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Law of Broken Packages.

The attorney-general of Massachusetts has given to the State board of health the following written opinion concerning sales of fractional parts of original packages of proprietary medi cines :

DEAR SIR:- You request my opinion as to the construction to be given to St. 1906, c. 386, as amended by St. 1907, c. 259. The amended act, so far as it is material upon the questions presented, is as follows:

Upon every package, bottle or other receptacle holding any proprietary or patent medicine or any proprietary or patent food preparation, which contairs alcohol, morphine, codeine, opium, heroin, chloroform, cannibis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilid, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances, shall be marked or inscribed a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of each of said substances contained therein. The size of type in which the names of the above substances shall be printed on the labels as above, shall not be smaller than eight point (brevier) caps: provided, that in case the size of the package will not permit the use of eight point cap type the size of the type may be reduced proportionately. The provisions of section nineteen of chapter seventyfive of the Revised Laws, so far as they are consistent herewith, shall apply to the manner and form in which such statements shall be marked or inscribed.

Section 3 prohibits the sale of any patent or proprietary medicine containing certain substances.

Section 4 prohibits the sale of certain drugs except under certain restrictions.

Section 5 exempts certain classes from the pro hibitions of sections 3 and 4.

Section 6 is as follows:

Whoever manufactures, sells or offers for sale any medicine or preparation in violation of the provisions of this act shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars. It shall be the duty of the state board of health to cause the prosecution of all persons violating the provisions of this act; but no prosecution shall be brought for the sale at retail, or for the gift or exchange of any patent or proprietary medicine or food preparation containing any drug or preparation the sale of which is prohibited or restricted as aforesaid, unless the said board has, prior to such sale, gift or exchange, given public notice in such trade journals or newspapers as it may select that the gift, exchange or sale at retail of the said medicine or food preparation would be contrary to law.

You state that a number of retail druggists have

asked whether it is necessary for them, within the meaning of the above statute, to label with the prescribed label fractional parts sold from the original package by prescription, and they have pointed out the practical difficulty in carrying a stock of labels for the very large variety of patent medicines which they are obliged to sell.

It seems to me that the law requires the labelling of the container of fractional parts of the original package. The language of the act is very comprehensive, "every package, bottle or other receptacle holding and any proprietary or patent medicine." These words must be given their ordinary meaning, unless some reason appears for giving them a different meaning; If the Legislature had intended the act to apply only to original packages, it would have been easy so to limit the scope of the act. The words should also be interpreted in such a way as to carry out what appears to have been the intent of the Legislature. The most obvious and natural purpose of the act is the protection of all who are to buy the patent and proprietary medicines. It cannot have been the intent of the Legislature to protect only the druggists dealing in these medicines; and yet, if a fractional part of the original package is not to be marked, the public are no better informed as to the ingredients of what they are buying than they were before the passage of the act, unless they take pains to ask to be shown the original package.

As to the second point, by section 6 the selling without label of patent or proprietary medicines in any quantity is made a distinct offence with a fixed penalty, and the offender is liable to a penalty upon the commission of the offence. The clause of the statute referring to prosecution after public notice refers to the sales prohibited and restricted by sections 3 and 4, which do not include and are not to be construed as connected with the sale of an unlabelled quantity.

Right Up-to-Date.

I always look forward to the arrival of THE SPATULA, as it is sure to contain something right up-to-date and the editorial articles alone each month are well worth the subscription price for the year. Wishing you every success for your very interesting journal.

S. B. EASON. Cardiff, So. Wales, Sept. 15, 1908.

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One of the cleverest foreign advertisers is Mr. G. B. Wright, of Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England. Every week he has an entire column in his local paper. The column is made up of a series of small advertisements. Several of these have been republished from time to time in THE SPATULA. One of these little sub-ads recently was as follows:

"FREE PRIZE: A mistake has been purposely made in the printing of this advertisement. Can you find it? If so, put it plainly on a post card, also giving the correction, and write your name and address. Post the card to us, or drop it in our letter box. All the cards received up to the last post on Thursday night will be put into a box and shaken up. The first correct card drawn will entitle the person whose name and address it bears to a 1s. bottle of perfume. The winner will be announced in the window of Wright's Pharmacy on Friday morning. Do it now, lest you forget. It costs you nothing. WRIGHT'S PHARMACY."

Souvenir Sales.

At Kepler's store, Peoria, Ill., they make a practice of having a "souvenir" sale every so often. Their trade has come to look forward to them with a good deal of expectation. At the latest sale they gave away a Haviland china cup and saucer with every purchase of $2.50 and up.

Carnival.

Davenport, la, had a carnival week recently and the Oppel-Spencer Co., of that city, seized the occasion to distribute to lady visitors a suitable souvenir. The store mottoes are "Keep smiling" and "Don't worry." A little business gift now and then does a whole lot to keep customers smiling and the merchant from worrying.

Cards, Punches and Dolls.

A subscriber sends us the following: Have printed for you a card about the size and quality of a postal card. Around the edges of this card have the numerals 5, 10, 25 and 50 to the amount of $10. The inner portion of this card should show picture of a large doll on one side (for the girls) and the other side show a football or some other article that appeals to the boys. Each of these premiums should have a short but alluring description, a blank underneath or somewhere on the card for the child's name, and the explanation that if they will give this card to their mother or some good friend and have them trade with you until the card is completely punched (which, of course, will require a ten dollar purchase, at intervals,) they will be presented with the premium as shown on the card. Dolls can be bought at 35 cents each. They are quite

large and will prove a nice premium for the little girls. This will make the plan cost the dealer 32%, and cheaper premiums could be had, but do not believe that they would give satisfaction.

A Boys Camp.

A scheme which, so far as known, has not yet been tried by any house, but which at least contains food for thought, would be to start a boys' camp in some favorable locality. Then advertise that all boys or young men between certain specified ages, whose purchases at your store during the year aggregate a certain sum-say $50- might spend a week at the camp, enjoying its fishing, boating and other privileges, free of charge. This would be a treat greatly appreciated by numbers of city boys, and the scheme ought to prove a winner if worked out in the right way.

A Publisher's Schemes.

Mr. Hicks Clark, of the National Home Journal, St. Louis, Mo., sends the following scheme: We advertised to give a lamp shade free to everyone answering our advertisement. We explained in the advertisement that we wanted the services of everyone interested to distribute pictures free among a few of their friends and neighbors, and that we desired them to take a few orders for a 25 cent article for us when they gave out the pictures. This advertisement brought a large number of replies and those receiving the pictures with our instructions to give them only where a 25 cent order was secured, felt under obligations to dispose of all the pictures we sent. We also promised a 250 page cloth bound book as a premium for promptness and explained in our follow-up that if all the pictures were distributed on the terms given within one week from date, this book would be sent in addition to any other premium they might be working for. Of course there was a large loss on those who failed to make good, but more than 60% either secured the necessary subscriptions to entitle them to the premium they desired or returned the pictures, postpaid. The above plan is not exactly new in the publishing line. but I never heard of it being tried out elsewhere.

Post Cards Given Away.

The "A Shop" at Springfield, Ill.," is arousing interest by offering free a "set" of four post cards at a certain time on certain days.

Why He Stopped.

An ingenious Arizona merchant who had just enlarged his store left one show window unfinished and stated on a card in the window that as soon as trade let up a little bit he would get a chance to complete his window. Bulletin Boards.

Druggists in the smaller places will find a sidewalk bulletin of great advertising value. If there is a tree near the curb, a board for carrying such advertising may be hung upon each of the two sides of the trunk. Otherwise, say a writer in the Phar. Era, the ordinary double board, hinged at the top so that it will stand upon the walk like an inverted V is desirable. Blackboard bulletins lettered in chalk or water paint are not attractive. The bulletin should be lettered on sheets of paper that will cover the board and which should be fastened to it with thumb tacks. Druggists will find a set of shading pens well adapted for bulletin lettering. Bulletin boards may be used to announce all special drives, features and events. An exceedingly popular and profitable use for them is the announcement of public functions. The druggist who uses neat bulletins to announce forthcoming church affairs, political meetings, civic celebrations and all local gatherings of a public or semi public nature will find that his services are greatly appreciated by the individuals and organizations most intimately concerned, as well as by the general public He may properly place at the bottom of each public announcement a small feature advertisement for his own business, but in such advertisement he should be modest in expression and the use of space, and it is not appropriate for him to use the public announcement for any advertising quib, skit or pun. A Tea Pot.

James Van Dyk Co., Troy, N. Y., make Fridays and Saturdays special sales days by giving, on those days, a tea pot bank to every purchaser. A window display is made of the articles to attract added attention.

To Sell Cigars.

A prominent cigar store in this city has a very unique plan for drawing trade, by having a cloth-covered box, reaching from the glass of the window to the back of the window, and a card pasted upon the glass with a small hole in the center with the words "Peep Hole" painted on the card. Of course, this attracts large crowds, who look through the hole and see inside the words, "Blank Cigars are the Best for Smoking."

How Many Left.

Perez H. Starr, of Toledo, Ohio, sends us the following: "I send you what I think is a great window attraction. Have the window cleaned out and have either clean lake sand or sawdust placed in it to the depth of one inch. Then place in the window a small pan with 1,000 kernels of corn and a dish of water. Place four large Brahma chickens in the window for one week. With every purchase give a guess ticket. It is required to guess how many kernels will be left Saturday evening at 10 P. M. The nearest correct guesser gets any premium the proprietor sees fit to offer. Amount of corn and number of hens may of course be changed. It is a good

window card. Displayed advertising cards may be placed in the window." Before trying this scheme be sure it is not contrary to the laws of your State. In that case omit the prize.

Historic Drugs.

Dr. Gowers, treating of "Historic Drugs," says: "We disinfect our rooms with burning sulphur; and so men did before the time of Homer. We purge sometimes with rhubarb, especially when some subsequently astringent influence is desirable, and so did the old Arabians for the same reason. The value of castor oil in its chief use was familiar, probably for ages, to the natives of the East and of the West Indies before it was made known in Europe by a physician from Antigua 150 years ago. Aloes was employed in the same way long before the time of Dioscorides and Pliny. The knowledge of the influence of ergot in parturition we owe to the peasants of Germany, and the use of male fern for tapeworm goes back to the old Greeks and Romans. The employment of mercury in syphilis by inunction and fumigation, which our nineteenth century therapeutics regard with such satisfaction, seems to go back to the time of the Crusades, and it is said that its use can be traced in Malabar back to the ninth century.

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(From photo contributed to The Spatula by J. Leiblinger, U. S. H. Corps, Cuba.)

U. S. Law and Lottery Schemes.

The question is being raised by many merchants, says Brains, as to what schemes and sales plans can be advertised freely without running up against Uncle Sam's anti-lottery law. There are many simple schemes that are daily being excluded from the U. S. mails on the grounds that they are lotteries.

There are two simple rules, that, if followed, will relieve the advertiser from all intentional use of lottery schemes.

The first is Offer no prizes for anything that requires chance to determine the winners. The second is: Do not make it a condition that a purchase be made before the contest can be entered.

Some of the simplest schemes are being classed as lotteries and as such cannot be advertised through the United States mail. That is, circulars cannot be mailed advertising these schemes and the newspapers cannot be used because they also pass through the mails.

Take the old scheme of refunding the amount of the fifth, or any other purchase. This is clearly a lottery, as the particular sale refunded depends upon chance. That is, it is a chance that each purchaser runs. In the same class are those that are of later invention. Some merchants offer to refund the entire receipts of one day in a month. This is clearly a lottery, because no one knows just what the date of that day is. It is founded upon chance. Prize packages it would seem, are nothing more than lottery prizes. This plan has been followed by numbers of merchants and has been more or less successful. The idea is that a large number of boxes are filled with merchandise, or slips calling for certain articles. These were then wrapped up in bundles so similar that all looked alike. The customer purchasing a certain amount had his choice of these packages. Sometimes the packages were sold at a merely nominal sum. In either case the lottery law would apply.

Guessing contests must be carefully scrutinized to see that none of the features of a lot

tery are contained in its workings. For instance, a merchant might think he could put a large number of articles in this window and allow any one to guess the number, the three guessing the nearest both numbers being given prizes for their skill in guessing. This scheme looks as if it ought to escape the lottery law, but in a case in California a merchant placed a glass jar of marbles in his window and offered prizes to the boys and girls who guessed nearest the real number. Here the matter of winning the prize was merely a matter of skill in guessing. But he exacted a twenty-five cent purchase before allowing the boys and girls to guess. This case was decided on two counts as being a lottery within the meaning of the law. It required skill to guess the number of marbles, but when there were so many contestants, as in this case, it was decided that it was a matter of chance for those who would come nearest to the correct number so as to win a prize. On the second count the necessity of having to make a purchase before guessing clearly brought it within the confines of a lottery.

A merchant may conduct voting contests in almost any manner he pleases, because the winner does not depend upon chance to gain the prize. It must be arranged, however, that in case of tie the winners receive the same amounts, for if among two or more contestants, who are tied there should be one chosen to receive the prize, then the element of chance enters in, and the plan becomes a lottery. A merchant can issue votes with every purchase, and on these votes a name can be written. In this way a St. Louis shoe dealer sent the ten most popular young ladies upon a tour of the northern lakes. Next winter he will send ten more ladies selected in a similar manner upon some southern tour. Many merchants seek publicity through prize essays. The manner of conducting these may or may not render the contest a lottery. For instance, it is no lottery to offer a prize for the best essay on a stated subject, so long as the merchant does not make one of the conditions

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