The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-05-31
THE OPIUM HABIT.
tBiii Nye, in Detroit Free Press

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 Ihave always had a horror of opiates of all kinds. They are so seductive and so still in their operations. They steal through the blood like a wolf on the trail, and they seize upon the heart at last with their white fangs till 1t is still for ever.
 Up the Laramie there is a cluster of ranches at the base of the Medicine Bow, near the north end of Sheep Mountain and in sight of the glittering, eternal frost of the snowy range. These ranches are the homes of young men from Massa- chusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and now there are several younger sons " of Old England with herds of horses, steers and sheep, -orth millions of dollars. These young men are not the kind of whom the metropolitan ass writes as say ing youbeteheriife and calling every bsdy "pardner." They are many of them college graduates, who can brand wild Maverick or furnish the easy ges- lures for Strauss waltz
 They wear human clothes, talk in the United States language and have a bank account. This spring they may be wear ing ehaparajos and swinging a quir through the thin air, and in July they may be al Long Branch or eoloring a meersehaum pipe among the Alps.
 Well, young man whom we will call Curtis lived at ope of these ranches years age, and though very quiet, mind-your- own-busir ess fellow, who had absolutely no enemies among his companions, he had the misfortune to incur the wrath of tramp sheep-herder, who waylaid Cur tis one afternoon and shot him dead as he sat in his buggy. Curtis want armed. He didn't dream of trouble until he drove home from town, and as he passed through the gate of a corral saw the harry face of the herder, and at the same moment the flash of a Winchester rife. That was all.
 "A raneher came into town and tele- graphed to Curtis father, and then half dozen citizens went out to help capture the herder who had fled to the sage brush of the foothills.
 They didn't get back till toward day break, but they brought the herder with them. l Saw him in the gray of the morning lying in a coarse gray blanket on the floor of the engine house. He was 6ead.
 asked, as reporter, how he came to 1 his death and they told me-opium. Il sad, did understand you to say "ropi- um 7. They said no, 1t was opium. The | murderer had taken poison when he tounc that escape was impossible.
 was present at the inquest so that could report the case. There was very little testimony, but all the evidence | seemed to point to the fact that life was extinct and verdict of death by his own i hand was rendered.
 IL was the first opium work had ever | seen, and it aroused my curiosity. Death | by opium, it seems, leaves dark purple | ring around the neck. l did not know | this before. People who die by opium | also tie their hands together before they | die. This is one of the eccentricities of | opium poisoning that have never seen l laid down in the books. bequeath it to medical science. Whenever l run up against a new scientific discovery, 1 just | hand II right over to the public without 1 cost.
 Ever since the above incident l have | been very apprehensive about people who | seem to be likely to form the opium habit | It is one of the most deadly of narcotics, Tn new country. High up in | the pure mountain atmosphere this man could rot secure enough air to prolong | life and he expired. In a land where clear, ensp air and delightful scenery are abundant, he turned his back upon them | both and passed away. Is it not sad to