Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-01-30
EELs ARE MYSTERY WAS HOME DOCTOR
Mother in Old Days Believed In
Roots and Banks.

She Treated Every Ailment OF Family
REMEDY for "AlI Run Down and
Drasply Feelings" Goose Grease
and Brown Paper.
Zone does not have to be very
old" said New Yorker whose boy
hood was spent on q farm, according
to writer in the New York Sun, to
remember when the mother of the
household came pretty near to being
the whole thing in the family doctor
line, and her faith in herbs and roots
and barks was as strong as her In.
dustry in collecting them in their sea-
son. ~
During the summer and fall months
she gathered snake root. pink root
blood root, mandrake-May flower,
so-called-colt's foot, poke root, cat
nip, horehound, elder blows. boneset,
wild cherry bark, whitewood bark,
poplar bark. sassafras root and bark
and other barks and herbs too numer.
GUS to mention. Along the walls of
the garden she kept growing rows
Of medicinal herbs--yarrow, sage,
tansy, balsam, and many others. Each
and every one of these wild and cult
waited. had it's curative value.
Crop, whooping cough, humps,
hives, carche toothache, measles,
collie, and all the other ailings that ju-
venile flesh was either heir to or
caught from the neighbors, quickly
ran up against encouragement in
the shape of some decoction or con-
coction evolved from mothers COL
lection of YARDS And it was not
only the ills of the rising generation
Of her day that mother unhesitatingly
went up against with her home cura-
tive agents.
Sick headache was forced to be-
come a we'll one when brought in
contact with wildwood bark soused
in whisky, while boneset tea was
febrifuge that required but few
drafts of 1t to make ones tempera-
ture tumble back to normal And was
somebody about the house feeling all
run down and draggly? Well there's
the whisky and wild cherry bark bot
tie up on the top shelf of the cup
board alongside Of the campfire bot
tle-another never failing resort in
time of need. Daily with that whisky
and wild cherry bottle gently three
times a day and the first thing you
know you'll be as good as new.
If any spring kad come and gone
without the annual sassafras tea be-
ing brewed and partaken OF copious-
ly by every member Of the house
hold, mother would have regarded the
outlook for the family health as dark
indeed, for it was then that, the blood
needed thinning and sassafras tea
was the important thing to do that
important sanitary Job.
But the household doctoring
wasn't confined to the use of roots
and barks and herbs. There were
salves and ointments and washes and
gargles and applications OF numerous
kinds, and gifts to meet the occasion.
all ready to the making from ingre-
dents on the premises. The gargle
Of vinegar, salt and cayenne pepper,
with the accompanying slice of fat
pork, made hot with the same kind OF
pepper and bound round the throat
on a piece of old red f1annel-neces-
sarily old red flannel, according to
al. housewife tradition-was the all
sufficient treatment for sore throat
not only the simple kind, but the
dreaded one known as quinsy.
THE bottle OF strained honey-al
ways the dark honey or honey made
by the bees before they began to
work on the buckwheat blossoms
and the jar Of goose grease were
yanked down from the shelf when
some Of the youngsters reused moth
er from her peaceful slumbers With
the honk, honk of Group. Quickly
down upon the cause of that alarm
signal went q generous dose OF the
honey sirup.- Leaving it to it's work.
instantly followed with hearty mas
saying of the youngsters chest with
goose grease, the course of treat.
ment closing with big square OF
coarse brown paper-the like OF
which we see no more-liberaly coat
ed with goose grease and placed firm
ly on the patients chest. Any case
of Group that didn't take itself on
and away within Is minutes after be-
ing met with that reception was mol
Of record.
Who ever had a cold In those days
of home treatment without going right
to work at it with mothers onion
strip? Onion strip was simply inc
expressed juice of roasted onions
made into strip by simmering In sus-
ar in a covered vessel and taken In
liberal doses. 1t somehow certainly
did do the busienss for a cold.
II was up around my, old home re.
zion last summer and was surprised
and disappointed not to see the 10,
with q stone bruise.a Why. tn the o'D
en- time. the boy who didn't coax
stone bruise on his heel some tllne
during the seasons round OF pleas
ure was sort Of looked down on ~
lacking in something or other. Whetn'
er tile stone bruise on the heel ~aS
made to show the efficacy OF motnerS
SOAP and sugar drawing plaster IN
dealing with such visitattons there -
perhaps no means Of knowing oo'
that plaster certainly did nave
draft that made the stone brulse pa's
its Intellectual fires, so to speak, Ill"
go way from there. .s...