Page:The Great American Fraud (Adams).djvu/26

 Fifty Members of Congress Send Letters of Indorsement to the Inventor of the Great Catarrh Remedy, Pe-ru-na," and quoting thirty-six of the letters. Analysis of these letters brings out the singular circumstance that in twenty-one of the thirty-six there is no indication that the writer has ever tasted the remedy which he so warmly praises.  As a sample, and for the benefit of lovers of ingenious literature, I reprint the following from a humorous member of Congress:

"My secretary had a bad a case of catarrh as I ever saw, and since he has taken one bottle of Peruna he seems like a different man.

"Taylorville, N.C. ."

The famous letter of Admiral Schley is a case in point. He wrote to the Peruna Company:

"I can cheerfully say that Mrs. Schley has used Peruna, and I believe with good effect. [Signed]."

This indorsment went the rounds of the country in half-page blazonry, to the consternation of the family's friends. Admiral Schley seems to have appreciated that this use of his name was detrimental to his standing. He wrote to a Columbus religious journal the following letter:

"1826 I

"Editor Catholic Columbian: - The advertisement of the Peruna Company, inclosed, is made without any authority or approval from me. When it was brought to my attention first I wrote the company a letter, stating that the advertisement was offensive and must be discontinued.  Their representative here called on me and stated he had been directed to assure me no further publication would be allowed, as it was without my sanction.

"I would say that the advertisement has been made without my knowledge or consent and is an infringement of my rights as a citizen.

"If you will kindly inform me what the name and date of the paper was in which you inclosed advertisement appeared I shall feel obliged.

"Very truly yours,."

Careful study of this document will show that this is no explicit denial of the testimonial. But who gives careful study to such a letter? On the face of it, it puts the Peruna people in the position of having forged their advertisement. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred would get that impression. Yet I have seen the testimonial, signed with Admiral Schley's name and interlined in the same handwriting as the signature, and I have seen another letter, similarly signed, stating that Admiral Schley had not understood that the letter was to be used for such advertising as the recipient based on it. If these letters are forgeries the victim has his recourse in the law. They are on file at Columbus, Ohio, and the Peruna Company would doubtless produce them in defense of a suit.

What the Government Can Do.

One thing that the public has a right to demand in its attitude toward the proprietary medicines containing alcohol: that the government carry out rigidly its promised policy no longer to permit liquors to disguise themselves as patent medicines, and thereby escape the tax which is put on other (and probably better) brands of intoxicants. One other demand it should make on the purveyors of the concoctions: that they label every bottle with the percentage of alcohol it contains; then the innocent clergyman who writes testimonials to Duffy, and the W.C.T.U. member who indorses Peruna, Lydia Pinkham, Warner, and their compeers, will know when they imbibe their "tonics," "invigorators," "swamp roots," "bitters," "nerve-builders," or "spring medicines," that they are sipping by the table-spoon or wineglassful what the town tippler takes across the license-paying bar.