My sales have been pretty good.  Comstock Pills are put in almost every place, generally on commission at a low figure, but I get them put aside in most cases and make actual sales so they will be likely to get them back.

Meanwhile, back in New York City, the fight between the erstwhile partners went on, mostly in the legal arena.  On April 14, 1859, the sheriff, at the instigation of the Comstocks, raided White’s premises at 10 Courtlandt Street and seized the books, accounts, and correspondence carried away by White and Moore on January 1.  Simultaneously, the Comstocks succeeded in having White and Moore arrested on a charge of larceny “for stealing on last New Year’s Day a large number of notes and receipts,” and in September White was arrested on a charge of forgery.  Since the alleged offense took place in Pennsylvania, he was extradited back to that state.  Neither the circumstances nor the disposition of this case is known, but since White claimed the right to collect notes issued by the old A.J.  White & Co., it is probable that the charge arose merely out of his endorsement of some disputed note.  On this occasion the Comstocks printed and distributed circulars which were headed:  “Andrew J. White, the pill man indicted for forgery,” and thereunder they printed the requisition of the governor of New York in response to the request for extradition from Pennsylvania, in such a way as to suggest that their side of the dispute had official sanction.

The Comstocks must also have discovered White’s and Blakely’s arrangement for avoiding “scrutiny” of their goods shipped into Canada, for on July 29 there was an acknowledgment by the Collector of Customs of the Port of Queenston of certain information supplied by George Wells Comstock, William Henry Comstock, and Baldwin L. Judson on goods being “smuggled into this province.”

While the principal case between the Comstocks and White and Moore was scheduled for trial in December 1860, no documents which report its outcome were discovered.  However, it is a fair surmise that the rival parties finally realized that they were spending a great deal of energy and money to little avail, injuring each other’s business in the process and tarnishing the reputation of the Indian Root Pills regardless of ownership.  In any case, a final settlement of this protracted controversy was announced on March 26, 1861, when White and Moore relinquished all claims and demands arising out of the sale of Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills prior to January 1, 1859.

[Illustration:  FIGURE 10.—­As one episode in the contest between the Comstocks and White and Moore for control of the Indian Root Pills, the Comstocks succeeded in having White indicted for forgery and briefly lodged in jail.]

Since no copy of this agreement was found, we do not know what inducement was offered to Moore and White.  However, hundreds of announcements of the settlement, directed “To the debtors of the late firm of A.J.  WHITE & CO.” were printed, advising that