Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-15
MOfDhiOYnAmia.

dulging In choral, mOrphia and other such
drugs should be understood. To woman of
refinement these methods of obtaining the de-
sired immunity from self are repulsive She re-
sorts to them reluctantly and by slow degrees
There was, till recently, no other way, but now
the downward path is made very easy. First,
the inventor of chloral smOOthed the way, I'M
consciously but surely. woman who would
have shuddered with genuine horror at the
idea OF drinking too much wine, thinks little of
taking repeated doses of choral. Women think
so much of the look of thing. brandy bot
tile on their dressing table would be too horrible
But the small. innOcent-lOOkng little phial so
constantly in demand?-that is thought moth
ing OF. And yet the brandy bottle may be the
safer OF the two. For the very reason that it
represents more degraded form of vice. it is
safer than the small flask which the chemist
sealed with wax, and labelled ''Poison' A
thousand wOmanly instincts and feminine fears
drag her back from the former. The physician
| whom she trusts and all her dearest friends
urge her towards the latter
But choral is an old story now We see a
woman lOlling languidly in her carriage in her
box at the opera, or even at her own table.
with flmv. daZed look i'm her ewes, an absent
manner. and half-unconscious way of listen
| ing and replying to those about her. We at
once account for it: "Choral.' We see man
who was ncethe incarnation of life and energy.
Drlsk In business, intellectual, cultivated We
see him dulled. nerveless his brighter self
efiaced, his intellect Pickering like dying
hight. his business faculties dwindling. slovenly
IN mind as well as person, inaccurate in state
ments, and careless as to linen; and we say;
''ChlOral." 1t has become an accepted fact, a
recognized doom for certain percentage of our
acquaintance. 1t is an old story Something
fresh was demanded and i'm response to the de-
mand new vice was invented.
When physicians discovered that pain could
be subdued by inserting under the skin small
pointed instrument provided with tube con-
tanning mOrphia they little thought that they
were paving a, the way for a new vice: Yet so it
was. There are, IN our merry England beings
VINO are as wholly under the domination of
mOrphia as ever was Chinese under that of
opium. Women have yielded by degrees to its
Iatai fascination, until at last they prick the
skin dozen times a day with the tiny syringe
that has such terrible results. The operation is
almost painless; the immediate effects pleasant
A delicious languOr supervenes. Happy
thoughts and bright imaginings fill the mind
Some see beautiful visions, Others feel
only pervading sensation of comfort and
well being. On few the effect of morphia
Is to excite to some intellectual effort. if effort
that can be called which is pure delight, glori-
Gus feeling of untrammelled power of uncrip-
pied exercise of the highest faculties 1t is as
though the mind had suddenly developed wings.
But AT the very height of the enchantment the
influence OF mOrphia begins to subside The
glory ladies'. The wings trail. and the feet that
are their sorry substitute become weighted as
with lead. AS with the workers. so with the
drealnerS The visions are Obscured. The SEN
satiOn of comfort gives place to one of discom-
iort, irritation even pain. The mental vision
that had just now looked through ROSY mist
sees all things as through Grape veil or No
vemDer fog. Can it be wondered at that the
dose is renewed that the poison Is absorbed
again and again. that the intervals become
shorter and shorter between the reign of the Do
tent drug!
And the end? The punishment is terrible in
deed BY degrees the mind becomes darkened
hldeous hailuclnatiOns seZe upon it, Self-cOn-
troll is lost. Imbecilitv overtakes the weak
Madness threatens the strong
These are the personal consequences. There
are Others to be bequeathed to sons and daugh-
ters ana 10 later generations These can be
guessed at. The new vice has not reigned suf-
hcienfly long for the world to have seen them
exemplifed, but q dark array of possibilities
suggests itself. but too readily The heritage
OF insanity, OF enebrty, of imbecility, will i'm
| future be traced back to those tiny tubes which
| hold but drop or two. and to which men once
looked as to blessed means of relieving pain.
| forgetting that blessings and curses 90 hand in
hand in crooked world. Dipsomana has now
powerful rival, spedier in its results than its
own revolving process and eventually as de-
grading. The name of the later born sister
nend Is MorphiOmania. Truth.
The Pewter Age I'm New England.
| In the early New England days wooden ware
was in far more common use than would be
supposed, and a handsome set of pewter was an
enviabls possession. AS for china. any amount OF
that betokened unusual prosperity. There was
very little money In the farming districts of
New England for many years, and numerous
persons live in vastly more comfortable fashion
now on the same land which gave their ances-
tors bare living fifty years ago.
we can have no idea what serious
thing it was in the last century. or early
IN TINS present one, to undertake any new ex-
Pehse; Tor instance, sending boy to college.
10 RAISE an extra two or three hundred wear
meant that the men and women both sh0uld
oruuSe early and late, and DENY themselves
niost cruelty Any one who looks closely at tho
Signs tnat are left us of the pewter-plate acre in
Massachusetts will find much that is INTERESTING
and he may discover in the fields the namalas,,
| graves Of many hero and heroine. unmarked
except by .Dugh lichened stone gathered from
the abundant harvest of the soil. The bniId-
| ing of So raany mills and the rapid growth NJ
| the manufacturing villages have afforded better
| markets; and Leside the money that the vonng
| people have earned and brought home. the in
come of the farms has been made larger year Inv
/ year, and the farm houses and the way of Uyinr
| IN them have steadily grown more comfortable
| The pewter was not all melted into bullets
/ wherewith to fight our foes. but it is fast dis
appearing IN other ways; the great platters
were one by one gathered to their rest by the
| tin peddlers when pewter was high in tn e war
time and the little plates have been melted ON
| the stoves BY careless cOoks.-Dect,aber Al
tantic.