Legend of San Jose

In the early 1920's, a travelling salesman began appearing in small farming communities in central California. He was selling what he referred to as a "Vision Restorer" - an elixir he claimed would 'eliminate the need for glasses, remove cataracts and remedy any eye ailment.'

This was nothing unusual as the country was crawling with charlatans and snakeoil salesmen peddling every imaginable product with trumped up claims. The interesting thing was that the stuff seemed to work! People were coming out of the woodwork saying they used the Restorer and no longer needed their glasses. In all, there were 65 published reports of local residents claiming miraculous improvement in their eyesight after using the product - including two people who were known to have been blind!

Word of this spread like wildfire, and then overnight the salesman disappeared without a trace. No one knew where he went, where he came from or even what his name was. The only thing the locals could remember about the man was that when he introduced himself he claimed to represent.....