Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-13
THE RED PEPPER.

day, and what mas become OF the Old
fashioned red pepper? Men who are now
forty years old krew little of throat
troubles in their boyhood. There was
little sore throat occasionally, and once in
a while quinsy, and you would hear at long
intervals of putrid sore shroat. Children
were not as daintily cared for in those days
as now. Few of them ever had under
clothing to wear, and scarcely boy who
had an overcoattill he was old enough toearn
the money for it himself. Group was the
parental horror of that day, and yet as
alum and butter were early found sure
remedy for that trouble, warping or con-
tracing and 30 breaking the false men,
brane as it was forming, parents had no
great dread of that. Children had few
colds, and no serious sore throat-and when
they had, bowl of red pepper tea sent the
ailing boy to bed sweating, and brought
him out well in the morning
The red pepper of our grandmother
what has become of it? VINO that lived in
those sensible days does not remember the
shining string of alternate red and green
peppers that hung from the rafters over
the kitchen fire, and which had been
planted, raised and strung by grand
mothers own hand, and hung in the place
of honor, all to cure the children's colds,
COLES and cramps, and the older folks con.
pestions and chills-death to all the c's,
And who does not remember how per.
fectly the pepper accomplished its work
little hard to take, little hot after it
was down, and yet bringing you out all
right in the morning, and lending halo of
pride to grandma's face at the breakfast
table that the puzzled face of the modern
doctor seldom shares? All, it was rare
old magic-the red pepper that the grand
mothers raised and used. 1t cured all the
more. So great and quick was its magic
that many boy, who had such sore at
tack of collie, Group or cold that he was
sure he couldn't 60 to school, was cured at
the mere sight or smell of its steamlng tea,
and sent bounding off to school as sound
as a trivet and as merry as a cricket. In
deed, sudden cures have been known at
the mere mention of it. Older people,
too-men who were afraid of working out
all day in the damp or of digging in well.
and who now think whisky the medium OF
warding off possible chills-were often
saved by grandmothers redpepper tea.
What has become of the red pepper
And how did it happen that just as it
went out of fashion diphtheria came in,
and with it a dozen other throat diseases
with long and mysterious names-and
none of which medical science, which has
made the slowest progress of all the Sci
ences. is able to treat with much sue
cess Our grandmothers kept the young
and old threats of their generation cured
nm with red and cayenne pepper, and
warded off many other diseases with
them, What, since they have disappeared,
has taken their place, or is doing their
work? Something, whatever it is, that
doesn't cure.
A gentleman who was boy thirty
wears ago. said yesterday 1.-The reason
there is so much diphtheria is because
neople have quit raising red pepper"
The man he was talking to had sore
throat. and was trying to stave it off till
night with some of the gargles and washes
of the latter day, SO as to get his days
work done, and yet was growing worse
all the time. The apostle of the red pep
per said Throw that stuff away and
send out and get little vial of brandy,
and fill it one. fourth full of cayenne pep
per and put the cork of it to your tongue
every half hour, and your throat will
begin to heal at once, and your voice quit
being saueaky." 1t was done, and it did.
Later in the day gentleman trained in
medical science, but not practlcing it, and
40 not conceited in it's latter-daY nature,
came in and was asked " How does this
red pepper cure my throat-that is, how
does it act ?" He replied '' 1t acts as
local stimulus and in two ways strength
ems the diseased parts of the throat and
prevents the growth of any false matter
heats and relaxes, stimulates and tones
red pepper always does that. He added {:
"The world would be a great deal better
off, and great deal healthier, if it used
more of it.
So. while the modern doctor stands puz.
zled and perplexed and unsuccessful before
diphtheria, and while medical science can
do no more to control or cure it than when
it first appeared some twenty-five years
AGO. and while sometimes four or five chill
dren die of it yet in single family, why
not revive the good old plan of grand
mothers, of watching the children's thro ats
all the time, detecting the first trace of
trouble, and then using the old-fashioned
red pepper to fight and ward off the disease
while it is incipient and before it becomes
rooted?
Doctors will laugh at it. But doctors
always have laughed at the best people to
cure the sick and ward off sickness in the
world-the good old women, wise in expe-
rience, healing in their nursing, and those
who have raised large families of their own,
and helped to raise and save all the weakly
Young children in the neighborhood, and
ony ono IF whom il worth more in the sick
room of child ill with children's troubles
than all the doctors in town.
We propose the restoration OF the red
pepper to its old place in family favor, and
to its undoubted usefulness. We believe
grandmothers can take it, and with proper
care, by beginning in time, beat all the
doctors yet in fighting the dread diseases
of the throat, and in saving the children