The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-06-05
TRIBUTE TO A MOTHER.
Interview with Charles H.
Pinkham.
MALICIOUS STORIES ABOUT LYDIA E.
PINKHAM NEVER HAVING
EXISTED REFUTED.
Son Of the Famous Lynn Benefactor Tells
of Her Kindly Interest in Woman
kind and her Actual Personality.
[Times-Herald Chicago. ]

| Lydia +. Pinkham, who is so widely
| known by the benign face in the celebrat-
ed patent medicine advertisement, is not,
as many people suppose, a myth. TO
| this fact there is no stronger evidence
than her son, Charles II. Pinkham, whom
the Times-Herald reporter had the pleas
ure of interviewing to-day.
Lydia Pinkham's personality has prob
| ably never been described in any of the
publications illuminated by her kindly
portrait, but that she was living force in
the world was positive fact.
Charles II. Pinkham passed through
Chicago the other day on his way to
spend vacation in the west. To a rep
resentative of the Times-Herald he spoke
feelingly OF his mother and the painful i'm
preston that prevails in some quarters
as to her non-eXistence.
"Of course" said Mr.. Pinkham, "the
mere idea is absurd to me, her son, who
knew her to be the kindest, sweetest,
gentlest mother in the world. She was
all her portrait speaks her to be, and her
whole life was given up to doing all the
good she could i'll this weary world"
SIMPLE LIFE AND SYMPATHETIC.
"Her life was simple and her heart full
OF sympathy and tender feeling. After
the business grew with almost miraculous
rapidity, she devoted Der entire time to
it, or at least to that branch of it which
related to correspondence with women
seeking her advice, and her pleasure was
| in that duty. / am proud to say that my
mother was not myth, and that there
was not drop of selfshness in her
makeup"
Mrs. Pinkham was unique among the
makers OF proprietary medicines. She
was the first to print her portrait in her
advertisements, and that face has seldom
failed to warm the heart of anyone who
has seen it. Mr.. Pinkham carries a por-
trait of his mother in his inside pocket.
1t is the face of the advertisement sure
enough.
name-was born in Lynn, Mass, and be-
fore her marriage she taught school in the
little Yankee town. Her parents were
Quakers, and it was in that simple frater-
nifty she exhibited her early ideas of
kindness. Her husband was successful
real-estate man, and possessed consider
able wealth. There were four children.
two of whom-Charles III. Pinkham and
Aroline Chase Pinkham-survive, and
who now own the business equally.
FIRST BREWING ON A STOVE.
Mrs. Pinkham had for years brewed
the compound that now bears her name,
on her kitchen stove, and had given it
away to her neighbors When the panic
of 1873 came Mr.. Pinkham, senior, lost
his fortune. 1t was while the family
were in straitened circumstances that one
day two ladies drove to the Pinkham res
idence and asked Mrs. Pinkham to sell
some of her already famous compound
This fact suggested the bright idea of
making the medicine in quantities and
offering it for sale. What followed. every
newspaper readec knows. She insisted
on carrying on her own correspondence.
sharing her work with her daughter-in-
law, Mrs. Charles II. Pinkham, and she
soon came to be regarded as public ben
etactor. This title she deserved in am.
pie measure.
HWhen she died she bequeathed her
place at the head of the business TO her
daughter, who today, with years of ex-
perience and study, and by the aid of a
corps of assistants, personally attends to
the great mass of correspondence that
flows in and out of the big concern in
Lynn; and that bond of confidence so
thoroughly established between lydia e.
Pinkham and the women of America,
whereby they are enabled to talk freely