THE NEW HAHNEMANN.
Reading edition
The taste for literature in homeopathic doses seems to be growing. If this thing keeps on, the time may come when knowledge will be put up like pills or wafers or tablets. And a great convenience it would be to the busy sons of American toil. If one wished to prepare an article on some historical subject, for instance, he could buy a box of Motley’s American Pills or Gibbon’s Roman Tablets, and take one after another until the requisite amount of historical information were absorbed. It would also be pleasant, if a gentle titillation of the literary senses were desired, to buy a few Richard Harding Davis wafers and lie down to delightful dreams. Or in case one’s conscience became unusually obstreperous, he could take Biblical tabules till his system was soaked with sanctity. If one’s pessimism were temporarily upmost, he could find plenty of Nordau’s pillules to help him enjoy his misery while the fit lasted. It’s a great scheme. Methinks the dim distant future holds a publisher’s announcement similar to this:
JUST ISSUED:
“Some Impressions and a Fit.”
By Mark Nye Bunner. In twelve pills and two boxes. In plain pasteboard boxes, $1.00 per box. In gilt edge boxes, uncut, $2.00 per box. By all means the strongest work of this popular condenser. It is not too much to say that there is more giggle in each pill than can be found in any similar work. And the fit at the end—well, it is wholly indescribable. Long Greens & Co., Literary Dispensatory, Chicago and London. Sent prepaid by telepath, on receipt of price.
A FEW CRITICISMS.
Washington Roast: “Not a dull pill in the box.”
New York Rostrum: “Very clever. After taking one pill, the reader cannot put down the box until he has taken all its contents.”
Chicago Between-Seas: “Cannot contain our disgust. Tried to digest the contents of these boxes, but threw up the job after taking one pill.”
New Orleans Pickatune: “The pills lead gently and pleasantly up to the final mystery when the Fit clears everything up in a very sensational manner. More such pills would have a highly beneficial effect upon modern literature.”
Herbert L. Baker.
