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

w ell. sir; Les, sir, 90 FecO--
lect a good many patent medicines
! in my time said the old druggist,
as be 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 l 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 solo. 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 take the place Of the herbs
every woman had in the house
then. than regular compounds OF
drugs. AS for example, there was
'Townsend's Sarsaparilla,' which
had a 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, and | sell
them still. Wistar's '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 q
rule, and then we hear little about
them. As I just said, the first
came 10 take the place of the
homemade decoctions Of herbs.
Then came the reign Of the Bit
ters, about the time the war
broke out, and every one took to
drinking them, either as medicine
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 dozen bottles,
aud, when the agent came round,
would pay for what we 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 [ 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 advar-
tise it heavily; people ask for it ;
and so l have to keep it. Look
at that paper of ours, and count
the patent medicine advertise
ments ; nine and a half columns
out of twenty-one, eh ? Well,
don't you suppose have to keep
those things? I tell you, people
will buy what is advertised. It's
only of late years that this enor-
mously extensive advertising has
been done; that is, when l say
late years, l mean in the last
twenty. Before that, medicines
were allowed to make their own
way. But now they have got the
advertising of them down to a
science.
About the effect of them on
consumers, it is somewhat difficult
to give general opinion. People
nowadays have given up the
simples our fathers or rather mo-
theirs, were so fond of, and their
place is filled by the patent medl-
cines. suppose these can be dl-
vided into two classes-those tor
external use, and those you swal-
low. The former are generally
good. They consist of llnlments'
pain-killers, oils, salVes and things
like them, which, if they do not
do any good, will rarely do any
harm. But, as l said, they geu-
orally do good. [ have patent
medicines in this store which L be-
| iieve to be just as good liniments
! for cuts and bruises as any doctor
could got up. use them myself,
and [ recommend them to others
But when you begin to look at
the other ciass,-those which are
TO be swalloWed,-it's q horse OF
another color; some OF them are
good, too. You take some OF the
sarsapariIias. for example, and l
can get no better extracts from
| Il ut :, ri n r GrupCistS ~ hen