Item SM112, HOBO MEDICINE / REGISTERED / (monogram) / TRADEMARK / CO. / BEAUMONT. TEXAS., brilliant cobalt blue, early machine-made bottle, rectangular, 8 1/8” high, bold embossing, excellent crudeness with a textured wavy surface, pristine perfect condition. An attractive bottle with a very interesting name! circa 1914 – 1920, $280
Below is an account of how this medicine got it’s name.
This information came from an article written by Dr. Richard Cannon which appeared in Antique Bottle and Glass Collector Magazine. The complete article can be seen at www.hobonickels.org/medicine.htm
For nearly three years, Mr. G.D. Horton, a respected citizen of Singer, Calcasieu Parish, La., was a sufferer from Bright's disease. He had received every attention that medical science could provide, having been treated by some of the best physicians of the South, after the most painstaking and skilled diagnosis. But finally, physicians pronounced his case a hopeless one.
One day, in a fit of despondency, Mr. Horton walked up to the railroad track near his home and struck out a short distance on an aimless ramble onto the piney woods adjacent. He had walked, however, but a little when he was stricken with intense pains and dropped down to rest until they should pass away and permit him to return. However, his suffering became greater, and as night was approaching and the air was chilly, he gathered some fagots and started a fire. Still the paroxysms of pain continued and he fell back, unable to restrain his groans of pain.
An unkept, tattered tramp, walking down the railroad track, heard the cries of pain, and suspecting some serious accident, sought the sufferer. Aided by the burning fagots, he soon located Mr. Horton, and inquired the cause of his trouble. Mr. Horton explained the attack, and noting the man was a stranger in the locality asked his name.
“I'm just a hobo. That's all”.
The hobo became the questioner, and asked minutely concerning Mr. Horton's case, how long he had suffered, what treatment he had received, and the progress of the disease.
“I'm only a hobo, but I can cure you or anybody else, of kidney or bladder trouble,” be finally stated.
Without further comment, the hobo walked further into the woods, was gone a few minutes, and when he returned, bore in his hands certain herbs, which, he declared, if used according to directions which he prescribed, would effect a speedy and permanent cure. Afterwards he assisted in the preparation of the compound, and then departed out of Mr. Horton's life as quietly as he had come into it.
Within three days after beginning to take this medicine Mr. Horton was greatly improved, and within two months restored to health.
Mr. Horton, believing that such a preparation should be perpetuated to humanity, experimented and finally succeeded in producing this wonderful medicine. In honor to that hobo Mr. Horton has named the preparation “Hobo Kidney and Bladder Remedy”.