On this day in 1899, a local snake-oil salesman was reportedly sent to jail not for selling fake medicine, but for cursing at the man who disputed his claims and demanded his money back.
Cursing in public, especially in mixed company, was a serious offense in Athens, often with large fines attached and/or sentences requiring the offender to attend Sunday School each week for six weeks as a public way to atone for their public sin. Ladies who cursed were often treated more harshly by the local courts, as women were seen as not being properly feminine if they committed such a transgression, while men had merely shown poor judgement.
Learn More:
- Athens Daily Banner, July 1899 - Dec. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
- Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
- The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicine by James Harvey Young via PINES.
- How to Overcome Fear of Dentistry by Robert F. Kroeger in the general collection.
- Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language by Keith Allan via PINES.
- The Complete Book of Dental Remedies by Flora Parsa Stay in the general collection.
- Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language by Ruth Wajnryb via PINES.
- The Encyclopedia of Bioethics by Warren T. Reich in the Reference collection.
- The Great Patent Medicine Era, or Without Benefit of a Doctor by Adelaide Hechtlinger via PINES.
- Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson in the general collection.
- American Health Quackery by James Harvey Young via PINES.
- The Berenstain Bears and the Big Blooper by Jan and Stan Berenstain in the children's collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment