286 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
tlcular style offered by that vender. It is often difficult 
for a man to get rid of one of these fellows, and it is sel- 
dom that a woman is sufficiently resolute to clear him 
out. A lightning-rod, properly put up, is no doubt a pro- 
tection, and the simpler this is, the better. All these 
twisted and fanciful styles, insulations, and complicated 
points are useless, if not worse. Platinum points can be 
obtained in any large city, and if one chooses he can put 
up a rod himself, without the aid of others. Some of 
these lightning-rod fellows are not only nuisances, but 
swindlers, and make the job cost much more than the 
estimate. We have received numerous complaints of 
this kind. The following comes from Baltimore Co., Md. : 
"Unclose a card representing a lightning-rod com- 
pany; tbey have been operating in this connty in the 
following manner: A salesman precedes the wagon, stat- 
ing that they are selling on a different plan from other 
companies, tliat is, so much a set, ($17.50 per set of 40 
feet); the next day an agent with the wagon and a work- 
man comes along, and after putting up about 100 feet of 
rods and two points, they modestly present their bill in 
the following form: 100 feet, © 42,Vc. per foot, two 
points. @, $3 a piece, two supports, @ $1 a piece. One 
tiling is certain, if they stay modi longer about here, 
they will be 'rodded' themselves." 
In all such cases agree upon the amount of work to be 
Uone, and the price beforehand, and don't be bullied into 
paying any more Every farmer and breeder of animals 
would be very glad if he were able to produce male or 
female progeny at will. A chap in Brooklyn has adver- 
tised that this could be done, and offered to send the se- 
cret for the moderate sum of $1. One of our friends sent 
the dollar, and received, written on half a sheet of note 
paper, the following : " It has been discovered in Ger- 
many, that if you give the male at the first signs of heat, 
yon will produce females, and if at the end of heat, males. 
This plan was tried by Prof. Thoy, and has always suc- 
ceeded. Yours, J. L. Clark.' 1 — Now this was "discoT- 
cred" we can not tell how long ago, but quite long 
enough for its fallacy to be proved, and as it was publish- 
ed in all the agricultural papers of the day, we consider 
the selling of this, which is no secret at all, as a first- 
class agricultural humbug While we are always ready 
to denouuee any fraudulent attempts by persons pretend- 
ing to have patented articles, that have been long in use, 
or otherwise not patentable, we do not see how we can 
help our correspondent In Buchanan Co., Iowa. If the 
claimant has a patent for the clevis, the law is on his 
■ i ili', and from what we at present know of the Case, Wfi 
should advise those who have infringed, to compromise 
the matter Letters continue to come in relation to the 
CHEAP SEWING MACHINES. 
We have in several previous numbers said all that is 
necessary about these. We need only add that we con- 
tinue to receive complaints of a concern in Canal St., 
and advise extreme caution. Here is now the " Hope 
Manufacturing Co.," advertising a $5 machine in the 
Western papers; the publishers send their little bills, 
and get no money for advertising. As the " IIopc 
Manufacturing Co.," give neither street nor number, we 
think it a very good concern to be shy of. People 
engaged in a straight forward business, like to have their 
whereabouts known, and the withholding of it is sufficient 
ground for suspicion The non-explosive-anti-chimney- 
breaking-powder man, has been to Seneca Falls, N. Y., 
he tried his little game in a family where the Agriculturist 
is read, and all that he made was the privilege of paying 
for a broken chimney. 
A DANGEROUS HOTEL. 
We advise strangers not to go to the Arcade Hotel, 
even if they can find such a place. Another death lias 
. taken place there. This time it was one Michaux ; Callin- 
■ 'water, landlord, wrote to surviving friends in N. C, and 
the whole story as given in these columns in June last, 
was repeated. Is it possible that so transparent a,trick 
as this can catch anyone ? 
THE DEALERS IN u QUEER," 
Bfl those are called who offer counterfeit money, have pre- 
sented so little novelty that we have not given them much 
attention of late. Their business must have diminished 
greatly, since they are by law deprived of the use of the 
mails ; besides this, other papers have at last taken the 
matter up, and exposure has been so thorough, that only 
the foolishly wicked can be caught in the trap. We have 
at last two new circulars instead of the old form that 
became so monotonous. B. M. O'NicII, who is one of 
he hundred or more engravers, who were in the employ 
of the U. S. Government for ten years, and "superin- 
tended the engraving of all the plates for the United 
States money, 11 prints from plates he has engraved since, 
but he is quite beaten by J. D. Falkman & Co., who offer 
"greenbacks struck off from tie original plates, which 
were Biipposed.tohave been destroyed".. .A good honest 
soul in one of the Southern States received one of these 
"confidential circulars, 1 ' and being horrified at the 
iniquity of the thing, devised a plan by which he pro- 
posed that we could, with the aid of a detective, catch 
the man who sent the circular. In the innocence of his 
heart he supposed that the sending of such a circular 
would be sufficient to lead to punishment if it could be 
proven. But nothing short of the possession of counter- 
feit money would lead to conviction, and that these chaps 
take good care not to have. As we have said before, in 
all this offering there is probably not a counterfeit bill at 
the bottom of it. The fellows offer to send the queer by 
express ; tbey may send a box of old paper, saw dust, or 
some such stuff in return for the money, but no counter- 
feit bills. They are too shrewd to have anything to do 
with such dangerous stuff. They know that the fool who 
has sent $25 in good money in the hope of getting $200 
of counterfeit, will not dare to " squeal," as he will then' 
show that he was ready to become a partner in a felony. 
They must now and then come across a weak minded, or 
really dishonest, avaricious chap, who will bite at their 
bait, or the thing would not be kept up even at Its present 
Blow rate. We should judge that there arc not five of 
these circulars sent out now, where there were a hun- 
dred before the passage of the law, excluding them from 
the mails. 
MEDICAL MGDLEY, 
A subscriber in Conn., seems surprised to sec quack 
medicine advertised in a religious paper. We regret to 
say that religious papers as a class, are Ihc most active 
agents in the spread of quackery, and we frequently sec 
advertisements in them that even the city dailies, which 
are not at all careful in such matters, would hesitate to 
publish. These dealers in quack medicines are well 
aware that not one reader in a thousand, knows how 
little the editors of these papers have to do with their 
management. As a rule the publishers of these papers 
pay less regard to the character of their advertisements 
than any others, but the editors are not responsible for 
this. It is an unfortunate state of things, and the only 
remedy we can suggest, is for the readers of these papers 
to inform the publishers, that unless they reform their 
ways the paper will lose patronage. If the publishers 
cau be shown that it is to their pecuniary interest to 
leave out this vile quackery, they will do it, but no 
appeal other than to their pockets, is likely lo have any 
effect " Uncasville." It is very kind of that li Preacher 
of the Gospel " to offer to send the prescription which 
cured his son of consumption. It is one of the 
oldest of tricks, and has been frequently exposed. The 
prescription will be found to contain ingredients, which 
can not be obtained in " a proper degree of purity " if at 
all, at the drug stores, and the advertiser, taking pity on 
suffering humanity, has at great trouble and expense 
procured the right stuff, which he will furnish " at cost," 
which is usually anywhere from $2 to $5. This is very 
old and stale, but must bring in some dollars or these 
"retired physicians " and " returned missionaries " 
would not keep at it The makers of " eye-cups " are 
industriously advertising them, aud we arc surprised to 
see that the horticultural magazines, which have usually 
kept very free from all doubtful advertisements, publish 
eye-cups, lotteries, and dubious sewing machines. These 
eye-cups are appliances, which pretend to change the 
convexity of the eye. Now admitting that they could do 
this, but very few troubles of the eye depend upon any 
mechanical defect, and the use of these cups may prove 
highly injurious. We repeat our caution, do not tamper 
with your eyes either by using these, or in any other 
manner. ...In looking over the stock of humbug-litera- 
ture that accumulates every month, we now and then 
come across an old customer, that has been disposed of 
years ago; we were quite amused to find this month an 
inquiry about E. P. Iluyler and his " Wine of Apocy- 
num." Our friend n. T. II. will find the question " What 
of him? " sufficiently answered in these columns in De- 
cember last. He is the same as "Old Mother Noble," 
and is the "Electric Health Restorer" man, also the Dr. 
Clark of " Indian Blood Syrup " notoriety, and we know 
not what besides By the way, wc notice that '■ C. 
Johnson, M.D." is sending out threatening letters by his 
lawyers. But then the man at the bottom of this Indian 
Blood business is E. P. II With all these things of 
greater or less antiquity, it is refreshing to have now and 
then a 
"medical" novelty. 
Once in a while we can get a laugh, as out of Dr. 
Churchill's "Restorative Remedies," for which a Cin- 
cinnati house, calling themselves chemists, send out pre- 
scriptions, and say how they are prepared, but as " un- 
principled druggists" "never prepare according to our 
method of preparing," all the patient can do is to send 
to the Cincinnati house, and get the genuine thing. As 
one of the directions U to " bent on a slow fire in a cov- 
ered vessel to 100 degrees specific gravity, 11 it is no won- 
der that " unprincipled druggists" fail. Yet these chaps 
call themselves "Pharmaceutical Chemists. 11 But the 
richest thing of late is the pamphlet, setting forth the 
virtue of Dr. J. R. B. McClintock's "Dandilion Anii- 
Bilious Pills and Bitters." We thought the narrative of 
onr beloved Ned Eastman was some, but that is as much 
behind Mc's pamphlet, as a Comanche Indian is inferior 
to a Philadelphia quack-doctor. This Dandelion stuff is 
nothing short of the very thing with which "the empe- 
ror, bis family, and his poorest subjects " are physiced. 
Why was Alexis, when he visited us, bo attractive to 
American ladies? Why was the Emperor's daughter so 
lovely that the Duke of Edinburgh chose her to be his 
duchess ?— This pamphlet does not say so, but we haven't 
the least doubt, that it was all due to Dandelion. It hap- 
pened in this way, Doctor Mac " had heard of the great 
reputation acquired by Dr. Micheleski, the chief physi- 
cian of the Emperor Nicholas, from his wonderful cures 
by the use of a preparation of Dandelion, the composi- 
tion of which was only known to himself." Now while 
there is the best College of Pharmacy in the country, and 
one of the oldest and best medical schools in Philadel- 
phia, there was no one there who could get the " vartues " 
out of a Dandelion root, so McClintock J. R. B. sent all 
the way to Russia, to find how to do it. The account of 
his friend, Dr. G.'s visit to Russia, and his interview 
with old Micheleski, is just touching. The Dandelion 
cures people who have been kuouted,and the accounts of 
the whipping of women, and "pieteis to match," are 
justly styled thrilling. Indeed, the account of this medi- 
cine is one of the choicest specimens in its class of liter- 
ature, and while the engravings of licking an I hand- 
cuffing half-naked women do great credit to the Phila- 
delphia artist who designed them, wc thiuk that the pic- 
ture of Dr. Micheleski, drinking "the health of Dr. 
McClintock in Dandelion Bitters," is a masterpiece. The 
whole thing is very funny, and as to the virtues of the 
stuff, if there is any disease that this won't cure, if we 
believe the pamphlet, it must be a something we should- 
n't like to have. Take this pamphlet, and the litho- 
graphed appeal to agents together, and they form gems 
in our collection of humbug literature, with which we 
would not willingly part. Aud yet, sad to say, there are 
even in this day of free schools and general intelligence, 
persons who will believe this balderdash, and what is 
worse, spend their money for stuff thus ridiculously set 
forth. J. R. B. McClintock may go to the head. 
The Practical Farmer, published in 
Philadelphia, by Paschal Morris & Son, is now the only 
agricultural paper in Pennsylvania, it having absorbed 
the Journal of t?w Farm, published by Daniel Baugh. 
The Death or Mr. Olra.— M. Olm, the 
senior of the firm of OIni Bros., florists, Newark, N. J., 
met with a very sad and sudden death on Sunday, Juue 
28th, as he was about to take his family to church. His 
brother, who was at a distance, saw him upon the ground 
holding the reins and trying to check the horse, which 
had taken fright from some cause; by the time his 
brother could reach him, Mr. Olm was senseless, the foot 
of the horse having struck him a blow upon the head, 
which caused his death in a few minutes. The children, 
who were in the wagon, were injured, but not seriously. 
Mr. Olm was about 45 years old at the time of his death. 
He was born at Luxembourg, and came to this country 
about 18G0, having abroad acquired a high reputation 
for the tasteful arrangement and management of grounds. 
For a few years after his arrival he was gardener for Mr. 
Judd ; he was also with Messrs. Parsons & Co., of Flush- 
ing. He afterwards established himself with his brother 
at Springfield, Mass., aud when land became too valuable 
for gardening purposes, they sold out and removed to 
Newark. His sudden death occurred just as the new 
establishment was fairly in working condition. 
Wool Waste for Manure. —Our cor- 
respondent, "G. P. D.," Philadelphia, who kindly fur- 
nished the information as to the value of wool waste as 
manure, again writes that the waste was used upon about 
18 acres of laud, and that the present season the crops 
growing upon the 18 acres, including the grass, arc look- 
ing " tip top," and that he is satisfied that wool waste is 
an excellent manure. (Being rich in potash and nitro- 
gen, it is a fertilizer of too great a value to go to waste.) 
The Wisconsin Rail-Road Deci- 
sion. — The recent decision that the Legislatures which 
charter rail-roads, have the right to make laws to govern 
their charges for transportation, has occasioned much 
comment. While some look to it as a step toward abol- 
ishing exhorbitant charges for the transportation of pro- 
duce, others regard it as a death-blow to further rail-road 
development in the State, and that the people of Wiscon- 
sin must content themselves with the facilities they al- 
ready have, as capitalists will not invest in rail-roads, 
while the present laws are in force. The case goes to a 
higher court for affirmation or Otherwise, and the deci- 
sion is not regarded as final. In the meantime if the 
managers of the roads, and those who make use of them, 
can be made to see that their interests are identical, aud 
that the matter had better be settied at once, as it will 
ultimately be, with a regard to the rights of all parties. 
