Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1879-06-26
The Jimjams.


-. - tFal-aS-
ZoIa's story OF Il Assommoir" recalls
. chat | once had with one who might be
termed a professional drunkard He had
suffered terribly from excessive drinking;
he ancw is ryt.s f.r better :han one could
tell niu, ani he realized his position thor
oushiy. yet hc clgpg to the habit ami
avowed himself drunkapl. said he: I've
gone too Gar and too long on this road.
Ny stomach has been made over and
adapted "a ruin. The organ can't be rev
olutioniLed sgalu. It's too old 10 leave od
whiskcy. To change its feed would ki.l
uc IN fortnight. IL !-n'i - good
stomach A. the natural one sa-. but Il
stands ptut or more ot brandy per day.
I've trained 1t to that daring these many
years, aud you can't teach an old stomach
new tricks. Delirium Iremcns: snakes?
Jim-jams: les, I've had touche. oi them.
You want to know how II feels: III tell
YOU although never did much morc'than
jus, pass the jim-Ja ans frontier. You have
drank maybe 4 week mag be more. You
have kept extra 'iull" durag that period.
Al last liquor Grasses 10 excite. brace up,
or tranapllize. Y ou drink . half a pint of
brandy and II has no more effect than so
much water. Then YOU are close on the
horrors. Food won't be!p you. Your
stomach rejects II.
Now your punishment commences. ~
can't sleep. You are weary, oh, so weary,
bu, there is no rest. You are tired OF think
In, yet the tired brain will think. You lie
down. drop into doIe FOR minute. and
wake up with shock as u touched by Al
electric wire. You are covered with pers-
piration. You get up aud walk the room.
wal. the -,reets-waik, walk. walk. and
then fling yourself down. ptayin: for ever
So fe. minute, sleep. All this for days
with people about you, aud through nights
whose long, silent, dr.ary hours drag drag,
drag, while thus you lie down and get up.
and merely to Xii the time you dress and
undress, while people wonder what uneasy
mortal Is fussing In the next room aud for
ever golng up and down stairs. To stay
the live-lsng night In that lone room Is hoT-
riDic. you are stihed. buried 10 IL To get
ous into the street Is only 10 change the
horror. Your exhausted body pleads for
rest. Your brain pleads Tor rest. But no
Chinese torturer employed In Keeping some
miserable criminal awake TIL lie dies was
ever more h,ll OF relentless vigilance than
your abused nerves. They are mad They
have mutinlei. They have borne aud borne
the loads OF alcohol you have imposed
upon tiem until fienzied with the strain,
they hal taken the bit between their teeth
and run away with your body and brain.
You realize this. You feel your self borne
on from horror 10 horror by this unseen
power within you. breads undescriOable
seize upon you. Your hands have sensa-
ton OF being oi AN enormous size. They
do not look IL; they ieei IT, Your head in
like manner feels as Ii enormously pufed
out. Then your breath comes spasmod-
ieally. hot dGshes strike at the region OF
the heart, all the blood seems at tunes To
A.. fs,kr aim
i.s.Iy Tor life and expect Ia fall dead. This
Is the commencement of the horrors. Now
you are fixed Tor seeing rats, and snakes
and yermtn.
How many attacks can man stand
How many2 I've known meu who weren't
wholly free from the jiIn-iams for months.
They saw the things continually. Didut
mind them at ali Got used to them. There
was Greenwood, q lawyer in Sonora, TuoI-
umne county, Cal. he lived on whiskey, as
nearly AS = man could live On II for years
Sometimes he had ihe snases very bad, and
again they'd tone down 10 moderation. yet
he had 'em all the same. de would sit 10
his office DRAWN. up some legal document
as straight and correct a. The soberest legal
head 10 the country, and all the time curse
the crows Uim-iam crows) for getting on
the paper There was French Louis, who
kept a saloon at jamestown, IN the same
county, who drank himself 10 death With
his own LIQUOR. He MAS q mass of bloat.
yet he'd serve customers To the last, and
all the time see string of nonNeys Oim-
Jam moDkeys) running round the cornices
of his saloon. "rney amuse the" he would
say. land besides they are not SO mis-
chievous AS real monkeys.
There's u man living in that same town
to-day to whom phase of mania potu is
OF no more Inconvenience, apparently than
| . severe cold. I'll call him Doncaster,
| which isn't his real name, but comes pretty
near il. That man is living contradiction
| OF the theory that whiskey in excess will
| kill people. He has for 10 years drank
| lakes OF it and the poorest whiskey in the
world at that. After q bowling drunk at
night, he will do bard days work and
| keep up both the work aud q modified sort
while men around him Oim-j am men) who
tax aud threaten him. They plagued me
some At nrst," said he, "but told 'em TO
| git and they got. One night heard lot
OF ieilers under my window plotting TO rob
| and kill me. thought TO myself. il that's
your game, III take hand in II myself
| So got up, took my knife aud six-shooter
aud put out. " hen got out OF doors they
seemed to me about 100 yards ahead ~ the
darkness, and 100 yards ahead they kept
| for two miles. nor could get any nearer
to them. So travelled, and they Travelled.
out OF the camp ali that distance, until all
1t once they seemed to make . straight
| scoot OF the road, and l heard 'em next
talking on Graveyard hill. Then saw II
all, and ssys l, ''Snakes. by and
turned about and came home" Then
there was Dr.. D. OF the same camp He