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Hamlin's
Wizard Oil Company
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Oh!
I love to travel far and near
throughout
my native land;
I love to sell as I go 'long,
and take the cash in hand.
I love to cure all in distress that happen in my way,
And you better believe I feel quite fine
when fools rush up and say:
Chorus:
I'll take another bottle of Wizard Oil,
I'll take another bottle or two;
I'll take another bottle of Wizard Oil,
I'll take another bottle or two."
~~Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag.
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Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company was founded by John Hamlin, a former traveling
magician, and his brother, Lysander. Wizard Oil, as the Hamlin's promoted
it, was a liniment with a difference; not only could it be used for common
rheumatic pains and sore muscles, it was advertised as a sovereign cure
for a whole list of other afflictions, including pneumonia, cancer, and
hydrophobia.
In the 1870s, Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company promoted their chief product as
"The Great Medical Wonder." Advertisements promised, "There is no Sore it
will Not Heal, No Pain it will not Subdue." A partial list of its magical
powers claimed that it would cure a headache in five minutes, an earache
in ten and "neuralgia" in 15; it was also touted as "a certain and speedy
cure for Rheumatism, Sprains, Bruises, Lame Back, Frost Bites, Diarrhea,
Burns and Scalds." Even better, Wizard Oil could also be used on horses
and cattle. The Hamlin brothers marketed the product through migrating entertainment
shows, combining musical performances with medicinal lectures which, as
you might anticipate, hawked Hamlins' legendary cure-all in 35¢ and 75¢
bottles.
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According to the back of this
poster, Hamlin's Wizard Oil was "the greatest pain remedy on earth"
and it could cure a phenomenal array of afflictions: "Rheumatism,
toothache, deafness, burns, bites of dog, quinsy, diphtheria, gastralgia,
cholera morbus, bleeding gums,... and just about everything else!"
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