"When Swansen brought the salt, a moment later, the man was dead."

A self-medicating man with an odd taste for tinctures did himself no good in a saloon according to this article in the October 27, 1902 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“A poorly dressed man, apparently about 35 years of age, entered Harry Kennedy’s saloon, at 184 Park Row, Manhattan, shortly, before 6 o’clock this morning and asked the bartender, William Swansen, to give him a pinch of salt.

‘What do you want with salt?’ asked the bartender, surprised by the request.

‘I have a hemorrhage,’ replied the man, at the same time spitting a quantity of blood on the floor. Swansen went to one end of the bar to get some salt and the stranger staggered into the back room and sank into a chair. When Swansen brought the salt, a moment later, the man was dead.

The dead man was five feet nine inches in height, had brown hair, gray eyes and a smooth face. He weighed about 150 pounds. He wore a blue shirt, striped coat and trousers, brown stockings and laced shoes. The body will be removed to the Morgue.”