Medicine Chest: Gladstone's Celery & Pepsin

By John Panella and Joe Widman

GLADSTONE’S CELERY AND PEPSIN COMPOUND

Was it a panacea, booze or medicine? The quicker pickerupper — an infallible boost for daily living.

It took a while to pick out a topic for this month’s column after finishing the Fahrney piece with Phil Edmonds. I wore out three pairs of sneakers walking the roads through “Fahrney Country” from our last column. Jacob Fahrney and his family were prolific, and encompassed an entangled web of history, culture, patent medicine and medical quackery. Confusing at times, the article was the type of inspiring piece of work and education that we bottle enthusiasts crave.

This month, I’m trying to keep it simple yet incorporate breakthrough new facts and conversation about another classic nostrum of the past, Gladstone’s Celery and Pepsin Compound. Many states were required to not sell it in apothecary druggist stock due its alcoholic content. It sold in saloons and liquor stores! Top shelf, in promotional label-under-glass back bar bottles in engraved dispensing displays.

Make no doubt about it, it carried a wallop, was a quick cure, sometimes toxic, but usually a slow, satisfying but later agonizing poison. It was very popular!

Funny how we seem to always gravitate to a “forbidden fruit.” It offered cheap thrills and safety from hangover. Prohibitionists had their doubts, but sly business management teams kept it in production long enough to create an empire. It was a money-making machine and created a new progeny of toadstool millionaires.

TOP: Label on reverse side of Gladstone bottle. BOTTOM: Celery and Pepsin Compound ad.

TOP ROW: Beautiful and rare label-underglass Gladstone's Celery and Pepsin bar back bottle; Attractive labeled Gladstone's Celery and Pepsin Compound bottle. BOTTOM ROW: Interesting reverse label on the Gladstone's bar back bottle; Gladstone's trade card; Trade card for Celerina, a Gladstone's competitor, from the Rio Chemical Co., St. Louis.

SOME OF GLADSTONE'S RIVALS IN THE CELERY COMPOOUND BUSINESS

TOP ROW: A beautiful labeled Kola Celery and Pepsin Tonic bottle, Gordon Hugi collection; Close-up of a wonderful label for Compound Extract of Celery, from the Nelson, Baker & Co., Detroit, Mich. BOTTOM ROW: Elixir Celery Compound was a competitor and one of many of that listed coca in their list of ingredients; Kalamazoo Celery and Sarsaparilla Compound was another competitor listing coca in their ingredients; Paine's Celery Compound was one of the largest rivals.

By John Panella and Joe Widman

Atlas Celery Phosphates Vitalizer, A Physical and Intellectual Tonic, labeled bottle with original box.

Close-up of the label on a Celerina bottle with absolutely toxic ingredients, put up by the Rio Chemical Co., New York, U.S.A. Oops, they forgot to mention Gladstone’s coca content. Due to not enough factual information recovery in my research, pictures and advertising will just have to tell the story here without lengthy historical connections. Just keeping it simple, and letting the pictures tell the story.

Labels on Bottle

They say it all. It was just what the doctor ordered, just follow directions closely. All ailments, digestive, physical, social, mental, psychological and imagined due your chemical imbalance will disappear, your blood will be pure again and it is guaranteed fast-acting — but beware of slight altered gait and blurry vision when leaving the saloon. These are just side effects of being completely cured! Constant use required, as stated on their trade cards and advertising. The label indicates it as being for the nerves, stomach and brain. It contained celery and pepsin, soda mint and “other ingredients prized in the medical world.”

It seems that either by being listed on the label or mixed in as an “extra ingredient” coca was in the picture. Gladstone manufactured this product, as well as: Dyspepsia Remedy, Ginger Brandy, Medicator (interesting name), and Stomach Bitters, each preserved in strong alcohol for freshness.

Enforcement and control of medicinal ingredients in this era was virtually nonexistent. Fines were levied when Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906 regulations were violated and medicine companies always paid the ridiculously trivial fines or were just given a warning. Laissez-faire capitalism was in the mix here, with the government’s policy being mostly “hands off” toward the many violators.

It is a proven fact that the term “celery” more often than not referred to cocacontaining medicines and medically compounded liquors. Many labeling examples exist where celery compounds list coca as the No. 1 ingredient. It became out of style when society started recognizing the bad side effects and mental and physical addiction to the drug cocaine. If they imbibed at all, temperance people who felt that these were medicinal compounds steered clear of anything with any narcotics on the label, such as alcohol, coca and its derivatives.

Directions for Use

When taken with whiskey it “will partially, if not wholly, allay the evil effects.” It is a delightful eye-opener but also the perfect night cap. “After over-eating, overdrinking, or a night out, it is the only thing to take. It is a perfect tonic and ideal dyspeptic remedy. In all disorders of the nervous system, brought about by over-work, mental strains, alcoholic and other excesses this remedy is without equal.” Using the product will “build up and strengthen the most shattered nervous system and weakest stomach.”

Another panacea, it was sold everywhere, It was easy to take and well worth the price. Another gem in the crown of America’s unrestricted patent medicines in the “Golden Age of Medicine.”

Need I Say More?

The captioned pictures and advertising will show you the truth about many celery elixers, I am confident! It was no coincidence that all of these concoctions contained coca.

Enjoy these visuals into our past, and embrace basic common sense. If these medicinal liquor/medicines were around today, it would knock our current energy drink industry right on its butt. That’s the rest of the story. — John Panella