One Thousand Ways to Make Money by Page Fox

MONEY IN PROPRIETARY COMPOUNDS. Proprietary Kings and How They Acquired Power--Patent Medicine Secrets Given Away--Where Perry Davis Found His Recipe--The Parent of the “Killers”--Men Who Made Their “Pile” in Pills--Fortunes in “Bitters”--Electricity, or “Mustard Plasters”--The Story of a “Discovery”--How a Man Made a Fortune With an Indian Cure--“What’s in a Name?” The Mighty Lubec--Tons of Drugs Taken Every Day--Triumph of “Soothing Syrup”--A New Patent Medicine for Every Day of the Year--The Man Who Took Everything. Owners of proprietary compounds have built up great fortunes in the sale of their concoctions. Our drug stores are filled with patent medicines, and millions of “cures” are sold annually. The names of some of these, such as Hostetter, Brandreth, and Mother Winslow, have become household words, proving how largely and universally their medicines have sold. The story is told of one credulous hypochondriac, who, on the theory that of many shot some one is likely to hit, actually took every kind of patent medicine in the world, or at least of every sort he had heard about. As there are more than three hundred and sixty diverse concoctions, this genius must have taken a different kind for every day of the year, or else have extended his experiments through a long period, which seems impossible under the circumstances. It is said that Perry Davis obtained his famous “Discovery” in the form of a recipe in an old newspaper which he found in an outhouse. This was the foundation of one of the largest fortunes in patent medicines, and it was the parent of all the “Killers.” The men who have made their piles in “pills” may be counted by the hundred. Perhaps the “Soothing Syrup” success is the most signal example of “_multum in parvo_.” It is sold by the million bottles, and yet it is nothing but a little paregoric dropped in some sweet mixture. “Lubec” is a mighty name, but anybody can be a Lubec so far as the question of perfumery goes. Among the anecdotes of medicine venders we have only space for one or two. A man was crying up the virtues of an electric belt, and it was found that he had adroitly attached a strip of mustard plaster to the magic band, and this when heated by contact with the warm skin produced redness and an itching, which were supposed by the too trusting patient to be the effects of the healing electricity. Another man has made a fortune with an “Indian Plant.” He travels about the country with what he advertises to be a “troop of Indians,” giving performances and hawking his “cures.” The “Indians” are New York toughs, and the “medicine plant” is a common pasture weed. We give no sort of countenance to these frauds, but, dismissing them all, there are still both profit to the patient and profit to the maker in the taking of proprietary medicines. To succeed in this line one should first have an article of genuine merit, and then advertise lavishly. Below are given some recipes quite as good as those that have made fortunes for their possessors, and in some cases the exact formulas of these widely renowned medicines are given.