Snake oil salesman

Wed., May 24, 1933 - Mom got the car from Koplin's this morning.  I left about 8:00 for my school.  Ran out of gas at Bojens.  Had Neiman's come out with some.  I worked at school finishing my reports, etc. until 3:30.  Went to Walkers for things I had forgotten and then to Behmers.  I was going up to Mayme's but it was too late.  Mom and I went quilting to [the] church basement this evening.
Thurs., May 25, 1933 - Mom helped Lilly Von Seggern paper this morning.  This noon a "snake" man was here selling snake oil.  And I was getting so hungry!  Mom and Grussmother went to Uncle Hans' and Aunt Emma's this p.m.  This evening Mom and I went out to Ola's for a little chat.
Fri., May 26, 1933 - Mom worked on my striped dress today.  I mended runners and holes in my silk hose. I went to Rebekah lodge tonite.  We had election of officers.  Minnie Andersen was elected Noble Grand and I Vice Grand.  Howard brought me home.  There was a dance in the "cracker box" but neither of us cared about going so we didn't.

I never considered that snake oil salesman showed up in Winside, but why wouldn't they?

Here is a bit of information from my favorite go-to, wikipedia:

     Snake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods or who is themselves a fraud, quack, or charlatan.

     The use of snake oil long predates the 19th century, and it was never confined to the Americas. In Europe, viper oil had been commonly recommended for many afflictions, including the ones for which rattlesnake oil was subsequently favored (e.g., rheumatism and skin diseases).

     Chinese laborers on railroad gangs involved in building the First Transcontinental Railroad first gave snake oil, a traditional folk remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat joint pain such as arthritis and bursitis to their fellow workers.  When rubbed on the skin at the painful site, snake oil was claimed to bring relief. This claim was ridiculed by rival medicine salesmen, and in time, snake oil became a generic name for many compounds marketed as panaceas or miraculous remedies whose ingredients were usually secret, unidentified, or mischaracterized and mostly inert or ineffective.

     Patent medicines originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton's Elixir in 1712. Since there was no federal regulation in the United States concerning safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Food and Drugs Act and various medicine salesmen or manufacturers seldom had enough skills in analytical chemistry to analyze the contents of snake oil, it became the archetype of hoax.

     The snake oil peddler became a stock character in Western movies: a traveling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling fake medicines with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence. To increase sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a shill) would often attest to the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" would leave town before his customers realized they had been cheated.  This practice is also called grifting and its practitioners are called grifters.

     Stanley's snake oil — produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King" — was tested by the United States government in 1917. It was found to contain:

     mineral oil
     1% fatty oil (presumed to be beef fat)
     red pepper
     turpentine
     camphor

     This is similar in composition to modern-day capsaicin-based liniments or chest rubs. None of the oil content was found to have been extracted from any actual snakes.

     The government sued the manufacturer for misbranding and misrepresenting its product, winning the judgment of $20 against Clark Stanley. Soon after the decision, "snake oil" became synonymous with false cures and "snake-oil salesmen" became a tag for charlatans.

And there you have it.