_+Ruptured People Swindled Out of Thousands of Dollars+_

Look Out for the Deceitful "Don't-Wear-a-Truss" Arguments and the Tricky "Not-a-Truss" Claims

Get-Rich-Quick Quacks are year after year humbugging ruptured people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The traps they set are cleverly baited. But the bait always consists of misrepresentation and tricky subterfuges.

Some style themselves "doctors"-- an insult to the medical profession.

Some call themselves "Captain" or "Colonel"-- an attempt to get the sympathy of Civil War veterans.

Some try to work on your sympathies by telling you they were themselves formerly ruptured-- that they got their knowledge of rupture by studying their own cases-- that they made a special "appliance" for themselves.

But a doctor or surgeon can't set his own arm. And no one can make a scientific study of his own rupture any more than he can perform an operation on himself.

And some call themselves Rupture or Hernia "Specialists"-- but never specialized in anything except swindling ruptured people.

Some of them make offers like "Free to the Ruptured"-- so worded as to make a man think it means free cure. But all they send you free is a cheap little folder or circular. People who write to them soon learn to know better than to expect something for nothing.

[Sidenote: Don't be Fooled by "Appliances," "Methods," etc.]

And some try to snare their victims with deceitful "Don't-Wear-a-Truss"

talk.

Try to hoodwink you into thinking they have no truss to sell.

Try to fool you with things they call "Appliances," "Methods,"

"Discoveries," etc.

But the man who puts any faith in such claims soon finds that these so-called "Appliances" and "Methods" are nothing but an adaptation of the old-fashioned truss with belt, band, leg-straps, springs, etc.

Nothing but the most worthless kind of a truss masquerading under a misleading name.

Some of these "Method" concerns throw in some absurd kind of liniment, salve or ointment-- tell you the secret lies in this "lymph" or whatever they call it rather than in their appliances.

But that is nothing more nor less than the rankest kind of fraud.

It is folly to suppose any salve, liniment or medicine can possibly cure rupture. Might as well expect them to cure a broken bone. Though they can probably do as much good as the worthless "appliances" they come with.

[Sidenote: The Liniment Fraud]

When you first apply this "lymph" or liniment, you may feel some stimulating effects; for these lymph-sellers are always careful to tell you to _rub_ the stuff _in_ thoroughly. But the stimulation lasts only a few minutes; and is due to the _rubbing_ and not to the liniment. If you rub with your fingers alone-- without any liniment-- it will do just as much good.

This rubbing, while the stimulation lasts, simply proves the value of _ma.s.sage_. For rubbing with your hands is, in a way, like the ma.s.sage which the Cluthe Truss gives automatically. But the ma.s.sage given by our truss is a hundred times more invigorating and strengthening to the ruptured parts than any amount of hand-rubbing. Our truss is giving the _ma.s.sage_ all day long, while rubbing with your hands can be done only once or twice a day at most, only when flat on your back, and only for a few minutes at a time.

Some of these people claim they can cure rupture by means of a plaster-- like the kidney plaster which proved worthless long ago.

These plaster venders are careful to avoid saying out and out in plain language that their plaster will positively keep your rupture from coming out-- they make no direct promises or guarantee whatever of holding the rupture.

If they cannot guarantee holding, it is nonsense to think any plaster can possibly overcome any weakness like rupture, no matter what kind of _magical_ ointment there may be in the plasters.

We have talked of these kinds of people in plain language; we have called a spade a spade.

For it is nothing less than a crime the way these men have grown rich by defrauding ruptured people.

It is worse than the way wildcat "mining" men have robbed the unsuspecting public. For these rupture swindlers take advantage of people's suffering.

[Sidenote: How to Save Yourself from Being Humbugged]

But it is easy enough to avoid being fooled-- easy enough to guard against frauds and fakes.

And it is easy enough to save yourself from throwing money away on drug-store trusses and other things which may be sold without wrong intent-- but which are utterly incapable of doing any particular good.

Simply make up your mind not to put any faith in anything whatever for rupture unless you can get the sellers to agree to let you test it on _Sixty Days' Trial_ and under the protection of a _Money-Back Guarantee_.

Make sure that everything is clearly understood-- see that all agreements are plainly worded-- insist on a signed guarantee that your rupture will be held or your money refunded.

Any concern which makes or sells a truss or anything else good enough to stand _that_ test doesn't need to resort to misleading claims or subterfuge or trickery of any kind.

And _that_-- a sixty days' trial under the protection of our iron-clad money-back guarantee-- is the test we ask you to make of the Cluthe Automatic Ma.s.saging Truss.

_+Showing How the Cluthe Truss is Held in Place Without Leg-Straps or Other "Harness"+_

[Ill.u.s.tration]

These ill.u.s.trations show the free action of the rear or Suction Pads of the Cluthe Truss.

The sole work of these pads is to support the frame which pa.s.ses around the body. They hold the Truss in position, so the Rupture Pads in front can't slip up or down or away from the rupture opening.

These pads rest against the cushion of muscles behind the hips (the muscles forming the rump). The pads are hollow on the under side. This forms a vacuum or suction, which makes slipping or displacement impossible in any position.

_+What We Have Done For 290,000 Others+_

At this writing we have treated at our Inst.i.tute, over 290,000 ruptures.

These included all kinds and conditions. Some of them the worst cases in history.

Many of these people, in despair, were at the point of undergoing an operation. But the Cluthe Truss made operation unnecessary-- saved the big expense-- saved the terrible risk.

Among those we have fitted by mail are many infants from a few months to a few years old.

And even these little ones wore the Cluthe Truss in absolute comfort while being made better, while being cured.