The Snake Oil Salesman of Seattle
A traveling 'magnetic' doctor promises miraculous cures for everything from asthma to consumption, setting up shop in 1889 Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Dr. McLennan, who has performed so many remarkable cures in San Francisco during the past twelve years, and who during the past ten months has restored to health and happiness hundreds of Tacoma's leading citizens, is now in Seattle for the first time, where he can be consulted free of charge. His wonderful cures in the past have been commented upon by the press, pulpit, literati, and notables of the old and new world. This is the only method of treatment that restores the life-giving principle, magnetism, to the system, thereby increasing the vital powers, and electrifying the nervous system, sending the blood coursing and bounding through the veins, withdrawing and allaying in a few minutes all pains and aches from whatever cause. A few deserving poor taken and treated free of charge. Consultation and treatment daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Office 111 Front St., over Gortin Bros. Tailoring Establishment.
“This is the only method of treatment that restores the life-giving principle, magnetism, to the system, thereby increasing the vital powers.”
The late 19th century was a golden age for 'quackery,' where unregulated patent medicine salesmen exploited the desperation of the sick. Today’s wellness industry operates with more sophisticated marketing, yet the promise of 'miracle' cures for complex chronic conditions remains a persistent, lucrative, and often predatory fixture of the urban landscape.
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