Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-01-15

overeat and be lazy Probably antifal
remedies were advertised to the Ro
man partricians 1000 years ago. They
have been ever since, and they always
will be so long as there are men and
women who eat more than they need
and work les than they ought TO.
AS these individuals generally belong
to the leisure class, with plenty of
money to spend. on self-improvement
htey form a tempting group for the
confidence maqd and the fake treat
ments have been sprung on the pub
lie by the score. Most of them have
been promptly exposed as frauds OF
have died natural death as soon
as a reasonable number of victims
found that they did not fulfil the ex-
travagant promises made by their
promoters. The public has recently
been treated to demonstration of the
antifat remedy de luxe. The combina-
ton of professional antifat faker
with o popular and well4advertised
5urlesque actress, the use of an ex-
uberant and variegated vocabulary in
framing advertising, and of an unlim-
tied amount of printers ink in making
extravagant promises to the overfed
has resulted in breaking the news to
the expectant world that the Texas
uGinan World-Famed Treatment for
Sorpulency' will relieve all the ills
of fat people for 500 bottle. This
would be lovely - it were true, but.
unfortunately, it is not. The man be-
hind the scheme is Walter C. Cunning
ham. who in 1905 is said to have SER
we'd term in Jail in Minneapolis for
fraudulent acts in the real-estate bust
ness, who later went into the mail
order medical fake business, probably
as offering greater profits with less
risk. In 1909 he started, in Chicago,
mail4order bust developer and wrink-
lie eradicator concern under the name
Of his wife, Elelvn Cunningham. In
1910 he sold out this concern and start
ed another under the name of Della
Carson. In 1911, after being divorc-
ed from Evelyn Cunningham, he mar
led Marjorie Hamilton, the calendar
girl" went to Denver, where he start
ed the Marjorie hamilton Obesity
Cure" the Rrincess Toxic Beauty
Comptny'' and the Cunningham Mail
Order School," Early in August dis
patches from Denver stated that the
calendar girl had been "deposed as
the light in the lives of fat women
Who seek to reduce" In an interview
n a Chicago newspaper at about the
same time Marjorie said: ''Mr. Gun
bingham now has another scheme for
money-making. l would advise the
people who are dealing with him to
look out" Mr.. Cunningham did have
another scheme. In involved another
woman whose name he could use and
another fat-reducing fake. This time
the woman was Texas Guinan, and the
wonderful remedy which was offered
as an absolute unfailing fat reducer"
was found on analysis in the labora-
tory of the American Medical Associa-
ton to be solution of alum and alco-
hol in water. A bottle of this wonder
full mixture costs 80, cents, and was
offered for sale by Cunningham as
Texas Guianan's WorldFamed Treat
ment for Corpulency," at the low price
of $40, leaving an insignificant margin
of profit on each bottle of $3.50. The
Journal of the American Medical AS
ISOLATION, which has just published
a complete exposure of this fake, says
that it will not have any more effect
on surplus fat than so much ditch
water, and that it's sale under the
claims made for it and at such an out
rageous price is plain swindle and
fraud. The fact that this business is
carried on almost exclusively through
the United States mails ought to make
its career short one However. as
soon as this fraud is squelched, the
versatile Cunningham will doubtless
find another woman behind whose
name he can hide, and with whose
assistance he can sell another worth.
less mixture at an exorbitant price
That unfortunate part Of the public
which sufferers from too much fat
ought to understand by this time that
there Is no remedy for this condition
but to eat less and work more, the
only two things which most Of these.