The Pharmaceutical Symbolism of O. Henry

by Robert A. Buerki*

ithin the short span of a decade, a quiet, with a strong inventive turn, yet his career was prepossessingW Southerner called Will Porter be- marred by a marked tendency toward tippling came the most widely‑read writer in the United and a genial fecklessness. According to one of States; from 1899 to 1910, he produced nearly Will’s schoolmates, Dr. Porter “fell a victim to 300 short stories that captured the fancy and touched the hearts of countless newspaper and magazine readers of his own time—stories that are still enjoyed by millions throughout the world. So popular did his method become that the modern short story was thereby standard- ized—and his pseudonym, “O. Henry,” has itself become a symbol to represent a recognizable species of short-story writing. Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter, The Early Years O. Henry’s father. O. Henry was born William Sidney Porter, in Greensboro, North Carolina, on 11 September 1862. Neither of his parents appear to have had a strong direct influence on young Will Porter; his mother died of tuberculosis when Will was three years old, and it is doubtful whether he the delusion that he had solved the problem had more than the dimmest memory of her.1 His of perpetual motion, and finally abandoned a father, Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter, was regard- splendid practice and spent nearly all his time ed as the leading physician of Guilford County working on his machines.”2 As he grew older, Dr. Porter gave less attention to his profession * Professor Emeritus, Division of Pharmacy Practice and Adminis- and increasingly devoted his time to impracti- tration, The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, 500 West cal inventions, particularly after the death of his Twelfth Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1291. Adapted from “The 3 Pharmaceutical Symbolism of O. Henry,” a paper presented to the wife. It was well‑known in Greensboro that Dr. American Institute of the History of Pharmacy Section on Contrib- Porter drank to excess; rumors circulated, and uted Papers, May 16, 1977, New York, New York. it was whispered that he was no longer capable

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 3 The Porter and Tate pharmacy operated by Will’s uncle, W. Clark Porter.

as a physician.4 The neglected medical practice The Drug Store Years, 1879-1882 began to dwindle, eventually declining to almost At the age of fifteen, Will’s formal school- nothing, and Dr. Porter ceased to be a support ing ended; his aunt was hard‑pressed to support to his family. The burden of maintaining the the family, and Will was encouraged to take the household fell upon the shoulders of Will’s stern first job that was offered. Following in hisfa- paternal grandmother, Mrs. Ruth Porter, and ther’s erratic footsteps, he went to work as an his maternal aunt, Miss Evelina Porter, an ex- apprentice pharmacist in the drugstore oper- ceptional woman whose influence upon Will was ated by his uncle, W. Clark Porter. Located on both deep and lasting.5 “Miss Lina,” as she was Elm Street across from the old Benbow Hotel, called, also kept a small private primary school the store was a social gathering place for the that adjoined the Porter residence as one means town’s leading characters and men of substance of providing the family income. Miss Lina was alike. Many of the local celebrities met daily in a forceful disciplinarian who served not only the drugstore, where they repeated the news, as Will’s surrogate mother but also as the best exchanged stories, talked politics, or re-fought teacher he ever had. Under her tutelage, Will the war from Sumter to Appomattox while they learned respect for the written word as well as played checkers or dominoes. These patrons and for the essentials of creative art. There is no loungers were a curious study in character types doubt that her enthusiasm and discipline were of the Old South, and Porter’s Drug Store a fine the forces that aroused Porter’s youthful passion place to study humanity in its unbuttoned state; for reading and his later desire to create.6 the male citizens of the town gathered around

4 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History the potbellied stove, smoked cigars, and gener- ing havoc with his health: Will suffered from a ally let their hair down. Behind the store there chronic, hacking cough, which caused the older were stakes for horseshoe pitching and a pistol townsfolk to nod to each other with melancholy range on which Will, in his spare time, devel- significance; young Will, in their opinion, wasn’t oped into a marksman.7 long for this world.13 Dr. Hall, too, worried over During the next four years, Will quickly Will’s health, and in March, 1882, when he and but unobtrusively learned the tools of the trade his wife invited Will to accompany them as their and mastered thoroughly the techniques and guest on a visit to their four sons in the dry and secrets of the pharmacopoeia; his qualifications salubrious climate of Texas, Will took the offer were officially established in the records of the and left Greensboro, happy to escape from the North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association, hometown to which he never returned.14 Will ap- where his name appears on the first list of drug- plied to Morley Brothers, a large wholesale and gists registered on 30 August 1881, the date on retail drug firm, located on East Pecan Street which all practicing pharmacists were required in Austin. He was told that as soon as he could by state law to have a license.8 Between filling prove his qualifications, the place would be his. prescriptions, replenishing the decanter from Will’s letter to Greensboro, asking for creden- the whiskey barrel in the basement, and selling tials, by two letters of recommendation: One let- cigars and sundries, Will was storing up count- ter, signed by four Greensboro physicians, com- less impressions of his patrons’ personal oddi- mended Will “both as a druggist and a citizen.” ties, mannerisms, gestures, and modes of speech The other letter, signed by J. N. Nelson, clerk of that were later to be reflected in his stories. In courts of Guilford County and endorsed by the his spare time, Will amused himself by draw- registrar of deeds and the postmaster, declared ing cartoons of the townsfolk; the cartoons were the bearer a “young man of good character, an marked by a certain amount of wit and percep- A No. 1 druggist and a very popular young man tion, a healthy dose of irreverence, and a dash or among his many friends.” Will went to work two of malice.9 with an enthusiasm that quickly waned; after the Will’s drugstore years have doubtless freedom of the range, the long and regular hours been over-idealized in the recollections of ag- of the drugstore proved confining and irksome. ing cronies, as recent biographers agree;10 yet Within two months he gave up the job with the Will appears to have enjoyed himself: one con- explanation that drawing soda had proved too temporary recalled him “holding court” in the much for him.15 drugstore among men two or three times older due to his quick wit and unquenchable sense of mischief; Will also became good friends with The Shadowed Years, 1898‑1901 Dr. James K. Hall, who had gradually assumed Will Porter’s next practice of pharmacy Dr. Porter’s dwindling practice. Several of Will’s was in the Ohio Penitentiary as Federal Pris- pranks were regarded highly enough to become oner No. 30664; it came about in this way: In part of the Greensboro legend: Once he poured January, 1891, Will obtained a job as a teller in a measure of syrup into a urine specimen left the First National Bank of Austin, an astonish- for testing by Dr. Hall; it was the doctor’s own ing bank, run with astonishing laxity. Overdrafts urine. When Dr. Hall returned later to conduct on accounts were allowed continually, and an the test, he diagnosed himself as a diabetic on officer of the bank might not even bother to the verge of collapse. The physician was about write a check, merely saying to a teller that he to compose his will when someone—not Will— was drawing out some money.16 In November, worked up the courage to tell him about the 1894, when irregularities were found in Will’s practical joke.11 At the same time, Will appar- accounts, he lost his job with the bank and went ently found the daily grind of the drugstore an to Houston, where he worked for a time on the agonizing drudgery; the drugstore appeared to Houston Post. In 1896, when federal authorities offer nothing but stagnation to Will, and there arrested him and ordered him to stand trial for seemed to be no prospect of finding a better embezzlement, Will fled to Honduras while free position.12 Moreover, the long hours were play- on bail. The following January, the illness of his

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 5 wife called him back to Austin, where he faced Dr. John M. Thomas, chief physician at federal prosecution. Will’s trial opened in Feb- the prison, described Porter as an “unusually ruary, 1898; to the four original indictments for competent” pharmacist: “In fact, he could do embezzlement, two more were added as a result anything in the drug line.”21 The night physician of his flight to avoid prosecution. Will made lit- at the Penitentiary, Dr. George W. Willard, not- tle effort to defend himself; he was found guilty, ed that Porter was “exceptionally careful and ef- and sentenced to a prison term of five years, the ficient” in his pharmaceutical work. “He was as lightest sentence possible under the prevailing careful and conscientious as if the drugstore at law. the prison had been his own property,” Dr. Wil- Many of Will’s apologists, determined lard noted. “Often I left at midnight with Porter to exonerate him, have argued that the latter in charge and I knew things would run as regu- charge, a technicality, was the sole reason for larly and effectively until morning as if I had re- sending an innocent man to prison; that he was mained . . . . Although nearly every drug clerk accordingly made a scapegoat, the victim of a at the prison was at some time or other guilty of gross miscarriage of justice, in order to vindi- petty trafficking in drugs or whiskey, Porter was cate the harshness of federal authorities, if not always above reproach.”22 Yet Porter’s letters to actually to shield other guilty superiors.17 On the his in-laws tell their own story: other hand, in what appears to be the most thor- ough and impartial analysis of all the available I accidentally fell into a place on the day I arrived that is a documentary evidence in Will’s case, it seems light one in comparison with others. I am the night drug- gist in the hospital, and as far as work is concerned it is obvious not only that he was guilty but also that light enough, and all the men stationed in the hospital live he received a perfectly fair trial, in which all a hundred per cent. better than the rest of the 2,500 men the charges against him were established to the here. There are four doctors and about twenty‑five other satisfaction of the jury and of many others be- men in the hospital force. The hospital is a separate building 18 and is one of the finest equipped institutions in the country. sides. It is large and finely finished and has every appliance of When William Sydney Porter entered the medicine and surgery. . . . Ohio Penitentiary at Columbus on April 25, 1898, he lost his identity to the world. He listed The hospital wards have from one hundred to two his primary occupation as a newspaper reporter; hundred patients in them all the time. They have all kinds he also noted, as an afterthought, that he was of diseases—at present typhus fever and measles are the 19 fashion. Consumption here is more common than bad a registered pharmacist. There was no prison colds are at home. There are about thirty hopeless cases newspaper, but the infirmary could always use of it in the hospital just now and nearly all the nurses and a pharmacist, and Porter was soon placed in attendants are contracting it. There are hundreds of other the prison hospital as night drug clerk. It came cases of it among the men who are working in the shops and foundries. Twice a day they have a sick call at the hospital, about in this way, as Alexander Hobbs, a black and from two hundred to three hundred men are marched prisoner who acted as valet to one of the physi- in each day suffering from various disorders. They march cians, recalled: in single file past the doctor and he prescribes for each one “on the fly.” The procession passes the drug counter and One day Warden E. G. Coffin was given an overdose of the medicines are handed out to each one as they march 23 Fowler’s solution of arsenic. The right antidote couldn’t be without stopping the line. found and the day physician, the nurses, and all the prison officers were crowded around the bed on which the warden About six weeks later, Porter described graphi- was lying, in great fright. Everybody was panic‑stricken cally the horrors of prison life as he found them: and it looked like the warden, who was unconscious, was going to die with doctors and a drugstore right there beside him. Then Mr. Porter, who had been upstairs nursing a sick I have gotten quite expert at practicing medicine. It’s a prisoner, came walking down. He had learned what was the melancholy place, however—misery and death and all kinds matter. I can just see him yet, as he came down those stairs, of suffering around one all the time. We sometimes have a as quiet and composed as a free citizen out for a walk. “Be death every night for a week or so. Very little time is wasted quiet, gentlemen,” he says, and walks over to the drugstore on such an occasion. One of the nurses will come from a and takes charge, just as easy as if he owned the prison. ward and say—“Well, So and So has croaked.” Ten minutes Then he mixes a little drink, just like mixing a soda water. later they tramp out with So and So on a stretcher and take In an hour the warden was out of danger and the next day him to the dead house. If he has no friends to claim him— Mr. Porter was made night drug clerk.20 which is generally the case—the next day the doctors have

6 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History walls and into the annals of American literature. During the final nine years of his life, Bill Porter, as O. Henry, pursued a career as brief as it was brilliant. When he left Columbus, Bill went to Pittsburgh, secluding himself at the slightly rusty Iron Front Hotel, where he wrote almost continuously, keeping himself in walk- around money by free‑lancing for the Pittsburgh Dispatch.28 Restless after six months, Bill moved into shared quarters over Emil G. Stucky’s drug- store at the corner of Fulton and Wylie streets; his roommate was a young drug clerk named Samuel C. Jamison, later to become coroner of Allegheny County and an important political fig- ure.29 Bill continued to submit his manuscripts to editors in New York, particularly Gilman Hall, associate editor of Ainslee’s Magazine and, later, Everybody’s Magazine. Hall offered to guaran- tee Bill a regular income if he would come to O. Henry in 1896, Austin, Texas. New York; in April, 1902, he came, becoming O. Henry once and for all.30 What followed is a fab- a dissecting bee and that ends it. Suicides are as common ulous story of success; in less than eight years, as picnics here. Every few nights the doctor and I have to O. Henry became the most widely read storytell- strike out at a trot to see some unfortunate who has tried er in the country. Readers were enchanted with to get rid of his troubles. They cut their throats and hang themselves and stop up their cells and turn the gas on and the romance that he found in drab boarding try all kinds of ways. Most of them plan it well enough to houses and forgotten streets. They shared his succeed . . . . These little things are our only amusements.24 pity for little people, savored his nostalgia for what might have been, and were delighted when Beatings to the point of insensibility, ran- his surprise endings routed misfortune. Despite cid food purchased by bribed prison officials, their contrived plots and occasional clowning, neglect to the extent of being carted off to the O. Henry’s stories are significant social docu- morgue while still alive, and other inhuman bru- ments, artistically told. According to Eugene talities suffered by the prisoners generally left Current‑Garcia, one secret of O. Henry’s staying Porter too stunned to comment openly about power may be found in the representative qual- them. When his fellow prisoners urged him to ity of his stories: expose these conditions in his writings, he is said to have replied that, since he was not a re- They are above everything else indubitably American in porter, the prison and its shame were not his re- language, attitudes, and spirit; for the voices of Americans, native and naturalized, recognizably speak through them. sponsibility, and that he would never try to rem- Another secret of their continuing appeal may be found in edy “the diseased soul of society,” adding, “I will the pervasive humor that supports them: a brand of humor forget that I ever breathed behind these walls.”25 often gauche, smart‑alecky, overripe, and also thoroughly In October, 1900, Dr. Thomas used his American. A third quality, hard to define yet plainly felt in them as something transcending national boundaries, influence to secure for Porter the favored posi- is a kind of basic human sympathy for the common joys tion of bookkeeper and private secretary to the and sorrows of mankind that appeals to the romanticist prison steward, ending forever his erratic phar- in each of us.31 maceutical career.26 He began to write seriously now, under the pen name “O. Henry,” producing fourteen short stories which critics have rated as being among his best.27 On July 24, 1901, his O. Henry’s Pharmaceutical Legacy sentence shortened for good behavior, William That critical phase of Will Porter’s early Sydney Porter passed out of the Penitentiary life was affected and shaped by his contact with

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 7 and his practice of the profession of pharmacy Wagnalls, contain at least one pharmaceutical, appears obvious; what is not so obvious is the medical, or chemical allusion.32 The allusion ra- pervasive nature of pharmaceutical symbolism tio of the other volumes ranges from 1/12 (or 8.3 throughout O. Henry’s writings, his references per cent) in (1917) to 15/25 (or to pharmacists and pharmaceutical practice, 60.0 per cent) in The Trimmed Lamp (1907). pharmaceutical equipment and techniques, and Taken together, at least 27.2 per cent, or 131 of drugs and their uses, both legitimate and ille- the 482 published items attributed to O. Henry gitimate. An analysis of the 483 short stories, contain such allusions. If one disregards the poems, letters, and squibs contained within the seven fugitive stories and poems published in seventeen volumes attributed to O. Henry re- O. Henryana (1920) and the two collections of veals the extent of this pervasive symbolism. O. Henry’s early unsigned work on the Houston Table 1 lists the assigned reference code Post, Postscripts (1923) and O. Henry Encore numbers, titles, publication dates, allusion ra- (1939), the allusion ratio increases to 104/287, tios, and percentages contained within O. Hen- or an astonishing 36.2 per cent.33 There is no ry’s published works. All but one volume of O. discernable trend in the number of allusions Henry’s work, Letters to Lithopolis (1922), a se- from volume to volume, and indeed, any attempt ries of amusing letters from O. Henry to Mabel to follow the chronology of either the volumes or

Table 1. Extent of Pharmaceutical Allusions Contained within O. Henry’s Writings Allusion Allusion Title and Publication Date Ratio* Percentage

Cabbages and Kings (1904) 3/19 15.8 (1906) 6/25 24.0 The Trimmed Lamp (1907) 15/25 60.0 Heart of the West (1907) 7/19 36.8 The Voice of the City (1908) 10/25 40.0 The Gentle Grafter (1908) 7/14 50.0 Roads of Destiny (1909) 9/22 40.9 Options (1909) 5/16 31.3 Strictly Business (1910) 13/23 56.5 Whirligigs (1910) 7/24 29.2 Sixes and Sevens (1911) 9/25 36.0 Rolling Stones (1912) 12/38 31.6 Waifs and Strays (1917) 1/12 8.3 Subtotal: 104/288 36.1

Fugitive Stories and Poems O. Henryana (1920) 3/7 42.7 Letters to Lithopolis (1922) 0/8 ‑‑‑ Subtotal: 107/303 35.3

Early Work on Houston Post Postscripts (1923) 14/135 10.4 O. Henry Encore (1939) 10/45 22.2 Total: 131/482 27.2 *Calculated as the number of stories, poems, or squibs containing at least one pharmaceutical allusion, divided by the total number of stories contained within the volume.

8 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History the individual stories would be pointless, since Gum Opium (q.v. “Opium”) many of O. Henry’s earliest written stories were Hydrochloric Acid (“Muriate”) not published until the end of his life, while Hydrogen Peroxide many of the last ones he wrote dealt with expe- Jalap riences dating back to his earliest memories.34 Laudanum (Tincture of Opium) A list of stories containing pharmaceutical al- Licorice lusions in O. Henry’s literary output by volume Lime (Calcium Oxide) appears as Appendix A. Logwood (Hematoxylon) Magnesium Carbonate Mandragora (Mandrake) Prescription Drugs and Other Mild Chloride (q.v. “Calomel”) Drugstore Items Morphine At least 107 different prescription drug Muriate (q.v. “Hydrochloric Acid”) items appear at least 193 times in 79 stories over Myrrh a span of 16 of O. Henry’s 17 books included in Nitromuriatic Acid the standard one‑volume collection of O. Hen- Oil of Almonds ry’s works, O. Henryana, Postscripts, and O. Oil of Anise Henry Encore;35 these items are enumerated in Oil of Bergamot Table 2, as “Pharmacopoeia O. Henrici.” Oil of Tar Oil of Wintergreen Oleoresin of Cubebs Opium (q.v. “Gum Opium”) Opodeldoc Table 2. “Pharmacopoeia O. Henrici” Paregoric (Deodorized Tincture of Opium) Aniline Peppermint Annato Peptomanganate of Iron Antipyrine Phosphorus Pills Aqua Fortis (Nitric Acid) Pipsinssewa Aqua Pura Prepared Chalk (Calcium Carbonate) Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia Quinine (q.v. “Cinchona”) Arsenic Rochelle Salt (q.v. “Tartrate of Sodium and Potash”) Balm of Hyssop Rose Water Balsam of Peru Salt of Tartar (Potassium Carbonate) Bone Phosphate (Calcium Phosphate) Sarsaparilla Borax (Sodium Borate) Seidlitz Powder Calisaya Bark Spiritus Frumenti (Whisky) Calomel (Mercurous Chloride) Strychnine Camphor Sugar Pills Carbolic Acid (Phenol) Sulphur Caustic Potash (Potassium Hydroxide) Syrup of Hypophosphites Chloral Hydrate Tincture of Benzoin Chloride of Sodium; Salt; Sodium Chloride Tincture of Calisaya Chloroform Tincture of Cardamom, Compound Chuchula Tincture of Cinchona Diluted Alcohol Tincture of Formaldehyde Elixir of Euculyptus Tincture of Gentian Ether Tincture of Iodine Fluidextract of Chuchula Tincture of Nux Vomica Fluidextract of Cinchona Vaccine Matter Gentian Bark Valerinate of Ammonia Glonoin (Spirit of Nitroglycerin) Wormwood (q.v. “Absinthe”)

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 9 O. Henry refers to “morphine” at least 11 Table 3. Other Drugstore Items Mentioned times, followed closely by “quinine” and “cin- in O. Henry’s Writings chona,” which are mentioned 10 times. “Chlo- ride of sodium” is referred to 6 times, and “par- Balm of Gilead Poultices egoric” and “tincture of aconite” 5 times each; Bay Rum all other drugs are referred to 4 times or less, Bitters 69 substances being mentioned only once. O. Blickerstaff’s Blood Builder Henry also refers to no fewer than 12 different Catarrh Cure tinctures and 5 different oils, his pharmaceutical Chiselum’s Pills spectrum reflecting the limited nature of Amer- Cough Drops ica’s drug armamentarium in the early 1900s. Court Plaster There is only one apparently spurious drug that Dyewoods appears in O. Henry’s works, “fluidextract of Finkelham’s Extract chuchula,” the active ingredient of confidence Flaxseed man Judson Tate’s Compound Magic Chuchula Gout Liniment Bronchial Lozenges in the story “‘Next to Read- Headache Powders ing Matter’” (Roads of Destiny, 1909).36 The Iron Tonic pharmaceutically improper variations on “tar- Jerusalem Oak Seed trate of sodium and potash” and “tartrate of an- Liver Pills timony and potash” may not be attributed to O. Nerve Tonic Henry, who knew better, but to non‑pharmacist Omberry’s Ointment Elwyn C. Bellford, the narrator of “A Ramble in Painkiller Aphasia” (Strictly Business, 1910). Bellford, a Paris Green prominent Denver lawyer who seemingly cracks Patent Medicine under the strain of hard work, forgets his past Patent Medicine Almanac and boards a train for New York with $3,000 Peppermint‑Pepsin Tablets in his pocket, but no baggage. Surrounded by Plaster of Paris Western pharmacists en route to a convention, Pott’s Pain Pulverizer he pretends to be one, coining the name Edward Quince Seeds Pinkhammer. He encounters pharmacist R .P. Rattlesnake Oil Bolder, who has an idea to spring on the conven- Rouge tion: Rubber Plaster Sassafras Tea Now, you know the shelf bottles of tartar emetic and Ro- Sleeping Powder chelle salt—Ant. et Pot. Tart. and Sod. et Pot. Tart.—one’s poison, you know, and the other’s harmless. It’s easy to Soda mistake one label for the other. Where do druggists mostly Soothing Syrup keep ‘em? Why, as far apart as possible, on different shelves. Sticking Plaster That’s wrong. I say keep ’em side by side, so when you want Sum‑wah‑tah, the Great Indian Remedy one you can always compare it with the other and avoid Tonic Medicament mistakes. Wood Alcohol (Methanol) Armed with this one bit of pharmaceutical lore, Bellford, as Pinkhammer, brazens out his dis- “Makes the Whole World Kin” (Sixes and Sev‑ guise, affording a good deal of pleasure to the ens, 1911). The story revolves about a burglar careful reader.37 and his victim, both of whom suffer from rheu- At least 39 other items commonly found matism; they begin comparing symptoms and in American drugstores at the turn of the pres- patent medicines they have tried with little re- ent century appear at least 45 times in 25 sto- lief. The story ends with the burglar standing his ries over a span of 12 of O. Henry’s books; these ex‑victim to drinks. items are enumerated in Table 3. Most of the The frank charlatanism of the early medi- proprietary names of the patent medicines list- cine shows is captured in “The Atavism of John ed are fictitious, and most appear in the story Tom Little Bear” (Rolling Stones, 1912), in

10 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History which confidence man Jeff Peters relates how Love‑Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein” (The Four Eastern college‑trained John Tom Little Bear, Million, 1906), which describes the tribulations in his role as Chief Wish‑Heap-­Dough, prepared of Ikey Schoenstein, night clerk at the Blue Light Sum‑wah‑tah, the Great Indian Remedy: Drug Store. Ikey and Chunk McGowan were ri- vals for the hand of Rosy Riddle, the daughter of We always camped near a stream, and put up a little tent. Ikey’s landlady. Ikey adored Rosy: Sometimes we sold out of the Remedy unexpected, and then Chief Wish‑Heap‑Dough would have a dream in which the Manitou commanded him to fill up a few bottles of She tinctured all his thoughts; she was the compound extract Sum‑wah‑tah at the most convenient place.38 of everything that was chemically pure and officinal—the Dispensatory contained nothing equal to her. But Ikey was timid, and his hopes remained insoluble in the menstruum of his backwardness and fears.39 Pharmaceutical Preparations, Other pharmaceutical preparations are Operations, Equipment, and Standards concentrated in “Man About Town” (The Four At least 24 different pharmaceutical prepa- Million, 1906), “‘Next to Reading Matter’” rations appear at least 55 times in 24 stories over (Roads of Destiny, 1909), “A Ramble in Apha- a span of 11 of O. Henry’s books; these prepara- sia” (Strictly Business, 1910), “Let Me Feel Your tions are enumerated in Table 4. Tinctures are Pulse” (Sixes and Sevens, 1911), and “A Fog in mentioned 14 times, powders or powder papers Santone” (Rolling Stones, 1912). are mentioned 9 times, pills are mentioned 5 At least 11 different pharmaceutical opera- times, tablets are mentioned 3 times, and cap- tions appear at least 16 times in 7 stories over a sules, decoctions, lozenges, ointments, and me- span of 6 of O. Henry’s books; these operations dicinal teas are mentioned twice each. Most of are enumerated in Table 5. Again, most of the the pharmaceutical preparations appear in “The Table 5. Pharmaceutical Operations Men- tioned in O. Henry’s Writings Table 4. Pharmaceutical Preparations Men- tioned in O. Henry’s Writings Compounding Distilling Capsules Folding Powder Paper Compound Grinding Compound Extract Making Solution; Insolubility Decoction Manipulating Pill Mass Elixir, Distilled Mascerating Excipient Mixing Extract Percolating Hypodermic Tablets Pouring Liniment Rolling Pills Lozenges Menstruum descriptions of the operations appear in “The Mixture Love‑Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein,” and reveal Ointment pharmacist O. Henry at his best: Pill Powder; Powder Paper The Blue Light scorns the labor‑saving arts of modern Soluble Tablets pharmacy. It mascerates its opium and percolates its Spirit own laudanum and paregoric. To this day pills are made behind its tall prescription desk—pills rolled out on its Sublimated Essence own pill‑tile, divided with a spatula, rolled with the finger Tablet Triturates and thumb, dusted with calcined magnesia and delivered Tablets in little round pasteboard pill‑boxes.40 Tea, Medicinal Tincture Other pharmaceutical operations are men- Tonic tioned in “The Assessor of Success” and “The

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 11 Lost Blend” (The Trimmed Lamp, 1907) and, of Only 7 references to pharmaceutical stan- course, in “A Ramble in Aphasia.” At least 12 dif- dards, appearing 9 times in only 5 stories found ferent pieces of pharmaceutical equipment ap- in 5 books, can be found in O. Henry’s writings; pear at least 20 times in 7 stories over a span of these are enumerated in Table 7. This is not 7 of O. Henry’s books; these are enumerated in Table 6. Again, most of the pieces of equipment Table 7. Pharmaceutical Standards Men- tioned in O. Henry’s Writings Table 6. Pharmaceutical Equipment Men- Certificate of Purity tioned in O. Henry’s Writings Chemically Pure Bottles, Eight‑Ounce Officinal Bottles, Shelf Pure Food Adulterations Corks Pure Food and Drug Act Graduating Glass; Measuring Glass United States Dispensatory Litmus Paper United States Pharmacopoeia Medicine Dropper Mortar unusual, since the Federal Pure Food and Drug Pestle Act did not become effective until 1906; indeed, Pill Boxes there is some suggestion that O. Henry may Pill Tile have referred to the Act as a topical novelty, as Prescription Desk suggested in this passage from “The Pendulum” Spatula (The Trimmed Lamp, 1907):

For dinner there would be pot roast, a salad flavored with a show up in “The Love Philtre of Ikey Schoen- dressing warranted not to crack or injure the leather, stewed rhubarb and a bottle of strawberry marmalade blushing at stein” and “A Ramble in Aphasia,” yet O. Hen- 42 ry’s recurrent reference to the use of litmus pa- the certificate of chemical purity on its label. per to test the atmosphere in “A Fog in Santone” (Rolling Stones, 1912) creates a mournful litany The effect of the Act is also implied in this de- to visitors suffering from tuberculosis: scription of Major Bing from “He Also Serves” (Options, 1909): Purest atmosphere, sir, on earth! You might think from the river winding through our town that we are malarial, but, Major Bing was the ointment around the fly. He had the no, sir! Repeated experiments made by both the Govern- cochineal, sarsaparilla, logwood, annatto hemp, and all ment and local experts show that our air contains nothing other dye‑woods and pure food adulteration concessions 43 deleterious—nothing but ozone, sir, pure ozone. Litmus cornered. paper tests made all along the river show—but you can read it all in the prospectuses; or the Santonian will recite it for Even the often hypocritical conferring of honor- you, word by word. ary degrees upon wealthy benefactors, described in “A Night in New Arabia” (Strictly Business, O. Henry’s personal experiences with the rav- 1910), contains a reference to the Act: ages of tuberculosis is revealed by the bitterness and the intensity of the following passage: Jacob selected the best endowed college he could scare up and presented it with a $200,000 laboratory. The college That night the tubercles, whose ravages hope holds in check, did not maintain a scientific course, but it accepted the multiplied. The writhing fingers of the pale mist did not go money and built an elaborate lavatory, which was no diver- thence bloodless. Many of the wooers of ozone capitulated sion of funds so far as Jacob ever discovered. . . . with the enemy that night, turning their faces to the wall While walking on the campus before being capped in that dumb, isolated apathy that so terrifies their watch- and gowned, Jacob saw two professors strolling near by. ers. On the red streams of Hemorrhagia a few souls drifted Their voices, long adapted to indoor acoustics, undesign- away, leaving behind pathetic heaps, white and chill as the edly reached his ear. fog itself. Two or three came to view this atmospheric wraith “There goes the latest chevalier d’industrie,” said as the ghost of impossible joys, sent to whisper to them of one of them, “to buy a sleeping powder from us. He gets the egregious folly it is to inhale breath into the lungs, only his degree to‑morrow.” to exhale it again, and these used whatever came handy to “In foro conscientiae,” said the other. “Let’s ’eave their relief, pistols, gas, or the beneficent muriate.41 ’arf a brick at ’im.”

12 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History Jacob ignored the Latin, but the brick pleasantry was not too hard for him. There was no mandragora in Table 9. “Pharmacist” Mentioned in O. the honorary draught of learning that he had bought. That Henry’s Writings was before the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act.44 Apothecary Clerk Drug Clerk Drugstores, Drugs, Druggists, and Drugstore Man Doses Druggist The word “drugstore”—referred to vari- Eastern Orange-Phosphate-and-Massage- ously by O. Henry as a “botica,” “drug empo- Cream Professors rium,” “drug firm,” “druggist’s,” or a “pharma- Patent Tablet-and-Granule Pharmashootists cy”—appears at least 45 times in 33 different Pharmaceutist stories over a span of 12 of his 17 books; these are enumerated in Table 8. “Drugs” are re- Table 10. Doses Mentioned in O. Henry’s Writings Table 8. “Pharmacy” Mentioned in O. Henry’s Writings Cupful Minim Botica Drop Druggist’s Ounce Drug Firm Fluid Dram Drugstore Tablespoonful or Spoonful Drug Emporium Grain (or fraction thereof) Pharmacy Teaspoonful or Small Spoonful ferred to 27 times in 11 different stories over 9 L’Envoi different books, and “prescriptions” are referred to specifically 13 times in 9 different stories over Toward the end of 1909, the alternating 7 different books. The pharmacist himself—most periods of procrastination and fits of feverish often referred to by O. Henry as a “druggist,” energy had begun to take their toll; O. Henry “drug clerk,” or merely “clerk”—appears at least had literally burnt himself out meeting his pub- 38 times in 19 different stories over a span of lishers’ deadlines. His health shattered, he fi- 12 different books, and include such wildly de- nally accepted his friend Harry Steger’s advice scriptive variations as “patent tablet‑and‑gran- to take a prolonged rest cure in Asheville, North ule phamashootists that use slot machines Carolina, where he stayed for the next five or six instead of a prescription desk” and “Eastern months, still deluding himself that the “neuras- orange‑phosphate‑and‑massage‑cream profes- thenia” which had baffled his New York physi- sors,” the latter two offered by pharmacist R. P. cians for over a year could be cured with fresh Bolder in O. Henry’s tale, “A Ramble in Apha- air and hill climbing.45 When O. Henry returned sia” (see Table 9). O. Henry even specifies the to New York in March, 1910, he was finished and doses of the drugs he mentions, ranging from doubtless knew it, but he kept up the brave pre- one‑sixtieth of a minim of oleoresin of cubebs to tense that his creative faculties were still unim- a cupful of calisaya bark tea, the grain (or frac- paired. Virtually an invalid during the last few tion thereof) being mentioned 8 times in 6 dif- weeks of his life, he refused all company and ferent stories, the minim 5 times in 2 different rarely emerged from his room. He kept himself stories, the drop 4 times in 2 different stories, alive with whiskey until his collapse on the eve- the fluid dram, tablespoonful (or spoonful), and ning of June 3; Dr. Charles Russell Hancock, the teaspoonful (or small spoonful) mentioned who admitted him to the Polyclinic Hospital, as- twice each (see Table 10). sessed his condition as advanced diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.46 O. Henry died at 7:06 a.m.., Sunday, June 5, 1910; he was halfway

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 13 through his forty‑eighth year. O. Henry’s end, principal from 1844‑45. C. Alphonso Smith, O. Henry like Will Porter’s beginning, was touched with Biography (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page pathos and irony: By a final quirk of fate that & Company, 1916), 43. 3. Smith adds that “a perpetual motion water‑wheel, a he would have appreciated, his funeral service new fangled‑churn, a washing machine, a flying ma- was hastily pushed along to make way for a wed- chine, a horseless carriage to be run by steam, and a ding thoughtlessly scheduled for the same hour. cotton‑picking contrivance that was to take the place Yet Bill Porter had given pleasure to millions of negro labour became obsessions with him.” Smith, through his stories, and he had made the name O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 44. Davis and Maurice suggest that Dr. Porter had never been a practical O. Henry an indelible symbol in American life— man: “In his younger days it was his mother who saw and American pharmacy. to it that his bills were sent out,” a procedure that was considered a violation of the social conventions Where once he used camphor, glycerin, of the day. “It was not good form for a physician to send a statement of the amount due. The patient was Cloves, aloes, potash, peppermint in bars, supposed to settle once a year without a reminder.” And all the oils and essences so keen Robert H. Davis and Arthur B. Maurice, The Caliph That druggists keep in rows of stoppered jars— of Bagdad (New York and London: D. Appleton and Now, blender of strange drugs more volatile, Company, 1931), 12. The master pharmacist of joy and pain 4. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 7. O’Connor notes that “the doctor who turned to drugs or drink was a folk figure Dispenses sadness tinctured with a smile of nineteenth‑century America.” Also see statements of And laughter that dissolves in tears again. Mrs. J. K. Hall and Mrs. R. M. Smith, in G. Alphonso Smith, Notes, Greensboro Public Library, cited by E. O brave apothecary! You who knew Hudson Long, in O. Henry: The Man and His Work (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949), What dark and acid doses life prefers, 11 and 138. And yet with smiling face resolved to brew 5. Long, O. Henry (n. 4), 11. These sparkling potions for your customers— 6. Eugene Current‑Garcia, O. Henry (New York: Twayne Glowing with globes of red and purple glass Publishers, Inc., 1965), 18‑19. Your window gladdens travellers who pass.47 7. Porter’s Drug Store may not have seemed likely to become anything more than the forum for the town’s loafers, drunkards, and philosophers in Will’s youth, yet its subsequent history made it one of the glamour spots of the proprietary drug industry. In 1891, Lun- sford Richardson bought out Clark Porter. He was “too ambitious and serious‑minded to tolerate the contin- ued presence of layabouts, who were firmly expelled.” The new proprietor busied himself developing a line of nostrums called Vicks Family Remedies, one of which was Vicks Vaporub. Today, Richardson’s Vicks Chemi- cal Company is one of Greensboro’s leading industries. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 13‑14. 8. Ethel Stephens Arnett, O. Henry From Polecat Creek (Greensboro, North Carolina: Piedmont Press, 1962), 147-48. 9. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 13. The originals of many of these cartoons are among the most highly prized O. Henry relics housed in the Greensboro Public Li- brary. One sketch in particular illuminates the state of morality in reconstructed North Carolina generally and the sociology of Porter’s Drug Store specifically: Notes and References Uncle Clark is depicted behind his counter glumly observing two “customers” rifling his cigar case while a third stalks across the cigar‑butt‑littered floor bear- 1. Richard O’Connor, O. Henry: The Legendary Life of ing a liquor‑filled pitcher. Maurice and Davis note that William S. Porter (Garden City, New York: Doubleday the conversations to which Will was exposed were not and Company, Inc., 1970), 7. the kind to inspire hero‑worship: “Perhaps from these 2. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 6. Dr. Porter had qualified evenings dated his life‑long distaste for what he called for his profession by clerking in a drug store under the the professional Southerner.” Davis and Maurice, The supervision of Dr. David P. Weir, eventually learning Caliph of Bagdad (n. 3), 16. Thirty years later, as O. enough about chemistry to lecture on the subject at the Henry, Will captured the ambiance of a drugstore in Edgeworth Female Seminary, of which Dr. Weir was a small southern town in “The Emancipation of Billy”

14 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History (Roads of Destiny, 1909). confinement was now, strangely enough, to prove the 10. Gerald Langford, Alias O. Henry: A Biography of stepping­stone to comparative freedom,” Smith com- William Sidney Porter (New York: The Macmillan ments. Company, 1957), 14‑15; and Arnet, O. Henry From 20. Quoted in Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 153‑54. Polecat Creek (n. 8), 193‑97. 21. Quoted in Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 147. 11. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 14. Also see A. W. McAl- 22. Quoted in Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 150‑51. lister, Letter to C. A. Smith, November 25, 1914; A. Dr. Willard was also the first to recognize that Jimmy W. Page, “Little Pictures of O. Henry: I,” Bookman Valentine, the leading character in “A Retrieved Refor- 37 (June, 1913): 386; and Cecile Lindau, “Will Porter mation” (Roads of Destiny, 1909), was modeled after and Uncle Charlie,” Homespun (October, 1925); all in his day drug clerk, Jimmy Connors. the O. Henry Collection, Public Library, Greensboro, 23. Quoted in Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 155‑56. North Carolina, and cited in Arnett, O. Henry From 24. Quoted in Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 157. Polecat Creek (n. 8) 153‑66, passim. 25. Al Jennings, Through The Shadows With O. Henry 12. Arnett, O. Henry From Polecat Creek (n. 8), 193. (London: Duckworth and Company, 1923), 222. Smith observed that “no profession attracted him, 26. Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 154. and there was no one in Greensboro doing anything 27. Three stories—“Money Maze” (Cabbages and Kings, that O. Henry would have liked to do permanently.” 1904), “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking” (Roads Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 92. of Destiny, 1909), and “Georgia’s Ruling” (Whirligigs, 13. Both Will’s mother and maternal grandmother had 1910)—were published while Porter was in prison. The died from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was to become others, published later, include “Rouge et Noir” (Cab‑ one of the shadows of Will’s later life: In 1887, he bages and Kings, 1904), “Hygeia at the Solito” and “An married Athol Estes, a young woman whose father Afternoon Miracle” (Heart of the West, 1907), “The had died of the malady, and who was to meet the same Enchanted Kiss” (Roads of Destiny, 1909), “No Story” fate ten years later. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 14; and (Options, 1909), “A Blackjack Bargainer,” “A Chapar- Current‑Garcia, O. Henry (n. 6), 26. Of all the diseases ral Christmas Gift,” and “A Medley of Moods” [sub mentioned in his writings, O. Henry seems to have nom. “Blind Man’s Holiday”] (Whirligigs, 1910), “The written most affectingly about tuberculosis. See, for Duplicity of Hargraves”’ (Sixes and Sevens, 1911), “The example, “A Fog in Santone” (Rolling Stones, 1912). Marionettes” and “A Fog in Santone” (Rolling Stones, 14. Current‑Garcia, O. Henry (n. 6), 21. Will did return to 1912). The stories Porter had written in prison were Greensboro for brief visits in 1890 and 1891 after his submitted through an intermediary in New Orleans, so father and grandmother died, but his few letters from the editors had no idea that O. Henry, author, was also that period give no indication that he felt obligated ei- Will Porter, convict. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 82. ther to them or to his Aunt Lina. Ibid.; also see Arnett, 28. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 82. Bill sought a reunion O. Henry From Polecat Creek (n. 8), 201‑3. with his daughter, Margaret, and his in‑laws, Mr. and 15. Edmunds Travis, “O. Henry’s Austin Years,” Bunker’s Mrs. P. G. Roach, who managed the Hotel. Monthly 1:4 (April, 1928): 495-96; and [Edmunds 29. Davis and Maurice, The Caliph of Bagdad (n. 3), Travis], “O. Henry,” Journal of the American Phar‑ 168‑69. Almost thirty years later, Jamison remem- maceutical Association 20:5 (May, 1931): 489. bered his roommate as “a mighty fine fellow”: “I 16. Davis and Maurice, The Caliph of Bagdad (n. 3), 67; was then in my last year at the Pittsburgh College of and Travis, “O. Henry’s Austin Years” (n. 14), 504. Also Pharmacy. I had lots of room and didn’t mind shar- see Hyder E. Rollins, “O. Henry’s Texas Days, Book‑ ing it with Bill. We occupied the same bed—one of man 40 (October, 1914): 154‑65. The unsystematic, those high old walnut fellows—and together, when indeed, highly irregular, banking practices prevalent necessary, fought the insect life.” Charles F. Danver, in Austin at that time are nowhere better dramatized “Pittsburghesque,” Pittsburgh Post‑Gazette, March than in O. Henry’s own story, “Friends in San Rosario” 28, 1930, cited by Davis and Maurice, The Caliph of (Roads of Destiny, 1909). Bagdad (n. 3), 169. 17. See, for example, Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 30. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 85‑86. 136‑46; O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 44‑47, 50, 52‑55, 31. Current‑Garcia, O. Henry, (n. 6), [6]. and 64‑65; or Long, O. Henry (n. 4), 78‑81 and 88‑99. 32. See Letters to Lithopolis from O. Henry to Mabel 18. Langford, Alias O. Henry (n. 10), 112‑30. Current‑Gar- Wagnalls (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page cia notes that those who claim that there was a miscar- & Company, 1922). Mabel was the daughter of Adam riage of justice in Will’s trial “have either overlooked Wagnalls, co-founder of the Funk & Wagnall Publish- or ignored much damaging evidence proving beyond ing Company. reasonable doubt that Porter, despite his own pro- 33. Will Porter worked on the Houston Post from October testations of innocence, deliberately took the money 18, 1895 to June 22, 1896; the identification of his work himself and altered his account books to conceal his was made through internal characteristics. theft.” Current‑Garcia, O. Henry (n. 6), 33. Also see 34. O. Henry’s short stories and poems appeared in 34 L. W. Courtney, “O. Henry’s Case Reconsidered,” different magazines between 1899 and 1910; they were American Literature 14:1 (January, 1943): 361‑71, the eventually issued in the 13 volumes listed in Table 1 first scholarly proof that Porter received a fair trial and under the aegis of Doubleday, Page and Company, New was unquestionable guilty of embezzlement. York. See Paul S. Clarkson, A Bibliography of William 19. Smith, O. Henry Biography (n. 2), 147. “The profes- Sydney Porter (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, sion which he loathed in Greensboro because it meant Ltd., 1938), the most exhaustive listing of works by and

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 15 about O. Henry, though incomplete. 42. “The Pendulum” (The Trimmed Lamp, 1907), The 35. See The Complete Works of O. Henry. Foreword by Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 1384. William Lyon Phelps (New York: Garden City Publish- 43. “He Also Serves” (Options, 1909), ibid., 749. ing Co., Inc., 1937). 44. “A Night in New Arabia” (Strictly Business, 1910), The 36. “‘Next to Reading Matter,’” (Roads of Destiny, 1909), Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 1594‑95. The Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 390. 45. Current-Garcia, O. Henry (n. 6), 46. O. Henry’s experi- 37. “A Ramble in Aphasia” (Strictly Business, 1910), The ence with physicians is captured in the frankly auto- Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 1545. biographical story “Let Me Feel Your Pulse” (Sixes and 38. “The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear” (Rolling Stones, Sevens, 1911). See O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 202-3. 1912), The Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 959. 46. O’Connor, O. Henry (n. 1), 229. His liver was all wrong, 39. “The Love‑Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein” (The Four his digestion was shattered, his nerves were in a ter- Million, 1906), The Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. rible condition, and his heart was too weak to stand 35), 50. the shock,” Dr. Hancock told newspaper reporters. 40. “The Love‑Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein” (The Four New York Tribune, June 6, 1910, quoted by Long, O. Million, 1906), The Complete Works of O. Henry, (n. Henry (n. 4), 134. 35), 49‑50. 47. Christopher Morley, “O. Henry—Apothecary,” Every‑ 41. “A Fog in Santone” (Rolling Stones, 1912), The Com‑ body’s Magazine 36:2 (February, 1917), p. 166. plete Works of O. Henry, (n. 35), 992.

Appendix A. O. Henry Stories Containing Pharmaceutical Allusions by Volume1 Cabbages and Kings (1904) The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson The Proem: By the Carpenter The Higher Abdication The Admiral Christmas by Injunction Smith Cupid à la Carte The Four Million (1906) A Service of Love The Voice of the City (1908) The Love‑Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein “Little Speck in Garnered Fruit” Man About Town Nemesis and the Candy Man Springtime à la Carte The Harbinger The City of Dreadful Night An Unfinished Story A Comedy in Rubber The Easter of the Sou1 The Trimmed Lamp (1907) The Defeat of the City The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball The Fool‑Killer The Lost Blend The Plutonian Fire The Pendulum From Each According to His Ability A Harlem Tragedy The Assessor of Success The Gentle Grafter (1908) “The Guilty Party”The Making of a New Yorker The Octopus Marooned A Midsummer Knight’s Dream The Social Triangle Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet The Man Higher Up The Purple Dress Modern Rural Sports The Foreign Policy of Company 99 A Tempered Wind The Country of Elusion Innocents of Broadway The Count and the Wedding Guest The Tale of a Tainted Tenner Roads of Destiny (1909) “Next to Reading Matter” Heart of the West (1907) The Emancipation of Billy Telemachus, Friend Art and the Bronco The Spinx Apple The Enchanted Kiss The Handbook of Hymen The Passing of Black Eagle

16 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History On Behalf of the Management An Unfinished Christmas Story The Fourth in Salvador Helping the Other Fellow A Strange Story Options (1909) The Marionettes Thimble, Thimble An Apology The Head‑Hunter A Fog in Santone To Him Who Waits Lord Oakhurst’s Curse No Story He Also Serves Waifs and Strays (1917) The Rubber Plant’s Story Strictly Business (1910) Strictly Business O. Henryana (1920)2 Compliments of the Season Three Paragraphs The Gold That Glittered The Elusive Tenderloin A Night in New Arabia A Professional Secret Babes in the Jungle Proof of the Pudding Letters to Lithopolis (1922)3 The Girl and the Graft [No allusions contained in this volume] Past One at Rooney’s The Call of the Tame Postscripts (1923)4 The Duel The Other Side of It A Ramble in Aphasia A Slight Mistake “What You Want” Buying a Piano A Municipal Report Charge of the White Brigade His Dilemma Whirligigs (1910) Coming to Him The World and the Door Leap Year Advice The Marry Month of May The Shock The Theory and the Hound Hush Money One Dollar’s Worth Calculations A Matter of Mean Elevation An X-Ray Fable A Little Local Color A Cheery Thought The Ransom of Red Chief Guessed Everything Else A Narrow Escape Sixes and Sevens (1911) Witches’ Loaves O. Henry Encore (1939)5 The Church with an Overshot‑Wheel A Night Errant Makes the Whole World Kin An Odd Character The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes In Mezzotint At Arms with Morpheus A New Microbe Law and Order The Mirage on the Frio The Door of Unrest A Story for Men The Day We Celebrate A Strange Case Let Me Feel Your Pulse Barbershop Adventure Simmon’s Saturday Night Rolling Stones (1912) “Watchman, What of the Night?” The Dream The Friendly Call Notes A Ruler of Men A Snapshot at the President 1. The first fourteen volumes may be found inThe Com‑ The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear plete Works of O. Henry. Foreword by William Lyon

Vol. 55 (2013) No. 1 www.aihp.org 17 Phelps (New York: Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., 4. O. Henry, Postscripts. With an Introduction by Flor- 1937). ence Stratton (New York and London: Harper & 2. O. Henryana: Seven Odds and Ends. Poetry and Brothers, 1923). Short Stories by O. Henry (Garden City, New Jersey: 5. O. Henry Encore. Stories and Illustrations by O. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920). Henry Usually Under the Name “The Post Man.” 3. Letters to Lithopolis from O. Henry to Mabel Wag‑ Discovered and Edited by Mary Sunlocks Harrell (New nalls (Garden City, New Jersey: Doubleday, Page & York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1939). Company, 1922).

Armstrong Cork Co., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, developed a display card for their Phenix Rx ware to acquaint pharmacy customers with their prescription glassware. The company originally manufactured corks as bottle closures, but moved into producing metal or molded plastic caps once corks went out of fashion. By 1942 they introduced their amber glass Phenix prescription and flint glass Label-Rite bottles.1 (Photo courtesy AIHP Drug Topics Collection.) 1. George Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard, History of Drug Containers and their Labels (AIHP, 1999), p. 97.

18 www.aihp.org Pharmacy in History