Evening star., 1900-12-29
COUNTRY DOCTOR CURES
TAR AND APPLE BRANDY WORKED
WONDERS IN THE OLD DAYS.
Made the Hair Grow as Well as Help
ed Interior TrOubles-Big
Pills, Though.

Nearly the whole virtue Of the pine
weeds abides in good pine tar the old
doctor said. Everybody knows that weak
lurgs are helped by breathing piney at
mosphere. Now, tar Is, so to speak, the
pine scent made concrete. Tar Is. under
stand. the residuary juice in heart pine.
especially the pines killed by scraping for
turpent1ne. For gout, especially rheumatic
gout. with it's concurrent kidney troubles,
plain rheumatism and dyspepsia tar in ap-
pie brandy is mighty tine thing. 1t must
be pure pine tar and pure brandy, Of course
two tablespoonsfuls of tar to quart of
ths spirit. The mixture was not infallible,
but 1t has some wonderful cures to its
credit l recall one in particular-an am
bilious young planter whom three city spe-
near pitching them out of the window after
their medicine. Then he began on the tar
red brandy. Result, he is living still, hale
and ruddy. able to ride after fox with
his grandsons, and swap horses with the
professional on county court days.
Tar ointment was a boon, especially to
the children. 1t cured wounds. bruises,
cuts, stone bruises and all manner OF sores
To make it the tar was warmed TIL 1t
would run, then beaten into freSh-churned
butter, which had been washed clean OF
milk, and creamed. When the mixture was
complete. melted beeswax was added and
beaten in over hot water. At the very last
very strong elder flower tea was added ana
the mass stirred hard until every drop was
taken up. In use the ointment was soften
ed, not melted and spread on silk or linen:
The plaster stuck of it's own motion, and
when it came off usually left sound SKIN
and flesh behind 1t.
For Infantile Diseases.
1t was the same way with the tar caps
used for all sorts of infantile scalp dis
rf nrYll
The cap proper was of silk. with the seams
outside, fitting the head close 1t was
smeared all over the inside with melted tar,
mixed with. half it's own bulk of unsalted
butter. Thdk went on while the tar was
still soft, 3Ad like the plasters, had to
wear Off aEnetimes grown people wore
tar caps, tHSse who had lost their hal
mature badness. Invariably when the cap
came off there was a fine growth of soft
young hair underneath it.
Zone thrifty old gentleman simply
laughed at hog-cholera, SO long as ne could
get real>pine tar a-p,enty. He mixed the
tar well through soft soap. made lather
of the soap and scrubbed every hog he
owned with 1t every three months Fur
ther he smeared tar plenttfuliy on logs and
posts where the hogs could rub against It,,
and put drops Of 1t in their weekly mess Of
salt and ashes. He had never heard of q
microbe, but his creed was. Doctor your
hogS before they get SICK, IL you want 10
keep 'em we'll
One Was n Big Dose.
after the civil war at least half the SOL
diers who lived through it suffered from
either camp or prison dysentery-something
which every doctor knows IT is not too easy
to cure. But tar pills cured at least twen-
ty cases within my knowledge. l doubt If
any pharmacopiae ever saw their ltke-they
We're first made by the man who washed
his hogs, and tried upon himself and his
slaves. He took strained and melted tar.
beat into it half its own weight of raw yel-
low of egg, then boiled down white wa nut
bark to a strong, almost gummy. ooze.
mixed 1t In and set the whole mixture un-
der glass in the sun for a week Then he
grated calamus root, made his pills, and
rolled them in it. They were fat, round
pills-one was all you cared to swallow
and luckily one was a dose.
''They cured not only dysen+ery, but dys-
pepsia. Indeed, any chronic digestive trou
BILE yielded to them, in whole or in part. l
have thought many times that If the man
who made them first had realized his op-
port unity. and risen to it, he might have
made money enough to regild a duca
coronet, not to mention having his name
known as a household word
MARTHA McCULLOCH WILLIAMS.