This is one of several Ayers Sarsaparilla cards in my collection of Victorian trade cards. The company was quite prolific in their advertising and they produced a variety of cards ranging from the handsome to the comic.
This one depicts an old woman with a crutch. A little girl in a blue dress is whispering in her ear. Or—maybe she’s not whispering so much as she’s shouting into the woman’s ear because she’s deaf. Either way, the image is captioned:
“GRANDMA, SEE WHAT I’VE BROUGHT YOU.”
At the top of the image, the Ayer’s Sarsaparilla logo is neatly printed. The artist has signed the image and included the Ayer’s company name as well as “Lowell, Mass. USA” in the lower corner.
On the reverse, we have the usual whacko ad copy—making all sorts of grand claims about something which amounts to ginger ale. Let’s see what they want us to believe.
OUR PICTURE REPRESENTS childhood and old age in happy contrast, and suggests one of the most appropriate gifts which can be made to an aged person. Ayer’s Sarsaparilla has cheered the declining years and prolonged the lives of many venerable men and women, and has proved a blessing to thousands of sufferers from debility.
Robert Barris (employed at S.E. & T. Stott’s), Lowell, a very old man, in whom the decrepitude of age was increased by debility caused by impoverished blood, found his vital forces rejuvenated through the effects of Ayer’s Sarsaparilla.
Hon. Francis Jewett, ex-Mayor of Lowell, ex-State Senator, and member of the great provision, exporting firm of Jewett & Swift, of Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Liverpool says: “Ayer’s Sarsaparilla is the only preparation of Sarsaparilla that seems to do me any real lasting good. It goes to the right spot every time. In cleansing the blood and expelling poisonous matter from the system its effects are wonderful.”
Mrs. Eliza Fleming, 63, of Brand St., Lowell, has been cured of fainting spells and dizziness, and her daughter of neuralgia and weakness, by Ayer’s Sarsaparilla.
A lady writes “I have used Ayer’s Sarsaparilla in my family for many years, and should not feel safe without it. For the relief of the pains consequent upon weakness and irregularities, I consider it without equal.”
Another lady says: “My daughter has taken the medicine faithfully, according to directions, and her health and spirits are now perfect. The humor is all gone from her face. I wish every anxious mother might know what a blessing Ayer’s Sarsaparilla is in such cases.”
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