Book Description

Excerpt from The Health Bulletin, Vol. 55: January, 1940 One of the most remunerative rackets carried on in North Carolina for a great many years by humbugs and fakers of every description has been in the exploitation of people who have some form of eye trouble or visual defect. A most systematic racket carried on from year to year has persisted for more than twenty years. Evidently, the group who have made this business pay them so well are affiliated and work together. It is probable that this racket is largely carried on by a bunch of crooks who have a central organization directing their activities. There is one thing that has been noted in all these years about the methods carried on, and that is that a fictitious name is used or a fictitious address is always given. The latest report on this bunch of humbugs is sent up by Dr. W. N. McKenzie, the alert young health officer of Stanly County. Dr. McKenzie surely does not object to our publishing his letter, which follows: "Do you have any information about a Mr. G. L. Law, who travels through the country selling glasses to those persons who are not intelligent enough to realize that eye examination is the most essential part in the purchase of glasses? This man has sold several pairs of glasses in the western part of Stanly County, and just recently we contacted a child to whom he had sold glasses; it was positively impossible for this child to walk with the glasses on. In my opinion, this is one of the worst things we could have existing, and I would appreciate any help which you might give me regarding this matter. I might mention that Mr. Law told these people that he lived in Charlotte, N. C., and that he was listed in the telephone directory, but it was impossible to find any such person listed in the City Directory for Charlotte." It will be noted by reading Dr. McKenzie's letter above that this quack was operating in the approved manner, in that he gave a fictitious address. Many years ago two of the most successful fakers that operated by claiming to be "eye doctors" gave an address on Fayetteville Street in Raleigh as the location of their offices on which the present City Auditorium now stands. Of course, there was not an office or a residence on that block. This man in Stanly, of course, is playing a little safer. Knowing that no one in Stanly County would have a telephone directory of Charlotte, he could not be checked on right that minute. People will simply have to learn that when someone comes along to try to sell them something good for their health, either medicine, based on a diagnosis on the spot, glasses or anything of the kind, that they are 100 per cent fakers and humbugs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.