Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/289

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VAGRANT QUACKS.
285

because those who know these men best do not see fit to employ them, that they seek for patronage among strangers, who do not know them. Society should be protected by legislative enactments against this class of knaves. But the State governments generally appear to be very careful of the rights of impostors, and whilst a man is prohibited by law from peddling essence, or selling tin, the vilest charlatan may with perfect impunity stalk over the country to deceive, defraud, and poison whom he may. If any class of mountebanks ever deserve the halter, it is such as these.

There is another class of impostors who locate themselves in or about the large cities, and throw their advertisements broadcast over the country—some pretend to be Indian doctors, some to cure cancers, and others, almost all chronic or incurable diseases. The unsuspecting country people, thinking that everything that is printed must of course be true, often take the statements of these knaves for facts, and are led to suppose that the advertisers are some of the most eminent men of the cities. Under these