Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-24
A gPsEADIEG EVIL

There is no bow of promise in the sky of
the confirmed opium.eater Such are
abandoned By themselves, and very nearly
by mankind. The vice is Increasing in this
State and throughout the country with
alarming speed. 1t is not confined to those
alone who indulge in the pipe in the low
dens of the Chinese, or who smoke at
home, but the opium.e eater is becoming
more noticeable. The vice is by no means
so limited in its extent as is by most people
supposed. A Philadelphia paper says it is
one OF the most pernicious habits INDUCED
in by the ladies of fashionable society in
that city. They use morphine and arnica,
and other fatal drugs, to stimulate their
wasted energies and such is the extent of
the vice that the drug clerks of that, and
of almost any large city. are the possessors
of secrets of indulgence which, made pub.
lie, would excite universal surprise. In
great number of cases the craving for the
drug arises out OF its first administration
as a medicine. We are told of one promi-
nent and once wealthy and influential citi-
zen, Colonel Prison, who recently was
brought to drink and ruin, and blew out his
brains, leaving letter, in which he says
Opium has directly ruined my wife. have done
everything that mortal man could do to save her,
but all in vain. Opium has indirectly ruined me.
Had it not been for the fatal appetite l could have
saved her. would never have tasted whisky and
had never drank l would not be where l am, nor
fill a nameess suicides grave. May God in his in
finite love bless her. and may meet where there
are no teas, where there is no sorrow For without
her there would be no heaven for me in whatever
will come to in that life into which in few min
utes shall usher my soul
His widow, who, from having been but
two or three years before the envied and
accomplished belle of society, had become
the helpless victim of vice that ruined
her physically and mentally, sought after
this-t reform, and host of friends aided
her to that end, but the effort was a vain
one, and she was finally turned into the
street, deserted by herself and mankind,
and finally, in a wretched den, died mis-
cradle death, leaving letter full of warn.
ing to her sex
have not only ruined my life, but have ruined
that OF my loving husband, and sm truly his muir
derer-iust as much so as if | had personally dealt
him a death blow-had killed him with my cwn
hand. l am going to die very few hours, and
am thankful to God that the end of my wretehed,
weary existence has come at last. Opium ruined
me- and by destroying me killed him. After
quiring the fatal appetite for that damnabe drug
could never resist its terrible seductions Great
God, how have suffered how have Wildly fought
and prayed and prayed and fought, but all in vain
all in vain. See what am, how die, and what
might be and my dear, loving husband might be,
too, had it not been for this awful appetite. | 10
not fear the hell ministers talk about in the next
in its worst aspect 1t cannot be worse hell than
have suffered here for five years past. Oh, this is
made public, if it should get uLo the papers, girls
women, you of my sex, who read 1t, beseech
YOU never touch opium in any Of its many seductive
forms. No matter what your family doctor may say,
never, never, never think