Please remember that the free remedies are yours to take at once without charge or obligation, but if you use the Special Treatment I shall expect you to send me $3 for it. You need not feel under obligation to me to accept the Special Course, but I know it is just what you need and need NOW, so I feel sure your good judgment will cause you to accept it at your earliest convenience. By sending now I save you some time and ...
Dr. G. M. B., of ——, Mo., advertises to cure deafness, catarrh, asthma and head noises. He offers to send two months' medicine free to prove his ability to cure. In reply to inquiry he practically informs every applicant that his case is so bad that there is no use of sending the two months' treatment. In order to effect a cure in "your case" it is necessary for you to take the regular treatment. He accepts the chance that the literature and the testimonials accompanying his letter will influence the victim to bite. Inasmuch as he admits that his income is about $5,000 per month and that he gets three hundred letters every day, it may be assumed that he knows his business.
It is not necessary to go into details regarding his methods. The following summary of his business was made by the district attorney who investigated it:
I find that the business is being conducted through the post office at ——, Mo., under the names of Dr. —— Remedy Company and Dr. J. M. B——, and is a scheme and device for obtaining money through the mails by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, and I therefore recommend that a fraud order be issued prohibiting the delivery of mail and the payment of money orders to such addresses.
A certain "pure" malt whiskey is advertised as:
"A reliable all-round household remedy."
"It should be in every family medicine chest."
"It is manufactured for the purpose of supplying the profession and public in general with a reliable tonic and stimulant."
"It is a recognized specific to enrich the blood and build body and muscle, and in the prevention and relief of coughs, colds and stomach troubles it has no equal."
Previous to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act it was advertised in the following terms: