to them from the
great world beyond is a tissue of false promises and fraudulent
pretensions? The law is a cumbersome vehicle to move. It cannot be
driven by inspiration--no matter how crucial the incentive may be that
creates the inspiration,--it moves only by the potential force of a
great conviction, the voice of the people. It seems a pity to waste time
in the education of all the people before their voice shall be raised to
demand protection, when the authorities know now of the wrong that is
being perpetrated and could right it without the waste of this precious
time.

Since we cannot hope for legislative assistance until the people are
aroused to demand it, every mother who has an opportunity to learn the
truth about the matter, must become a member of the propaganda of
education and must spread the knowledge to others. We must educate the
army of innocents who fall because they do not know the truth, and we
must reach that vaster army, whose gullibility permits these frauds to
flourish. We must show them the false foundation and the hollow pretense
upon which such schemes are founded. We must show them that each detail
of the business is inspired by a wrong motive; that the so-called
personal letters even are printed by the hundreds of thousands, and
filled in to appear as personal communications by office clerks who
possess absolutely no medical knowledge; that the "diagnosis" blanks are
worthless and frequently dangerous, and simply sent to the prospective
victim to impress him and draw him on; that the medicine furnished, is,
as a rule, made of the cheapest of drugs, bought in large quantities
from parties, whose reputation in the drug trade is not of the best;
that the medicine has no special potency nor value, that it is in all
likelihood a worthless mixture, which in the advertisements is given
false and lying properties; that when they have got all the money out of
the victim possible they will sell his letters to other nostrum venders.
It is a sorry reflection on our civilization that the sick, often the
incurably ill, cannot be protected against their own credulity and the
devices of those who would fatten on their misfortune and profit by
their sufferings.

If every mother who reads this article would quietly think the matter
over and reach a definite conclusion as to just how she may contribute
her share to the educational crusade to crush the patent medicine
monster, I am certain it would not be lo