These rhyming advertisements were created by “commercial rhymist” W.N.Bryant for a variety of drugstores in the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Indian Territory. They contain some ingenious sections of poetic flair, and strangely all end on a cigar-related note. Not sure if too many people would quite have the patience these days to stay still for the time required to get through the whole thing – though with such enticing headlines as “Ah! There” and “Why will you die?”, perhaps so.

(All images taken from the Southern Methodist University’s Central University Libraries Flickr Set and are held by the DeGolyer Library in Dallas).

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