Frontier Oregon swindlers: The traveling medicine shows

Published: Sept. 25, 2019, 2 p.m.

The basic idea: Mix a few dramatic ingredients like whiskey, red pepper and opium; stick a label on it; hawk it on streetcorners as a universal medicine; and leave town before the suckers can get wise. (Statewide; 1870s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1604d.swindlers-medicine-shows-388.html)