Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1869-04-28

LADIES USING OPIUM

The use of the pernicous drug is not
confined to the men; there are hum
dreds and thousands of women who
are in the daily habit of intoxi eating
themselves with it, and they are tounu
in all grades of society, but chiefly
among those who are not dependent
upon their own eXertiOns for their sup
port. Some of the drug stores uptown
and in Brooklyn sell more opium to
women then to men, the liter buying
CHIEFLY at down town shops. Not long
ago lady OF one Of the first families
was arrested on the street tor drunken
ness and locked up in one OF the sta
tiOn-hOuses. She had all the appearances
of being intoxicated and the police very
naturally concluded that she was of far
but frall class, and the hes thing to do
with her was to lock her up. 1t turned
out on Investigation that she was Who'll
ly innocent or having swallowed fusil
oil or anything of the sort, but had only
been INDUCING in opium. The affair
was hushed up, and the name Ofthe lazy
did not appear in print. Two or three
Cases like This have occurred, and some
of the police say that they have made
several arrests under the mistaken inn
preston that their subjects were suffer-
ing under too heavy stress of whiskey.
Very few of the ladies who use opium
| venture into the street whi e under ITS
| influence, and the fact that these arrests
occur in public, shows that the habit Is
very widely spread. Many of those
addicted to it conceal the fact frOm their
nearest friends, while others are in the
habit of meeting in little parties ana
| having social cnew just as some of the
ladies down South used to indulge in
dips" Opium takes the place OF
snuff, and the parties generally get up
TO high pitch OF enthusiasm, AS opI-
UNI does lot lead to head-breaking
and combative intoxication, like wills
key, or other strong drink, the fair crea-
lures do not, save IN rare cases, disturb
their neighbors While at the opium
seances. An exception is sometimes
found there was one few months ago
when the female inmates of a house ON
Fourteenth street fell to pulling each
others hair, and committing other
breaches of prOpriety while under the
influence on opium. But it must be re-
marked that they were not, Nc best, the
pOssessors of good characters.
OPIUM AMONG MEN.
Men make less concealment of the
opium naOlL tnan women, ana from
their more frequent mingling in BUSH
ness affairs they are more liable to de-
lection. l know several men in BUSH
ness who are in the habitual use of OPT
UNI, and generally carry neat little
Jumps in their pockets. The use of the
drug gives them sort of nervousness in
their manner, which is probably the
first sign to be discovered. Any metro
politan reader of this can probably call
to mind from one to half dozen men
he has met, whose manner indicates
that they are no strangers to opium.
know two editors who use good deal
of the drug; one has not yet impaired
his faculties with it; though he will do
so before long, the other has taken SO
much of the narcotic that his brain is
Supplied, and his thoughts often wan
der. Still he writes, and often brilliant
ly, and none who read his productions
would imagine that they came fom a
head that is frequently mole than two
thirds insensible, while the body to
which it belongs is in full activity.
Rochester Chronicle.