Harmless, and very effective.

Or, The Archaeology of Home, by Susan Caraher

While Bill is working on projects in Cyprus this summer, I am holding down the fort at Walnut Street while we overhaul our bathroom. When you own an old house (ours in 1900), you never know what to expect when you open a wall or lift a floor. There is always a substantial amount of archaeology to be done, even in the home. We’ve found original thresholds where walls have been opened up, niches where walls were closed, brick surrounds for fire stacks that no longer exist, not to mention the cast iron Detroit Jewel that had been hoist up to the attic of all places.

The bathroom really is a major project, taking the entire room back to studs. Our plumber rescued a couple of little treasures from the floor when he gutted the room last week. One is a coloring book with names of people (perhaps former owners of the home?) and the other is a well-preserved little bottle (sans lid, only) with an intact label. Indicative of “simpler” times, these magic tablets seems to cure everything.

The label reads “Bell-ans for Indigestion. Pain, Flatulence, Nausea, Vertigo, Sour Stomach, Biliousness, Colic, Cramps, Distress from Overeating or Drinking. Harmless, Pleasant to Take and Very Effective.” Mind you, it required up to 6 tablets in a dose to be very effective. It is always fun to glimpse the past through even the simplest of artifacts. Oh, and there are several Bell-ans left in the bottle if anyone is feeling a bilious attack coming on!

Bell-ans for Indigestion

Harmless and Very Effective