TRADE: Purgatives and Politics

Digging a well in lonely northern Texas late in 1880, an oldtime settler sipped its water, spit it out in puckery disgust. Later he learned its medicinal value, watched mineral wells rapidly mushroom about him. Soon Mineral Wells, Tex. became a mecca for U. S. health seekers. One of them was a woman with a brain disordered by menopause. She lived to a sane old age and the font from which she had sipped was christened Crazy Well.

In 1926 the Crazy became a big-time gusher. From the charred remains of the first...

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