Omaha Greatly Excited by Medicine Man

1910

"The Great Cooper" Stirs Up City to Remarkable Degree

Omaha, Nebraska, January 26. — This city is at present in the midst of an excitement beyond anything that it has experienced in recent years. Old and young, rich and poor, all seem to have become beside themselves over an individual who was a stranger to Omaha up to two weeks ago.

The man who has created all this turmoil is L. T. Cooper, President of the Cooper Medicine Co., of Dayton, Ohio, who is at present introducing his preparations in this city for the first time.

Cooper is a man about thirty years of age and has acquired a fortune within the past two years by the sale of some preparations of which he is the owner.

Reports from eastern cities that preceded the young man here were of the most startling nature, many of the leading dailies going so far as to state that he had nightly cured in public places rheumatism of years' standing with one of his preparations. The physicians of the East contradicted this statement, claiming the thing to be impossible, but the facts seemed to bear out the statement that Cooper actually did so.

In consequence people flocked to him by thousands and his preparations sold like wildfire.

Many of these stories were regarded as fictitious in Omaha and until Cooper actually reached this city little attention was paid to them. Hardly had the young man arrived, however, when he began giving demonstrations, as he calls them, in public, and daily met people afflicted with rheumatism, and with a single application of one of his preparations actually made them walk without the aid of either canes or crutches.

In addition to this work Cooper advanced the theory that stomach trouble is the foundation of nine out of ten diseases and claimed to have a preparation that would restore the stomach to working order and thus get rid of such troubles as catarrh and affections of the kidneys and liver, in about two weeks' time.

This statement seems to have been borne out by the remarkable results obtained through the use of his preparation, and now all Omaha is apparently mad over the young man.

How long the tremendous interest in Cooper will last is hard to estimate. At present there seems to be no sign of a let-up. Reputable physicians claim it to be a fad that will die out as soon as Cooper leaves.

In justice to him, however, it must be said that he seems to have accomplished a great deal for the sick of this city with his preparations.

Search for Hungarian Makes Commotion, Discovers Garlic Scent

Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1908

FUTILE SEARCH AT MIDNIGHT

Austrian Grading Camp Near Transfer Raided by Police

Four members of the South Omaha police force and two detectives of the Council Bluffs station conducted a fruitless search Monday night for a Hungarian wanted in Omaha for stabbing another man in a fight Sunday night.

The affray is said to have taken place at the Kilpatrick grading camp three miles west of South Omaha. Two brothers, Dan and Ivan Detlich, were alleged to have badly wounded two other men.

Monday evening word was received by the Council Bluffs police that the Austrian who had done the stabbing was reported to be concealed in one of the house-cars situated near the former site of the Omaha elevator south of the Union Pacific transfer and that four South Omaha officers would be over in about an hour to investigate the report.

At 11 o'clock the Omaha men arrived and, guided by the Council Bluffs detectives, started out to look for their man. Upon arriving at the ruins of the elevator two of the men went to the home of the man who had sent the report. He pointed out to them the string of cars in which the fellow might be found. A thorough search of these produced nothing more than a great commotion among the Hungarians and a noisome agitation of the scent of garlic.

After satisfying themselves that there was no man there answering the description, the party plodded back to the transfer station, foot-sore and weary, and arrived just in time to miss the last car. They finished the remaining sixteen blocks on foot, humming cheerfully betimes, bars from "Forty-five Minutes From Broadway."

—The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 11, 1908, p. 5.