Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-12
widely used among tue ancient Greeks and

ASoNSo ~ youA hNAAS Woo
with hilarity. But nepenthe passed out
from the consideration of the world. Next
came hasheesh, which is made from Indian
hemp. 1t is manufactured from the fow-
ers at the top, or workmen in leather CLOTH
ing walk through the fields of hemp n
the cxudation from The hemp adhered to
the leathern garments, and then this exu-
dation is scraped off and prepared with
aromatics and becomes an intoxicant for
the people. Whole nations have been
stimulated, narcotized and made imbecile
with this accursed hasheesh. The visions
kindled by that drug are said to be gorge
Gus and magnificent beyond all description,
but it finally takes down body, mind and
soul in horrible death.
1 knew one of the most brilliant men of
his day. Whether he appeared in maya
zine or in book or in newspaper column,
he was an enchantment. He could, in the
course Of an hours conversation, produce
more wit and strange information than
any man I ever talked with; but he
chewed hasheesh. He did so first as a mat
ter of curiosity to see whether the powers
ascribed to it really belonged to it. He put
his hand into the cockatrice's nest to see
whether it would bite, and he found out to
his complete undoing. His father, who
was a minister of the Gospel, prayed for
him n counseled him and obtained for
him the best medical prescriptions of the
best physicians in New York, Philadelphia,
Paris, London, Edinburgh and Berlin. He
said he could not stop. A larg. circle of
friends put their wits together to try to
rescue him, but he went On down. First
his body gave way in pangs of onvul
sions of suffering; then his mind gave
way and he became a raving miniac; then
his immortal soul went, disappearing God,
into a ~starless eternity.
THE OPIUM HABIT,
Opium demands emphatic recognition.
1t is made, as you know, from the white
poppy. 1t is not a new discovery. We
read of it three hundred years before
Christ; but it was not until the seven
teenth century that it began it's death
march, passing out from tho medicinal
and the curative, and by smoking and
mastication becoming the scourge of ma
tions. In the year 1861 there were i'm
ported into this country 1O7, 1000 pounds of
opium; but in 1880, $4,000 pounds of
opium. 1t is estimated that in the year
1876 there were in this country 225,000
opium consumers; but 1 saw a statistic
more recent that said there are probably
now in the United States at least 100000
opium consumers. The fact is appalling.
Do not think that they are merely bar
barrie fanatics who go down under that
stroke. Read the great De Quincy's
Confessions of an Opium Eater" He
says for the first ten years it gave him the
keys Of paradise; but it takes his own
powerful pen to describe the horrors con-
sequent. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, after
conquering the world by his pen, was
conquered by opium. The most magnetic
and brilliant lawyer of this century fell u
victim to its stroke, and there are thou
sands of men and women-but more wom-
Ell han men-who are being bound, body,
mind and soul, to this terrific habit.
There is a great mystery about some
families. You do not know why they do
not get on. The opium habit is so stealthy,
SO deceitful and SO beautiful. You can cure
a hundred ~drunkards easier than you can
cure one opium-eater. I have heard of
cases of reformation, but I never saw my.
l hope there are cases of genuine reforma-
ton. have seen men who for forty years
had been the victims of strsng drink thor
oughly reformed; but the opium-eaters
that l have seen go on and go down.. Their
cry in the last hour of life is not for God,
nor ~forprayer, nor for the Bible, but for
opium. Perhaps there are only two per-
sons outside the household who know what
is the matter with them-the physician
and the pastor; the physician called in for
physical relief, the pastor called in for
spiritual relief; but they both fail. The
physician acknowledges his defeat. The
minister of religion acknowledges his de-
feat, for it seems as if the Lord does not
answer prayer for, opium eaters. o, man!
o, woman! Are you tampering with this
habit? Have you just begun? Are you
or mental trouble making this a regular
resource? 1 beg you stop. The e~cstasies
at the start will not pay for the horrors at
the last. The paradise is followed TOO
soon by the pandemonium. Morphia is a
blessing from God for the relief of sudden
pang or acute dementia, but was never in
tended ftr prolonged use; and, what is the
peculiar sadness of it, it comes to people in
their weak moments. De Quincy says:
81 took it for rheumatism" Coleridge SAYS:
"Itook it for insomnia, or sleeplessness."
What do you take it for? For Gods sake,
do not take it too long.
In some families choral is taking the
place of opium. Physicians first prescribe
it for sleeplessness. Then the patient
keeps on because he likes the effect. Whole
tons of choral are manufa ctured in Ger
many. Baron Liebig says that he knows
one chemist in Germany who manufactures
a half ton of choral every week. There
are multitudes being taken down by this
habit. Look out for hydrate of chloral!
But I am under this head speaking chiefly
of opium. There ought to be ten Thousand
pulpits turned into quaking, flaming, thun-
dering Sinais of warning against this mar
cotic. The devil of morphia in this coun-
try will be mightier thai the devil of al
cohol.
REFLECTIONS.
My friends, it is all important that by
personal example in every possible way
we contend against all influences injurious
to society. Our opportunity for exercising
such influence is limited. What we do we
had better do right away. The clock ticks
now, and we hear it. After awhile the
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