One long hot summer in a place called St. Johns, there came into town a man with a big tent which he set up at the corner of Lombard and Clarendon, with a sign posted in front: THE GREAT MARCEL AND HIS FABULOUS SNAKE SHOW. He was dapper and slim, and he wore a stovepipe hat and a cutaway coat. And when the crowds thronged around the tent that night and oil torches flickered their light over a lithe young lady dancing with snakes, Marcel told of his wonderful oil ” oil extracted from snakes that cured every human ill. He promised it would cure corns, calluses, lumbago, colds, indigestion, and was especially potent in dealing with certain private diseases. Best of all, it was only a dollar a bottle. Everybody agreed it was worth a try, and for years afterwards nobody could open a drugstore i…