The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-03-29
Drug Habits.

The proprietor of one of those curious
bazars of medicine-an east side drug
store-recently talked with unwonted
freeness of the habits of some of his
customers. After little woman en-
veloped in tattered shawl had glided
stealthily out of the store, having been
refused in her pleadings for an eighth of
an ounce of morphine, the druggist re-
marked that she was singular indi.
vidual, but fair sample of a certain
class he had to deal with.
''This is the section of the city," he
continued, where the Genus. taker rolls
up the big figures, and, of course, have
an opportunity to see good many such
characters. 1T issremarkable what habits
people become addicted to. A woman
comes here occasionally who has a mania
for eating cloves. She is never without
them, and is always passing them to her
mouth one at a time with distressing reg
ularity. Her friends are frequently
seen arresting her hand in its slow but
probably fatal errand. But it is of no
use. No one will refuse to sell cloves,
and her appetite for them is apparently
almost beyond control. Her face is
round, and fair, but has alividness about
it that nothing else will give. 1 believe
The habit of taking compound cathartic
pills, occasionally fixes itself on persons
who use them too freely. To their hor-
ror they sometimes find they are as much
q necessity to them as the pipe of the
opium smoker. There are several such
cases about here, all of them poor per-
sons who were trying to save doctors
bills. Snuff dipping is disgusting
habit confined to the lowest women.
Troops of them come in here on Satur.
day night for snuff. Some of the better
class of customers have small, yet injur-
ious habits. They indulge mildly but
constantly in cinnamon bark, cassia buds,
grains of paradise, lovage. flag, dried
orange peel, snakeroot, cardamon seeds,
marshmallow, and numerous other roots
and barks that are all medicinal in proper
quantities, but undoubtedly hurtful
when taken day after day, simply be.
cause the palate Graves them"
"How about the choral, absinthe and
other destructive habits?".
1.-The choral habit I see but little Of"
was the reply. 1T is more commonly q
vice of the wealthy and those in literary
pursuits. have just read an account of
its most famous victim-an English
poet and painter. l have forgotten
his name. The effects of absinthe
are like the breaking down of the famous
one-horse shay. 1t is served up in
mild form in every clubhouse and first
class bar in the city in the shape of q
cocktail. France is the country for
absinthe drinking. Ether 'frolics' were
once q common kind of intoxication with
certain classes, but are now pretty we'll
ont of style, except with students. They
occasionally buy ether by the pound
and inhale it in through paper tunnels or
from sponges. 1t does not seem to create
any appetite, and after one or two trials
is generally given up. But of course
the greatest enslaving drug is opium.
A gum opium eater can never be mis-
taken. There is kind of dry .leathery
look about him that not even the sun
will give. Opium consumers are very
tricky, and will bamboozle a new clerk
with false prescription. or in some
other way, every time. Opium ss pre-
pared for smoking does not come in my
line. n. Y. Sun.