Curiosa: Beware, beware!
Nov. 21st, 2007 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nebroadwePrinted notice on the front wrapper of several parts of the nineteenth-century Child's Bible, Being a Consecutive Arrangement of the Narrative and Other Portions of Holy Scripture in the Words of the Authorised Version, With Upwards of Two Hundred Original Illustrations, which was issued unbound in installments for the purchaser to have made up into a book:
Ah, those were the days, when designing persons posing as bookbinders and crafty snake oil salesmen roamed the streets at will and even honest chemists might purvey quacksalving remedies for the benefit of mankind. (And females.) A world wherein the words caveat emptor sounded a profound warning to the gullible. A world a century and a half removed from ours, and yet, perhaps, all too familiar -- um, why do I suddenly find myself looking around for Rod Serling? Just cue the theme music ...
And, speaking of designing persons, inserted into pt. 29, right before the story of Jesus blessing the children, is a leaf of advertisements for various medicaments, including Dr. Greaves's Invigorating Pills --CAUTION TO SUBSCRIBERS.
Subscribers are particularly cautioned against giving up their Numbers to bind to irresponsible persons. A printed form of receipt, bearing the name of the Firm employing the Agent, and properly signed, should IN ALL CASES be required. Offers of gratuitous or unusually cheap bindings should be regarded with extreme suspicion, as designing persons sometimes use such pretences to cover fraudulent intentions.
a most efficacious Tonic for all the various forms and causes of Debility, such as Depression of Spirits, Nervousness, Melancholy, Tendency to Insanity, Excitement, Trembling, Fear, Starting with a Sudden Noise, Irritability, Peevishness, Loss of Memory, Lassitude, Languor or Want of Energy, Giddiness, Noises in the Head, Nervous Headache, Weakness of Sight, St. Vitus' Dance, or any Disorder that arises from Debility, or from a Derangement of the Nervous System.This is followed immediately by an ad for Dr. Greaves' Invigorating Pills for Females, sold in "boxes (pink wrappers)". In addition, one is exhorted to try Dr. Torrens' Farinaceous Life Food ("contains naturally all the constituents of the mother's millk, being rich in phosphates and nitrogenous compounds") and Marshall's Tic' & Toothache Pills ("Sold ... with 8 pages of Genuine and Striking Testimonials, by the Sole Proprietor, See Next Column. G. Marshall, Operative Chemist").
Ah, those were the days, when designing persons posing as bookbinders and crafty snake oil salesmen roamed the streets at will and even honest chemists might purvey quacksalving remedies for the benefit of mankind. (And females.) A world wherein the words caveat emptor sounded a profound warning to the gullible. A world a century and a half removed from ours, and yet, perhaps, all too familiar -- um, why do I suddenly find myself looking around for Rod Serling? Just cue the theme music ...