Rough On Rats


Title
Rough On Rats
Description
Advertisement for Rough On Rats depicting a black silhouette type picture. From right to left is a woman, man, child, dog, and cat all chasing a mouse. A table is toppling over and a baby in a highchair is on the floor. In a caption box are the words: "All this trouble might have been avoided by the use of one fifteen cent box of "Rough On Rats." Clears out rats, mice, flies, bed-bugs, ants, roaches, mosquitoes, &c." In very tiny print at the bottom is: Evening Journal, Jersey City. The reverse of the card also states that "Rough On Rats" clears out skunk and weasel. Other products include Wells' May Apple Pills (for liver), Wells' Health Renewer (for impotence, leanness, nervous weakness, dyspepsia, kidney or liver trouble, consumption) and Chapin's Buchu-Paiba (for catarrh of the bladder). E.S. Wells, Manufacturer and Proprietor, Jersey City, N.J.
Date
1870-1890
Original Format
trade cards
Extent
11cm x 6cm
Local Identifier
LL02.12.01.28.02
Subject(s)
Spatial
Location of Original
Laupus Library History Collections
Rights
This item has been made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Researchers are responsible for using these materials in accordance with Title 17 of the United States Code and any other applicable statutes. If you are the creator or copyright holder of this item and would like it removed, please contact us at als_digitalcollections@ecu.edu.
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Permalink
https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/20792
Preferred Citation
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Comments

Matt Reynolds Apr 19 2013

This late 19th Century advertising card for E.S. Wells Rough on Rats vermin extermination powder depicts a peeved family chasing a variety of pests from their home.  The powder, which contained a mixture of arsenic and ground coal was said to “clear out rats, mice, flies, bed-bugs, ants, roaches, mosquitoes, etc.”.  The Wells Company, based in Jersey City New Jersey, offered a wide range of products including Rough on Corns, Rough on Itch, Rough on Toothache, and Wells’ Health Renewer.    Wells promoted all of the company products far and wide in both newspapers and via advertising cards.  He even produced a Rough on Rats song touting the effectiveness of the poison, which included the chorus:  “R-r-rats! Rats! Rats! Rough on Rats, Hang your dogs and drown your cats:  We give a plan for every man to clear his house with Rough on Rats”    Sadly, some purchasers of the product chose to misuse it both to take their own lives and to take the lives of others. The most notorious case of the latter was the poisoning of Ada Appelgate by her husband Everett Appelgate and his mistress Frances Creighton.  Both were convicted of murder in 1936 and were sent to the electric chair at New York’s Sing-Sing prison shortly after.

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