Connecticut western news., 1882-01-11


 blood, but he could not openly continue his vice in the presence of his family, nor could he hide it much longer. Re- turning to the firm he so worked upon
 their sympathies by telling them that sea voyage and change of scene to the South might cure him, as to get them to agree to say nothing of his weak ness nor let the past stand in his way. Under the plea that the voyage would restore his health, his wife consented to sell the household goods that were stored away, and his daughter Mildred sold her jewelry to raise money for the expenses of the voyage. 1T would turn my blood into gold if I could, father" she said, with streaming eyes, Eff it would only make you we'll and strong as you once were" The mans hand trembled so that he could hardly take the money, while grooming to him
 self . :-"Oh, how awful and deep will be the curse of God, if I turn this money against her by using it for the worst poison that Satan ever brewed." h. spired by these emotions, he threw his hypodermic sy ringe and morphine bot tie overheard from the deck of the steamer, and sailed away into what seemed region of unimaginable hor- TOTS, dying 10000 deaths in the anguish of mind and body. The people on board thought him demented, and the | nor %nSr nS guard. He soon passed into a condi- tion approaching relapse, vomiting in cessantly and insane in his restlessness. | More dead than alive, with racking pains and shive1ings, and exhaustion from prolonged insomnia, he was taken ashore in Southern city and physi- elan summoned, who, with 8 prompt ness characteristic of the profession, administered a preparation of morphia and the old fatal spell was renewed at once; and now that morphine could be obtained he would have it at any cost.
 He seemingly improved under it's in fuence and soon dismissed his physician.
 He had found on shipboard that sudden and complete abstinence from the drug brought torture of mind and body that he could not endure, and now he was learning in sickening fear that he could not reduce his. daily allowance below 8 certain point without immediate suffer ings beyond his fortitude to sustain. His business mission was unsuccessful. Correct surmises of the true cause and of his manner and appearance became current, and the half pitying, half con- temptuous manner of those with whom he came in contact made it clear even to his clouded mind that further effort would be utterly useless. The increased quantity of morphia with which he sought to sustain himself, combined with his anxiety, remorse and solici
 tude for his family and his own future, filled the hours of darkness with one long nightmare of horror. He saw his
 wife and children starving, turned into the streets, locked up in prisons under the charge of jailers, half brute, hall
 fiend; he saw his younger children car
 ried off by an Italian padrone to der
 reeking in filth and loud with oaths anG
 obscenity he saw his wife turn her de
 spairing eyes from Heaven and curse
 the hour of their union he saw
 Mildred, writhing and resisting, dragged from his home by great, dark hands
 that were claws rather than hands Worse than all he saw Belle, dressed 1T colors that seemed woven from stains
 of blood, stealing out under cover O
 night, with eyes like ivid coals. Suct
 are the beatiic visions that opium be-
 slows, having once enchained It's vic , tims. He returned Oorth arriving 1T New York in a death, like swoon. Ht was taken home, and Dr. Benton, {
 specialist, summoned After examining the pupils of MT. Jocelyn's eyes, talk ing his temperature, counting his pulse and shaking his head significantly, { moment later he barred the patient arm and pointed to many small scars some old and scarcely visible, ane others recent and slightly infamed.
 "Madam," began Dr. Benton very gravely to Mrs. Jocelyn, who was more 5 dead than alive with fear, "have yol never seen your husband using littl l instrument like this ?" producing iron ; his pocket an hypodermic syringe "Never, , was her perplexed and trouble'
 reply. The physician smiled satiricall,
 and remarked to himself, ''I hope tn drug has not affected the whole family It's next to impossible to get at tn truth in these cases."
 ''Do you think he will die p was th T wife's agonized query. .. Il "No, madam, we can soon bring hir around, think, and, indeed, he woul
 probably come out of this excess unaid - ed; but he had better die than continu :. his excessive use of morphia. ca u scarcely conceive how you could hay : remained ignorant of the habit" As the truth grew clearer that reflet T tion had been made upon her own an
 her husbands truthfulness, she rose UT '' steadily to her feet and said, with Q pathetic attempt at dignity: "I scarcel T understand you, and fear that you g y little understand my husbands cond Y tion. He has been unfortunate and l' failing health. for months, and that j. all. fear from your cruel and unjut S surmises,, that you do not know whs
 you are doing, and that you are d. U stroying his slender chances for life. " s Mildred, to whom the terrible explan. - tion of much that was strange an F nnacconntahla was now rauealed r,r