The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-03-14

STAUEToN, VA, Feb. 81, 1873.
The opium eating in this vicinity still
goes on; and as some cities and some sec
tions have 4 reputation Tor the number of
drunkards they generate, SO Staunton has
the name of being the great opium city of
this part of the country. And it is deplora-
BILE to observe how the evil has increased.
At conference of druggists, held day before
yesterday 1t was reported that the increase
in 1877 over 1876 was % per cent; that 1876
over the preceding year was 81 per etnt,
and that 1875 over the preceding year was
so per cent.
THE EVIL Is LIKE AN ENDEMIC.
son never to let loose. 4 man secs another
using the terrible drug, and before he is
aware OF 1t he is eating opium himself. /
When l telegraphed, three weeks ago, about |
the sensation that was created here by GER
tain developments, not half had been told. /
1t is true that there have been no deaths
equal to that of the lady who dropped /
dead from disappointment because she could /
not get her opium; but the young man who |
swallowed fifteen grains of morphine at
drugstore counter, three or four weeks ago, !
and lived, took twenty grains at one pop
since, and died. He was a young Jew, and
had only been victim to the vice few
years. AS. intimated before, the Asylums
here-the Lunatic Inebriate and others
consume a great deal of morphine in a le-
gitimate way, but what they use is only
drop in the bucket.
NEARLY A HUNDRED POUNDS OF OPIUM A
WEEK.
That is-what the druggist reported, which
is pretty heavy for city of eight or ten
thousand. A large quantity of the truck
sold IN Staunton Is bought by country peo-
pie, for the craving for it all down the Val
ley Is strong, If not stronger than it is in
the city. Your correspondent has Just Wis
tied all of the apothecaries here, and the
tales that they tell are fearful. "See that
handsomely dressed English lady passing on
the other side of the street," 'Yes" Well,
she is one of our best customers. She COM
menced to take morphine about two years
ago. She used to send servant for quar-
ter-grain doses, now she uses four-grain
doses" "Have you many such customers as
she is?" asked the writer. "Oh, yes. Let
me see: Mr.. Allen counting on his fingers
we have
FIFTEEN REGULAR LADY CUSTOMERS
that think of at this moment, who take
over two grains of morphine at time, and
twelve men who take between two and six
grain doses at time" ''You think the
evil here is on the increase?" "My good
| ness! Yes" Your correspondent found
Mr.. Tyree waiting on a bevy of dashing
girls. There were four of them, and they
seemed to be "sweet sixteen" When they
left the store Mr.. Tyree said: There they
go; they are some of our Opium-eaters."
"What! those pretty things" Why, yes;
they commenced to use the dangerous stuff
only few weeks ago; now they each spend
Sc week for it. 1t is sad" he continued;
''but there is no stopping them after they
once begin it." At Mr.. John Benners /
was informed that two of the eight leading
ministers of the city used opium: that one
of them took it in the shape of laudanum.
But
! THE MOST STARTLING STATEMENT
made by any of the apothecaries was by one
/ (he requested me not to mention his name }
! who looked at his prescription list of last
year, and found that he had sold seventy
nine thousand five hundred and ninty-three
doses of morphine during the year.
MIR. Forman said to the writer: "You
! have no idea what means many ladies use
| to get opium without their families know
| ing it." Are most of your opium custom
! ers ladies?" | asked. "Yes; have about
! forty regular lady customers, and about
! twenty or twenty-five male customers /
! have seen married women come to the door
| and send a srevant in with the money; they
| wouldn't come in themselves for fear they
would meet some one who would tell.
Sometimes they buy enough to last for two
! or three months. l found one lady buying
so much opium that l thought it would be
an act of charity to tell her husband ]
did tell him, and he said, :" | know she uses
! ii, but let her have all she wants; | can't
stop her" Mr.. Forman continued: / col
! lecred a bill of 1925 OF prominent citizen
a few days ago. 1t was
FOR OPIUM SOLD TO HIS WIFE,
| who died a month or two ago. was afraid
he would refuse to pay it, but he didn't say
| a word He settled without grumbling. The
! prescription clerk of Wayt 4 Bros. said that
one of their customers was a young lawyer
who drank quart of laudanum a week.
Another was a bookkeeper who drank a gal
/ Ion of laudnum i'll three weeks. / called
upon DR.. II. 2. Reese at his office. He is
man of forty-ive and is one of cur leading
! physicians. He told me that he had been
trying to get some legislation passed on OPT
um for over year. The member from this
district had promised to prepare a bill for
the House of Delegates, levying heavy tax
on opium, but he had not yet presented it.
DIR. Reese thought the druggists were wrong
! to sell opium. lie said he never prescribed IL
except in very exceptional cases. DR..
Murphy thought the bell-punch used in bar
rooms, which levies a tax OF twO-and-a-hali
cents a drink had driven many poor people
to use opium. DIR. Dilkes attributes the
spread OF the opium evil to the fact that all
of the pulmonic remedies contain large
share of opium. He
CONDEMNED MRS. wINsLOw's SOOTHING
SYRUP
for children, saying that babies were apt
TO grow up with the taste of opium formed In
them from the use of that stuff. Dr. Taylor
agreed with the druggist that the evil was on
the increase, not only in StauntOn but all
along the Valley. He thought the preach
ers ought TO preach against 1t. But them
he observed, one OF the parsons himself use
opium to excess" All the junk-dealeTs ana
pawnbrokers have much to tell. 81 believe
she would sell the last rag Otf7n her back"
said old Lloyd, "but what she would have
opium" This remark was addressed to a
small ragged child who had Just brought the
junk-dealer a nice shawl. 1t seems that the
girl was frequent visitor at Loyd's and
came to sell things for lady who was once
wealthy, but who had been reduced to penu-
ry by her extravagant craving for opium.
The junk-dealer said that she used to send
silk dresses to the pawnbroker's but now she
had come down to selling things the pawn
brokers would not take. Isaac Harriss, q
pawnbroker, told the writer that most of his
watches and rings had been left by young
gentlemen 10 were we'll known opium
eaters.
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE"
said Mr.. Mar kland, an elder of the church.
"The evil is one of the saddest ever beheld.
The church doesn't seem TO be any safeguard,
for believe that half of the church mem
hers in town are addicted to the deplorable