Blue Mass

Late in the summer of 1850, there was sickness around Hobart, and people were coming to our shopkeeper (probably George Earle himself) for cures. He sold them quinine, an effective cure for malaria, discovered in the 17th century and still used today. He sold them boxes of nameless pills and bottles of nameless medicine. He also sold them the now-notorious "blue mass" pills.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The active ingredient of "blue mass" was mercury. People who took the pills developed mercury poisoning, which causes a number of unpleasant symptoms and may result in death. We don't know what John Phelps was intending to treat with the blue mass he bought, since it was prescribed for a range of medical problems, including syphilis, tuberculosis, constipation, toothache, parasitic infestations, and the pains of childbirth (according to Wikipedia). It actually cured nothing.

In researching blue mass, I learned that historical evidence seems to indicate that Abraham Lincoln took such pills and suffered neurological symptoms as a result; but he eventually recognized that the pills were causing problems and stopped taking them. You can download an interesting article about Lincoln and his blue pills here.

Finally, I am curious about that purchase by J.B. Albee on September 4: "1 bottle of pain extractor." This is the first I've ever heard of the term "pain extractor." Looking around on the internet, I find numerous advertisements dating to the latter half of the 19th century for Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor, but no information about what its ingredients might have been.

Community and Communicable

The former Hobart House, remodeled and with a new hardwood floor in its dance hall, was now to re-open as the Community Building. It was thus "Hobart's oldest and newest hall," since the third floor had been a dance hall half a century earlier, before being partitioned into hotel rooms. The building's basement, also newly remodeled and painted, was expected to be used for a soft drink and ice cream parlor. All in all, the old building seemed prepared as the site of much sociable fun for the town.

Speaking of sociable fun, the M.E. Church on Fourth Street had just seen a lively celebration, as Bertha Messick hosted a joint birthday party honoring her daughter, Dalia, and a boy names James Hawke (poor little overshadowed thing!). Some 34 children and unnumbered adults crowded into the church basement for three hours.

Community Hall's first dance took place on Wednesday, April 23, and thereafter the hall was opened to the public every Saturday night. A mid-May notice read: "You who enjoy dancing on a fine floor to good music, are assured a pleasant and enjoyable evening in Community hall every Saturday. Admission: Gentlemen, 50 cents. Ladies, 25 cents."

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The day after the hall's first dance, the News reported that an "epidemic" of typhoid fever "raging" in Hammond had taken the life of an uncle of Hobart's Charles Nitchman. Early in May, the Gazette noted that an "epidemic of scarlet fever" was apparently underway in Valparaiso. A month later, measles, chicken pox and whooping cough were reported in Hobart.


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 9 May 1919.
♦ "Community Hall Will Be Formally Opened to the Public on April 23rd." Hobart News 17 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Grand Opening of Community Hall, Hobart, Ind., Wednesday Evening, April 23rd, 1919." Hobart Gazette 18 April 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919; 15 May 1919; 12 June 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 18 Apr. 1919.