Alexander's Family Friend

Alexander's Family Friend: A collection of the most valuable information and recipes on every subject of everyday life ... domestic medical remedies that will save life ... and instructions in the beautiful arts of making leather, hair, wax, and shell flowers. Also recipes. Also how to tell counterfeit money without a detector.

Stab-stitched in 2-color printed wraps, 8vo; (2), 19-94pp (as issued). Good to Very Good with moderate edgewear including small snags, loss to the spine ends, repaired tear and 1" loss to the bottom corner of the rear wrap. Binding thread loose, overall a wobbly production announced as the "new enlarged edition," but without precedent. One pictorial ad for Geo. Woods & Co. parlor organs; rear wrap solicits agents to sell Alexander publications in English, German and French. 5 copies in OCLC.

Like many "household hint" booklets, Alexander's Family Friend offers recipes from pickles to wine, cleaning tips and home health remedies of dubious merit. To cure Yellow Fever, it says to "remain perfectly quiet in the house and clear the stomach thoroughly by taking at least two emetics made of mustard and water. Then go to bed, and get some one to bind on the sole of each of your feet a mackerel that has just been taken out of the brine... send for your physician, and let him prescribe such remedies as he shall consider proper." (67)

But unlike the copious similar publications, it also has an eclectic mix of tips for decorative arts and beautification projects. Making flowers from hair, shells, leather; dyeing, house painting, and even taxidermy offer ways of improving quality of life, not merely surviving or putting food on the table.