Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-11-14
THE TEN PLAQUES
WHICH AFFLlCT OUR CITIES AND
RUIN OUR PEOPLE.
What Hashish, Opium, Choral and Tobacco
is Doing for Us-Tremendous
Growth Of Sarcotism.
SENSIBLE SERMON ONATIMELY TOPIC
special to the Register.

a series OF sermons on the Ten Plaques
OF Our Cities. The Tabernacle WAS
crowded, and after the hymn,
II need Thee every hour most gracious Lord.
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford"
the Doctor announced the subject of
the sermon The Plague Narcotic" and
the text Exodus TX. Al will at this
time send all my plaques upon thy heart,
upon thy servants and upon thy peo-
pie" The Doctor then rapidly sketched
the ten plaques which were sent upon
the Egyptians, then said, these sorrows
have passed off the earth, but our mod
ern cities to day have their plaques,
blasting, destructive and dreadful, and
| propose in course OF Sabbath morn
ing sermons to describe them. The
first plague to be mentioned is the
Plague Narcotic.
In all ages the world has set some flow
er or herb or weed to stimulate its leth-
argy or to compose its grief. A drug
called nepenthe was widely used by the
ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyp-
tians for narcotic purposes. The The
ban women knew how to COM
pound it. You had but to chew
it's leaves and your sadness would be
whelmed in hilarity. But that drug has
passed out of the worlds acquaintance.
Then came Hashish, which is made out
Of Indian hemp. 1t is manufactured
from the flower at the top, or men dress
ed in leather go through a field OF this
hemp and the exudatlOn of the leaves
adheres to the leathern garments, and
this exudation is scraped Oft and pre-
pared in a!oma,ics and becomes an in
IOxicant. Whole nations have been
stimulated, narcOtized and made imbe-
cie through this
Accurssd Hashish.
The gorgeous heavens which unrOll at
the start before the hashish eater are
magnificent beyond all description, but
thev soon take down body, mind and
soul into horrible death. know one
Of the most brilliant writer's of this day,
and whether he appeared in magazine
or in editorial column, or in book, he
was enChantment. He would in
one hours conversation produce
more wit and strange information
than almost any man ever talked with.
But he took hashish, first for curiosity to
see whether it would really DO what was
ascribed to it. He put his hand into
the cCckatrice's den TO see whether it
would bite. He found out to his COM
4 n e,Nl. 4 l. Nt,y,
minister, cOunselled him, prayed for
him, had the oldest physicians OF New
York and Philadelphia and Paris and
London and Edinburgh to prescribe for
him. A large circle OF acquaintances
put their wits together to rescue him,
but down he went,
Opium
also demands emphatic recognition. 1t
is made from the white poppy. 1t is no
new discovery. We read OF it three
centuries before Christ. Eu /: began Its
death march in about the seventeenth
century. When passing out from the
region OF the medicinal and curative 1t
became through mastiCatlOn and smoS-
ing the scOuTge OF nations. Do not
think that it is only barbaric Aslatlcs
who suffer under it, but read DeQuin-
cev's confessions Cf an opium eater. be
went on until he SAYS ne took $50 grains
a dav. At the start he said for ten
years he carried the keys OF Paradise,
but only his own pen is sufficient to
describe the horrors consequent.
Samuel Taylor Colridge
conquered the whole literary world with
his pen, but opium conquered him. The
most magnetic American lawyer OF the
century died the victim OF this drug.
There are in New York and Brooklyn
thousands of men and women, but more
women than men, bound body, mind
and soul to this internal habit Oh opium
eating, This is the deadly secret OF
hundreds of households in America.
| The habit is more hidden, more subtle,
more deceitlul than other hab IS. You
| can easier reform a hundred drunkards
! than one opium eater. They say there
are cases where opium eaters have re-
covered from their habit; | hope there
are such cases, | never saw cure. |
have seen iuebriates OF forty years in
diligence entirely reform, but all the
Opium eaters that | have ever known 90
on and 70 down. Their last request
in the diving hour is not for God, for tn
Bible or Tor prayer but for op um. There
is something mysteriously wrong in
MANY families. You cannot tell what
it is. Perhaps only two persons out
side the household do know-the ply
stefan and the pastor, the one called IN
| to help the physical distress, the other
/ the spiritual. But
! Both Fail.
The physician acknowledges his de-
ipat. The pastor acknowledges his de-
feat Somehow God does not seem to heed
/ PRAYER for the opium eater. Ifany man
/ or any woman IS tampering with this
/ habit, il you have Just begun, il You are,
| ior the sake Of the aSsauSeuent of pain
/ O- mental distress regularly seeking
/ this relief, better stop short. The par
! adise is followed too soon 10y paudemo-
mum. Morphia IS gift from God for
I the relief OF sudden paug, or OF quite
/ acute dementia, but was never intended
/ ior prOlOugei use. The sadness Is that
/ The evil comes so steaIthfuliy, and iOr
/ the relief OF distress, De Quincy says he
/ took it for rheumatism; COleridge SAYS
! he took it for insomnia, or sleeplessness.
| What are you taking 1t Tor! For tod S
/ s,ke don't take 1t too long
! Chloral
/ is taking its place in many families. II
~ first prescribed by physicians for
| s!eeplessnesS and the patient keeps OH
with 1t because he likes the effect OF it.
/ II is sold bv the ton in Germany. Baron
! Liebig saws one chemist in Germany
makes and sells hail ton week.
| Chlrral has already bound for perdtion
mu,titudrs OF men and women. Its
captives in Brooklyn are counSng up
v.rv rapidly LooE cut fer Hydrate OF
/ c. hloraI. Rut | was speaking chiefly oi
OF ium under this heal. You never
h, ar / a sermon before this against opium
eating. Il i time the lOoG0 pulpits OF
America became Numbering Sinais
against this playa narcotic.
Tobacco.
Bu: nepcNt5e, Eu ..ISh, and opium,
and chloral are not % nave AL this field
To themselves. There Sprang up a
weej N Gucatau, Of this continent.
which saS To hswitch the world II
crossed 'hr ocean in til. fifteenth cen.
tiny nj captured spain. Then it cap.
b IN rt 4 utugal Then French ,p,h,,