Judge, 1913-06-28 · page 17 of 25
Judge — June 28, 1913 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This poem satirizes the transformation of American pharmacies in the early 20th century. The narrator enters a drugstore expecting to purchase medicines (Latin abbreviations for powdered quinine and spirits of fermentation—coded references to legitimate pharmaceuticals), but finds instead a general store selling everything except actual drugs: silverware, false hair, umbrellas, razors, candy, cigars, groceries, baby carriages. The "proud factotum" (staff member) explains: "This is a modern druggist store; We don't sell medicines no more." The satire targets how drugstores had become retail catchalls, abandoning their original pharmaceutical purpose. This reflects real commercial trends of the era, when pharmacies expanded into general merchandise to increase profits—a practice that concerned traditionalists who believed this diluted professional standards and represented misguided modernization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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