The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-14
ALDERMEN HAVE A PLAN
To Make the Quaker Doctors Pay
$50 Day.
CITY GETS NO BENEFIT
A License Law to Cover the Case-How
the Quakers Catch the Suckers.
Business Men Are Com
planning.

1t is the intention of some of the al
dermen to endeavor to have the city
council pass an ordinance which will
put a quietus on the Quaker uuacks
who are filling their pockets with the
money of the poor, or at least will bring
their fake down to a more legitimate
basis. Merchants who are residents
and citizens of Butte are required to
pay license of $500 and $500 per year.
while the travelling Quakers, by means
of song and dance and a few jokes
clean up the spare money in the town
and clear out like a travelling circus,
leaving no benefit behind either for the
city or its citizens. If, like circus
or other travelling show, the medicine
shoWmen We're in Butte only one day
they could not do much harm. But
they have been here three months and
they have caught sucker during al
most every minute of that time. Hard
working people by the hundreds have
been impressed with the idea that they
are on the point of death and have
had their certificates of deposit cashed.
have drawn their savings from the
bank and turned all over to the uuacks.
Strange to say some of the same people
who were victimizpd by Neno are being
vctimized again by the Quakers The
latter find Butte a fruitful field and
have already, it is stated, divided be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000 as their sports
from the gullible public
The plan of the aldermen is to pass
an ordinance requiring that all medi-
cine vendors who have a banjo or song
and dance accompaniment must pay
a license of $50 per day. The Quakers
: on the basis of their present returns
could well afford to pay this license
but then the city would derive some
benefit and get a portion of the spoils
which the gullible are giving up. 1t is
believed, however, that the Quakers
would discontinue their song and dance
accompaniment and would be forced to
sell their medicine on it's merits. if it
has any merits.
This is the way the Ouakers catch
the suckers: Each evening, in the lot
back of the library on a covered plat
form, lit by electric lights. two colored
comedians and one Dutch comedian,
They sing and dance and crack jokes
and the fish gather. When the fish
are gathered in pretty large numbers
one of the Quaker doctors begins to
talk. He is the orator of the outfit
and pretty glib talker. His only re-
semblance to a Quaker is the fact that
he wears broad-brimmed hat. He
gives about the same talk each night
He tells the fish how near death is how
sick many people are who don't know
anything about it. He tells them what
horrible place Butte is and how if
one is to live here he must have a bottle
Of the Quaker medicine. He tells them
what a terrible thing tape worms are
He exhibits the monstrous tape worms
which, he declares, he took from Sister
sullivan and Sister Mary Anderson
He says that thousands of people in
this city have tape worms who don't
know anything about it. He passes men
on the street every day who carry tape
worms eight or ten feet long. He can
always tell at a glance person who
has a tape worm. Most people have
them and don't know it. He can see
tape worms in persons in the audience
right in front of them. He describes
the alleged symptoms and he gives
about every symptom that it is pos
sible for a person to have. Then he
produces this bait. II is bottle of
medicine which alone can cure every
body of every disease on earth. He
isn't going to sell that precious meii-
cine for its regular price of So: no. and
But tonight he is going to sell a few
bottles of it for the nominal price Of
81. He Is going to throw in with it a
package Of the magic Quaker herbs and
also a card emitting the purchaser the
consultation free of charge with one of
the Quaker doctors That is the bait
and lots of the fish nibble. He tells
them that if they don't like their medi-
cine or conclude the next day that they
don't want it, they can come to the
Quaker quacks and get their money
back.
During the day the doctors" are