Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-21
OLD METHOD ANDNEW
EvOLuTIONs OF DRUG BUSINESS
WITHIN PRESENT CENTURY.
A LOOK At OLD APPLIANCE S
Some of the Once serviceabie Uten-
sIIs That Now Seem Quaint and
only Fill the Lumber-hoom-mnn-
chester's Conditions Then and Now

SltuIttSs
Meagre were his looks;
Sharp misery had worn him to the
bones"
II one were 10 ride the whole length
Of Hull street, in Manchester. he would
in this trip Of two miles. have to face
eight drugstores. The fact that there
are these eight pharmacies means that
once upon time there much have been
just one. Why this noticeable increase
is not so easy to solve. but may. perhaps
find suggestions of an answer in some
very different, but by no means un-
likely views. 1t may be because the life
Of druggist is an easy, peaceful, care
less sort Of existence, and is Joined TO
the encouraging record that a druggist
never makes an assignment for him
self. though people have a trick Of say
ing he frequently makes assignments for
his neighbors and their wills, as we'll.
Then it might be. as some people say
now. that the world is growing worse
everp day; that there has been a great
er demand FOR Manchester's good people
on the other side. Another phase of
answer may be found possibly in the
fact that the medical colleges have in
recent years been manufacturing doctors
I'm startling numbers, and to do their
work, doctors must have their drugs,
but In all correctness, the real satisfac-
ton must be found in the rapid growth
Of the city's population.
WORK BEGAN YEARS AGO
The first place where drugs were sold
in Manchester was conducted after a far
more modernized idea than is the state
i'm which the apOthecary business has
since lodged itself. Then, before the
year 1852, the drugstore in Mauch ester
was a Broadway department house.
There was a cabbage department, a
cheese department, a molasses depart
ment, a sugar department, and a place,
as our grandmothers tell us, for every
thing. So, in a conspicuous place, rear
the window, was the medicines pigeon
hole. much Of whose limited space was
occupied by calomel, used for everything
and blue-mass. The house I'm which
such a business was for years honOrably
conducted is yet standing. with the
weight of more than a hundred years
upon it's rafters, and with the appearance
of wintering another hundred without
as much as an additional. wrinkle. II
its third-story dormer-windows, as bold
" facing Hull street to-day as when the
sound Of the builders last stroke died
away on the surrounding fields.
The proprietor of the business under
its roof was the father Of Mr. +. w
Weisiger, and a man, as his son Is. or
whom the mantle has fallen Of the HuS
Virginia type, courteous. kindly, and
/ spected by all who knew him. An6 he
was widely known. too, for his roof was
| that to which all the section came wheT
| I'm trouble
People in those days were much NOR,
| conveniently inclined than now. A mans
| doctor is in one end of the city; mis- drug
| gist In another; the undertaken i'm yet an
| other. and the cemetery completely out
| of town. But. see herel In this one
house was the doctor, who prescribed
the incidence the druggist, who com
| pounded il; the undertaken. who came
afterwards. and the superintendent OF
| the cemetery
Mr. Weisiger was druggist and under
| taker, and owned an acre Of iand al
what is now Thirteenth and Perry streets
and there the city's dead were 'laid
| And many night did his wife busy her
! self in making winding-sheets for the
departed. In 1852. Mr.. Weislger died
very suddenly, and then the son, Mr.. r.
| w. Weisieer though a mere boy. under
took his fathers business. He was a
sturdy lad. and the work went on. as be
fore. He tells il of himself, now. that
he has worked many night, from gray
evening to gray dawn, on that box
which no man gets too old to look upor
without a feeling Of -s0lemnity and awe
And, while the rat-tat, rat-tat Of hi.
/ a. pfUhftc calm
his mother, upstairs over his head, was
stitching the shroud.
EVOLUTION OF THE BUSINESS.
! Since then Manchester has grown from
] a population Of 800 TO nearly ten times
| that number Soon after his father
death Mr.. Weisiger dropped the othel
| lines of business. and became the forerun
ner and father of Manchesters druggists
| As improvements have been made II
| every phase of human toll, new and bette
| ideas introduced, so also has pharmac.
grown. In earlier years the matter OF tn
preparation was a matter Of much ski
! and more labor. Many Of the Ingredient
! of a compounded prescription were in
| very uncomprOmising state, ana II tooi
| hours of patient work 10 pound them int
shape Then pills had to be made a
| home. powders had, In many cases, 10 b.
| of the apothecarys own sOun'
strokes, plasters were smeared. whicl
| was work one could not do wei
without sticking TO IT, All o
these various duties, Of course, entalle'
whatever Of instruments human skill. Il
it's crudity. had then devised. And l
Is a matter now to the curious, and to tn
curios hunter, TO look upon the tools
those who have done more, in one way o
the other. of relieving the SUFFERING
(which flesh is heir TO-" than any othe
! class of men living.
II was with keen interest that the DIS
match man. under the chaperOnage OF MI
| Weisiger. recently rummaged about tn
old lumber-rOom in the rear OF the store
| There they were in every forgotten nooi
| and corner Here a pair Of balances
| which seventy-fve years ago cost thlr'
| as many dollars In gold; there an olu
| fashioned tobacco knife with handl
made from the spigOt Of the cider barrel
In a upturned place were the great oil
| nestle and mortar, which has spent ION
| life in the disagreeable occupation
| making things feel small Many time
| nerbaDs has it's mufiied sound and tina
| of the undertaken hammer been yer
| clase together Then upon an incohVe
| nisnt shelf all covered with the dust o
| decades. are great volumes or curioslue
| I'm ves-dlSpensatories. Inese Noi
umes. numbering thousands Of pages eacn
have come down since 1892, as regular.
as the years themselves and thoug
through all this time they have been IN
druggists Bible, each is contradictio
OF the other, and will be 70 the end o
| the closing chapter.
| In another place side by SIDE as II com
| pairing themselves and thnAins aDo Ut. ~
| were two prescription cases-one box
| feet square. the other more than twice
| large These In themselves were an inde
and a gauge. as well. to the evolution 0
| pharmacy.
PITCH PLASTER SPREADER
The last OF this bunch OF forgottens
| ..Atoh ,,.aa only found with a search wa,