1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
301 
price is paid for, a nostrum which accomplishes no moi*e 
than would a dose of some simple remedy like Calcined 
Magnesia or Powdered Rhubarb. One feels better after 
a dose of this or that pill, and advises his friends to use 
them ; the maker sells for 25c. what costs him hut a cent 
or two, and fortunes are made from a pill of which, were 
there a general knowledge of the simplest laws of health, 
not one could be sold. 
These illustrations apply to about all varieties of “pa¬ 
tent” medicines, so-called—though they are not patented 
stall, but are really secret remedies. We have looked 
into this subject, and our observations during these many 
years have fully satisfied us that these “ patent ” or quack 
medicines have, in our country at least, killed more per¬ 
sons and caused more suffering and more want than all 
the wars since the Declaration of Independence, and that 
in the annual destruction of life and health, the use ot 
these medicines and the intemperate use of alcoholic 
drinks are twin agents of the King of Terrors. A 
physician lately said to us: “ If the sale of medicines 
were entirely stopped, except when prescribed by a 
regnlarly qualified physician, it would compel half the 
do»tors in the country to go into some other pursuit or 
starve, for the use of quack medicines supplies more than 
half the business to the medical profession.”—And the 
remark is undoubtedly true. 
QUACK MEDICINE PROFITS. 
Immense fortunes have been, and are still being made 
by a few from the manufacture and sale of these secret 
compounds. There are many miserable failures also, but 
these are seldom heard of. One great element in the 
success of these things is cheapness; the first cost of the 
article must be very low. The most important point is 
to hit upon a taking name, and one that will convey the 
idea of applicability to a wide range of diseases—there is 
“ much in a name,” in this case. There must then be an 
account of the origin of the stuff—its discovery, and this 
should be such as to throw about it an air of mystery, or 
the glamour of romance or fable. The cost of the stuff 
being low, the retail price should be correspondingly 
high—a price of $1, $1.50 to $3 for a bottle or box that 
•costs 5, 10 or 15 cents, allows, after giving the retail 
agents a liberal discount of one-third to one-half, some¬ 
thing to pay for wholesale advertising and still have a 
“living profit” left for the maker. It requires some 
capital to launch such a thing, and get it started. There 
must be a general outbreak of advertising, a giving away 
of a few dozens on trial, and if the stuff only has whiskey 
enough in it to make people “feel better,” certificates to 
its excellence can be obtained at once, though those from 
patients who have been cured as well as from M. D.’s who 
testify to its efficacy are easily made up at the start. The 
advertising of these things is an art of itself. There 
are papers, we are sorry to say, that will sell whole 
columns—yes, whole broad pages, to the stirring an¬ 
nouncement, and if these give a sufficient variety of 
symptoms and a strong list of wonderful cures, the thing 
may go. It will be wonderfiflly helped if almanacs ad¬ 
vertising the stuff can be scattered by thousands, and 
circulars of convenient size to use as wrapping paper 
are furnished dealers in small wares free of cost. 
PLENTY OF VICTIMS. 
All experience shows that among some 40 or more mil¬ 
lions of people there will be found, if the work is done 
effectively, some hundreds of thousands, if not mil¬ 
lions, of nervous imaginative persons with supposed or 
seal disorders who are always ready to try any new thing 
that claims to afford them relief, and it is these tryers 
who afford a large supply of regular customers—for a 
while at least—for every new medicine that is offered. 
Such in brief is the real history of each one of the 
so-called “patent” medicines, that are now before the 
public, or have passed into the limbo of things forgotten. 
.Let any one notice at the freight depots and see the hun¬ 
dreds of to'ns of these health-destroying, death-dealing 
“ medicines,” and then look at the columns of the ma¬ 
jority of the ordinary newspapers and see how largely 
these sheets are sustained by the advertisements of a 
trade that keeps hundreds of printing presses and even 
paper mills at work, and he will have some idea of the 
magnitude of this traffic, and will not wonder that in 
some cases large fortunes result from it—fortunes to a 
few—but what of the many who support it at a fearful 
cost of money and health, and life ? 
We would not imply that all medicines that are put up 
and offered for sale are objectionable, for some, like a 
well known extract of ginger and a few others are not 
secret preparations; their composition is known and their 
effects well understood. But the great mass of the secret 
medicines offered to the public are health and life de- 
stroying#and those who assist in their distribution in 
any manner are, to say the least, in bad business.. No 
journal assuming to be a director of public opinion, or 
a conservator of the public good, should be so ignorant 
as to have any part in this nefarious business. 
We need hardly warn the reader to let every thing of 
the kind alone, and to not tamper with his health and 
vigor by taking anything, of which he does not know 
the composition. In most slight ailments attend to the 
diet and nature will do the rest. If really ill enough to 
need medicine, do not be wiser in your own conceit than 
the skilled'physician, who goes to another in sound 
health for advice, but like him remember that a disordered 
body affects also the mind, and when advice is really 
needed, seek it from a proper source. It will be an im¬ 
mense saving in money and in health—in life. 
NEVER READ MEDICAL ADVERTISEMENTS 
of any kind, in newspaper, almanac, or circular. They 
will only work upon your fears, by their skillfully 
array of symptoms and cures. Your imagination will 
most likely find som e“ symptom” which it will do no 
good to learn about. It is told of a certain nervous medi¬ 
cal student that in going through his text-books he actu¬ 
ally believed himself affected with nearly every disease 
of which he read a minute description.—A number of 
medical gentlemen once arranged themselves to meet at 
different points on the road a gentleman who was to 
come home from a village a dozen miles away. Each in¬ 
quired after his health, and spoke of how ill he appeared. 
The man came to believe himself really sick, and on reach¬ 
ing home, went to bed, and had quite a course of fever. 
FINALLY, 
the readers of the American Agriculturist have not 
for a quarter of a century been troubled with any of 
these distressing medical advertisements in its columns. 
It has cost an effort, at times, to reject some of the 
better class of these—if there can be any better class 
among things absolutely bad—especially as by this 
course we cut off a large source of profitable income. 
Those who make a thousand per cent upon their stuff, 
can afford to and do pay large sums to reach the people 
with their array of “ symptoms.” But we believe our 
readers prefer paying more for “ clean pages.” When 
they are unwilling to do this we want to go out of the 
business of publishing. Neither our pages nor our backs 
can furnish bulletin-boards for announcing what we be¬ 
lieve to be only a public detriment, or worse. 
Editorial Correspondence. — Items from 
“Notes by the Way.” 
[Mr. Orange Judd has resumed his customary summer 
tours of observation among farmers. These extended 
last year as far west as the Rocky Mountains, including 
Nebraska and Colorado on the south, Minnesota, Wis¬ 
consin, etc., on the north. A portion of last season's 
notes unaccountably disappeared from his travelling bag 
—those from Colorado, part of Nebraska, Mich., etc.] 
Where Travellers Should Go. 
Every year many thousands go on pleasure trips 
across the Atlantic, without having first seen our 
immense western country, our own majestic moun¬ 
tains, our grand rivers, such as the Mississippi, Mis¬ 
souri, Ohio, etc.—many not having even seen Niaga¬ 
ra. It is not well to do thus. There are no rivers 
in Europe to be compared in size with our own. 
The Rhine has a little strip of 60 or 70 miles be¬ 
tween Bingen and Coblentz, of much interest on 
account of the tumble-down old castles, and the 
legends connected with them, but nothing to be 
compared in scenery with the Upper Mississippi be¬ 
tween Minneapolis and La Crosse, and even down to 
Clinton, while from Cairo down a thousand miles, it 
is simply grand from its width and great bends. A 
ride of 1,000 miles from New England or New York 
to Chicago; then of 500 miles from Chicago to 
Omaha, and another of 500 miles on to Cheyenne, 
over the broad plateau, greatly expands one’s ideas 
and enlarges his conceptions of the vastness of our 
country. No journey in Europe approaches it, un¬ 
less it be a trip from Berlin in Prussia to St. Peters¬ 
burg in Russia, thence 700 miles from St. Pe¬ 
tersburg southeast via Moscow to Nijni Novogorod 
on the Volga. A journey of 750 to 1,000 miles 
northwest from Chicago, across Wisconsin, Minne¬ 
sota, and out into Dakota, is of almost equal inter¬ 
est—with its pleasure greatly hightened by a return 
via.Dul uth and down through the great lakes to Buf¬ 
falo or Montreal.—A trip of 300 miles south from 
Cheyenne, down through Colorado’s Plains, to Col¬ 
orado Springs, and the adjacent Pike’s Peak, with 
side journeys into the Rocky Mountain mining 
regions, has, or ought to have, more of interest to 
every American than a run over Switzerland—at 
least the former should first be taken, and the trip 
is far less expensive, and has far less annoyances. 
A line addressed to the Union Pacific R. R. Com¬ 
pany, at Omaha, Neb., will bring descriptions of the 
route and particulars as to cheap excursion tickets. 
A similar line addressed to the Chicago & North¬ 
western Railroad Office in Chicago, will bring like 
information about ex-cursions to the northwest. 
A Noteworthy School. 
The Seminary at Lima, 18 miles southeasterly 
from Rochester, N. Y., has done a grand work dur¬ 
ing the past Fifty Years. Of the Twenty Thousand 
or more Students, mostly over 14 years of age, who 
have enjoyed its educational advantages, a very 
large proportion have come from the farm homes of 
Western New York, though not a few have come 
from more distant localities, Canada supplying a 
liberal share. Many of these students, of both 
sexes, are now occupying high positions of honor 
and usefulness all over our own country, and some 
abroad ; but the larger number of them have re¬ 
turned to the farm, and are now the intelligent 
Cultivators and House-keepers so numerous in the 
“Genesee Country.” At the great “Semi-Centen¬ 
nial ” Gathering, June 6-10, we met perhaps a hun¬ 
dred or more of those with whom we studied 37 to 
40 years ago—almost all of them with fast silvering 
locks, but with the intelligent countenance that 
shadows forth an educated mind. How the hopes, 
the ambitions, the struggles of early manhood, 
come back afresh when one meets and recognizes 
so many earlier companions after the long separa¬ 
tion. Who could fail to “renew his youth” on 
such an occasion? While many of our readers 
would enjoy an account of the Semi-Centennial ex¬ 
ercises, we must not take space for this that belongs 
equally to hundreds of thousands of others not per¬ 
sonally interested. We will, however, speak of 
One Feature of the Seminary at Xiima, 
which specially characterized it during its earlier 
years, and is still kept up somewhat at least. We 
refer to the facilities for superior educational ad¬ 
vantages at low cost, both for tuition, board and 
incidentals. While the Institution furnishes ad¬ 
vantages equal to nine-tenths of the so-called Col¬ 
leges, for everything from common English to the 
higher studies, the tuition charges are but nom¬ 
inal, and in our day at least, it detracted not one 
whit from a student’s standing, or from the 
esteem of his teachers and of most of his fellows, 
that he wore home-spun, that he boarded himself 
on 25 cents, 50 cents, or a dollar a week, and earned 
it as he went along, in the garden, in the haying 
and harvest fields, in mechanical work, in peddling, 
in canvassing for books and periodicals, in repair¬ 
ing clocks during vacation, etc., etc. ,We know a 
good many who came to Lima from small farm 
homes 35 to 40 years ago, with only a few dollars 
in their pockets, and boarded themselves in small 
attic rooms rented for 25 to 50 cents a week, who 
literally earned their way, who stood high as close 
students, and who are now occupying most im¬ 
portant and Influential positions—some of them 
owners of grand, well-cultivated farms, some presi¬ 
dents of colleges, some judges and governors, 
some distinguished ministers, some editors of 
leading journals, etc., etc. The early habits of 
economy, of self-rdiance, of push, acquired in such 
circumstances, are of invaluable benefit, in all after 
life, whatever one’s occupation, calling, or position. 
Multitudes of farmers’ sons and daughters from 3 
to 30 miles or more around, hired their little 
rooms, furnished them from home, and received 
their provisions from the home stores once or twice 
a week. Probably during 50 years past five to 
eight thousand or more farmers’ sons and daugh¬ 
ters have received more or less of superior educa¬ 
tion that they would not and could not have ob¬ 
tained but for such economical facilities as were 
supplied, and the system of living, in one sense, 
fashionable at Lima. The high and graded public 
schools, now so common, have been in existence 
but a few years. 
Windmills Good on Eastern Farms. 
The windmill is found so useful throughout the 
prairie regions that one can hardly drop down at 
any spot between Indiana and the western limits of 
settlement, without seeing one to a dozen farm 
windmills within range of the vision. Until quite 
