1904 was just two years before the United States government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which was designed to protect consumers from the likes of Dr. King. H. E. Bucklen & Company manufactured a number of patent medicines, including “Dr. King’s New Discovery for Consumption, Coughs, & Colds”. This concoction claimed to effectively treat consumption. AS we well know there is still no actively effective “cure” for tuberculosis. It was pure quackery. It was predatory. This is a 1904 publication , issued to promote the various dubious products of H. E. Bucklen, who was based in Chicago. Besides “Dr. Kings New Discovery for Consumption”, the pamphlet promoted “Dr. King’s New Life Pills”, “Bucklen’s Arnica Salve”, and “Electric Bitters” (“The great ELECTRIC REMEDY positively cures all diseases of the stomach, Liver and Kidneys, Biliousness, General Debility, Fever and Ague” !!!)
The entire external presentation is a classic of adverising visuals, printed in bright blue, red, white, and and yellow. The front cover proclaims “Charms, Signs, Omens —Marriage Predictions, and Fortune Telling — DREAMS — LUCK — LOVE. Inside a six-pointed star is a big red heart; cupids cavort about the edges. Two four-leaf clovers are printed in green. the whole is encompassed by a lucky horseshoe. On the rear cover Bucklen is comparing (for whatever strange reason) “Dr. King’s New Discovery” with other new scientific developments : Radium and Marconi Wireless Telegraphy. We’ll assume that the New Discovery did NOT include radium as an ingredient!)
The various texts inside, interspersed among the advertising spiels, are dream interpretations, marriage advice based on omens and astrology, palmistry, astrological and numerological mumbo-jumbo. There is also a lengthy list of brief, pithy proverbs (hardly biblical in nature). The various scattered texts promoting the products are shameless in their confabulations.
Considering how many people are gullible in the world, the whole production is a care-free — and careless — compendium of hucksterism. The inside of the rear cover depicts four lovely young lasses inside the leaves of a four leaf clover, with a caption that reads “THE LUCKY FOUR Charm Away all Sickness cure disease and MAKE YOU HAPPY”.
On the rear cover is printed the name of the drug store that distributed the pamphlet (and likely sold Dr. King’s New Discovery):
“N. D. Hart, Dealer in Drugs and Medicines, Pure Chemicals, Toilet Articles, Perfumery, Fancy Goods, Combs, Brushes, Patent Medicines, etc. — Mexico, N. Y.”
TITLE : Dr. King’s New Discovery Lucky Book
(Or, if you wish, “Dr. King’s Lucky Book -
new Discovery for Consumption, Coughs & Colds”)
AUTHOR : Not given ... Corporate
IMPRINT : H. E. Buckling & Co.
PLACE : Chicago, Illinois & Windsor, Canada
DATE : 1904
EDITION : Presumed First Edition
It’s a nifty, colorful bit of paper ephemera!
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Surrounded by
by Sue-Ryn
The abundance of harvest season is a heady experience. The fruits of one’s labors do literally pile up in buckets, baskets, and drying bunches; the miracle of those gritty little seeds made manifest.
The transition from green to all the other colors only ads to the magic. Different scents come up from misty mornings and dry afternoons. The summer was extremely hot around this region and all of nature seems to be enjoying the shift to cooler days and nights and occasional showers.
Recently while escorting my eighteen month old great nephew, Zeke, on a short hill climb in the park, we came upon a purple-leaved tree. Purple, not just a shade maroon.
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