Abstract
If you walked past the top hat and muff in the History Center's collection, you might not take a second glance. To the casual observer they might appear to be just another fashion relic of a bygone era. What you would not know upon first glance is that this particular hat and muff belonged to one of the more famous characters to inhabit the streets of Pittsburgh. For 40 years, Charles Orton, better known as "the Double X cough drop man," sold his Double X Old Reliable cough drops on various street corners in Pittsburgh wearing his signature fur coat and top hat. The wild stories of his past are hard to verify, but intriguing nonetheless.
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