The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1881-06-29
MiscelIansous.
90
PATENT PANACEAS.

w ell, SIT lcS, slI; w AoSoi'
lect good many patent medicines
in my time said the old druggist,
as he glanced over the bottle
laden counter. Some Of them
have gone out of fashion, some Of
them are no longer made, and
some of them | have upon the
shelves still. 1t is curious, though,
how the use Of them has increas-
ed. When | first went into busi-
ness, and that's over thirty
years ago now, there were only
Two or three sold. Most Of the
stuff people used to take then
was ordered by the doctor or
given by the women-foIks in the
form of herb teas. Even the pat
ent medicines were more attempts
to tako the place Of the herbs
every woman bad in the house
then. than regular compounds OF
drugs. AS for example, there was
'Townsend's Sarsaparilla,' which
had run from 40 to '45, ard
then disappeared. Ayers and
Morris's extracts Of the same plant
came in about the time that
Townsend's went out, aud | sell
them still. Wistars :Balsam Of
Wild Cherry too, is one of the
oldest; and pulmonary Balsam'
dates from 1926, yet l sell it TO-
day. But most Of them die out.
They run for about ten years, as a
rule, and then we hear little about
them. As l just said, the first
came to take the place OF the
homemade decoctions Of herbs.
Then came the reign oftbe Bit
ters, about the time the war
broke out, and every one took to
drinking them, either as medicine
n
or because they liked them. Of
late years, l notice that the pro-
prietors of patent medicines talk
less about what they are made of
and more about the good they
will do the purchaser. The meth
cd of placing them upon the
market is different. They used
to leave them with US to sell that
is, we would take a dozen bottles,
aud, when the agent came round,
would pay for what VIC got rid Of.
Now, bless your soul, we have to
pay for them whether we sell or
not-pay for them when we get
them. Why, l suppose l have
got in the store over eight hun
dred dollars worth Of them that
never have been sold, nor never
will be-. But what can | do? A
medicine comes out !; they adver-
tise it heavily; people ask for it
and so l have to keep it. Loob
at that paper of ours, and count
the patent medicine ADVERTISE
ments nine and half column:
out Of twenty-one, eh? Well
don't you suppose l have to keeE
those things? I tell you, people
will buy what is advertised. It''
only Of late years that this enor-
mously extensive advertising ha:
| been done; that is, when l sag
late years, l mean in the las
twenty. Before that, medicines
were allowed to make their owl
way. But now they have got th'
advertising of them down to
science.
About the effect Of them OF
consumers, it is somewhat dificul
to give a general opinion. Peopl
nowadays have given up tn
simples our fathers: or rather mo-
theirs, were so fond of, and thel
place is filed by the patent medl'
cines. 1 suppose these can be dl
vided into two classes-those TO
external use, and those you swal
low. The former are general
good. They consist of linimentS
pain-killers, oils, salVes and thing
like them, which, if they do no
do any good, will rarely do an
harm. But, as [ said, they geu
orally do good. I have paten
medicines in this store which be
lieve to be just as good linlment
for cuts and bruises as any docto
could got up. l use them myse!
and [ recommend them to other
But when you begin to look 6
, the other cIass,-those which ar
to be swallowed,-it's a horse {
r another color; some OF them al
good, too. You take some OF tn
s sarsaparillas, for example, and
can get no better extracts tro'
the man ufacturing druggists. Ihe
-. o,o otbar thinpS which