The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-05-07
A Run on the Blue Pills.

Glmnle gOOu Dig uOse OF mercury
said traveller, dropping his valise ON sh
r counter of Chestnut Street drug stor
d last night.
"HoW much, FIVE or six grains in
|, quired the clerk.
+ "Do you call that dose@
: "Yes.n
+ well then, give me about double tina
quantity"
i But" interposed the pin com
t FOUNDER.
e Young : man" interrupted the billion.
traveller, Il don't want your advice. I've
a got to bolt this pill, and want it big en-
!, ough to do its work"
Very well answered the clerk, and he
: brought five-grain pill
"How many grains :" asked the traye-
t Ter eyeing the mercurial morsel.
: Twelve and a half" replied the clerk
unhesitatingly as he filled a tumbler with
water
The travellers face assumed amytyrlike
expression. He threw his head back,
fixed his eyes on the ceiling, opened his
mouth and cast the pill into the cavern.
Then he washed it down with water, paid
ten cents to the clerk grabbed his 'valise
and departed.
do YOU have many such calleIs!' in
4 quired the reporter.
Well | shoald say so. Why, yoTv no
idea how many people have a mania for
taking pills. We have customers that
come here regularly once week and
! take pill or two. We sell more pills
between nine o'clock at night and two in
| the morning than we do all day. About
this time OF the year we have a run on
| blue pills. Men who take cathartics all
winter get it into their heads that they
become bilious in the spring and must
doctor their livers with mercury. There |
is hotel clerk who comes here regularly
once a week in March and each time |
swallows a dose of mercury.
Another man drops in here every |
other night and bolts a single cathartic
pill each trip. | said to him the other |
night, Why don't you buy box of those
pills and take them home with your
No nc replied, if | did that every one
about the house would think that ! wa
breaking down and he took the pill and
went away. He'll be here tomorrow
night between nine and ten O'Clock. o,
he's taken so many pills that he don't
seem to mind swallowing them. Most
people, however, never grow to like pills.
Last night man and a woman came in
and asked for two sugar coated quinine
pills. put them in box, and he said:
Never mind the box, we'll take them
here He swallowed one and she drop
ped the other into half a tumberful of
water and drank it. The water went
down all right, bit the pill remained in
her mouth and she chewed it up and with
awful grimaces swallowed the bitter par
ticleS. Wome. and children invariably
chew pills before swallowing them.
"a man dropped in the other evening
and asked for castor oil in gelantine cap /,
sules. He took three capsules from the ,
box, sat down in that chair called for /
glass of sodawater, and put the globules t
into his mouth, but was unable to get
them down without chewing them. Yes, .
it made him very sick, but he straight '
eued up on some saltwater aud two ca v
thartic pills. p
Most people take water with their :
pills, but there are many who insist on 0
having lemon juice or honey, or candy, .
Dr. sugar, or coffee, or beef tea to take the | I
flavor OF the pellets out of their =
mouths. If a man would Just walk in 7
T..
ing and examining and thinking of it :
they would not make as many wry faces !
rs they do. | have seen a man tumble I
md fool with a pill for ten minutes be- ti
lore he mustered Up courage enough to a
1ut;t in his mouth. No, it isn't pieasan c
70 look at the face of man who is la
with pill in his throat. 0
A miId-looking old man entere' and n
Interrupted the conversation. "Rhubarb =
oiIl,p said the newcomer. As it was 9
handed to him he said: Now a spoon 2
.uIl of honey" The honey was brought y
n measuring glass. Into it the old !, :
nan dropped the pill and swallowed the !
ness with shudder. Z
He comes here every few days" ex- v
planned the clerk, as the old man went e
nut. II never saw him take any but b
.hubarb pills. He told me he had been o
,aking them for twelve years. Every "
low and then there will be great run on o
'ome pill made according to a physicians e.
prescription. Last year we had a pill Y
If that kind for rheumatism and neural
ria, and after they become known We G
'old from enc to two hundred day.
Fifteen years ago old DIR. Gross COM Y :,
liver pill that made great :, :,
ieal of money for an Eleventh Street i
lruggist who had the prescription. and !,
hundreds of people still buy these pills 4
1t the same place. Every prominent ply
'ician at one time or another prescribed !,
pills that become popular with the all J, j
ng people. II
Il cannot say exactly, but think we !,
lverage forty pill takers in this store j
svery night. Yes drop in some night be- i
;ween eleven and twelve o'clock and you Il
will see me dealing out pills by the d
iozen. Business is trifie dull this eve d
hing. Philadelphia Times. ci