-
tial bench. until he was successful in getting
a patient on whom to try the liquid. I'm
slant Relief was of the familiar class of
lotions, with laudanum for a principal in
gredient, that rarely fail to deaden pain inn
mediately on being applied. Therefore, hav-
! ing secured somebody with an ache OF pain,
Mr.. Sankey was able to convince his hearers
that 'Instant Relief was something that they
could not afford to do without. Sales followed
fast, Mr.. Sankey continued his harangue. as
he sopped the aching spots with the lotion,
while his assistants handed out bottles and
took i'll ffty-cent shinplasters. Whenever
the sales Jagged, and the people began to dis
perse, he sat down at the melodeon and sang
several songs.
Nh. Sankey went through the country with
his novel establishment, and at times was re-
inforced by other singers. When he YVES in
the Hudson river and western Massachusetts
cities young woman sang Duets with him,
and the party included a comic singer The
upshot of this business is not known, but it
certainly had the appearance of prosperity.
Not long afterward Mr.. Sankey sang in a
Chicago revival. i'll conjunction with Mr..
/ Moody's work, ands subsequently they went
to Great Britain together, where they made
/ their first great success.