Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-06
'oon succumb to her inirmities."

Gus drug are annually imported (from
Germany and other parts5 which are
not prescribed by medical men, but
taken as stimulants by the people them
seyes. Hydrate Of choral in every
shape-unless administered by the
hand of u skilful practitioner.is an
insidious and fatal poison. It is more
tempting than alcohol. more insinuat-
ing IMAM opium, and more, terrible in
lts ehects thar either. An opium
eater baneful though the practice is,
mas been known to live to a goodly old
age; no c~hloralist ever lasted over three
years.
A friend of mine-an Intelligent
young man-and myself both COM
menced the practice of chloral-eating
at the same time. We became choral
lists in December, 1873; My friend sue
cumbed in the following July. Unfor-
tunately, he did not find out till a week
or two OF the end that it was the new
drug that was doing him to death, and
then l believe it would have been too
late could he by any possibility
have given it up. But he did not and
could not, and what is still more sad, [
fear he took lone last biggish Dose"
as he said he would, '.to anticipate the
inevitable" l had been for some
months assistant to a railroad engineer
in Pennsylvania. He was one of those
men who work their assistants as
fthey would a tired horse, so I was kept
at it very hard and close all day, onlyI
had the nights to myself. l sustained
about this time a loss which caused me
a good deal of grief, and this, combined
with the irksomeness of my duties, be-
gan to tell upon me so far that 1 suf-
tered sleeplessness, so that at times 1
could get no rest till far into the morn
ing hours, and being deprived of suf-
tcient sleep, l was naturally in poor
trim for the labors of the succeeding
day. 1t would have been well for me il
L had now at once thrown up my M
ployment. But one fine morning, in
reading a medical journal, 1 came
across the letter of a practitioner who
was loud in his praises of hydrate of
| chloral. How we'll I remember the
words: Produces sleep almost instan-
taneously-the sleep is pleasant and
dreamless-patient awakes in the morn
ing fresh and clear-brained, with no
headache, and merelya little whitening
VI ~ oOilSue, uO alIef cllccUS.
"Eureka!'I cried; ..this very night 1
shall be Tapped in Elysium.h l was
Tapped accordingly. l took twenty
grains of choral and slept like a stone
till morning, Overjoyed with the sue
cess of my experiment, I repeated the
dose next night, and every night for a
week, after which / tried one night
without, but found 1 was entirely I'M
able to sleep, and so had recourse to
my draughtabout three in the morning.
Six weeks went past, and although as
yet l had felt no illness from the
choral, still l had my misgivings, and
resolved that I would give it up some
of these days. One thing, however,
which [ observed was, that on awaken
ing in the morning l felt as if actually
no space Of time had interviewed
since I lay down, My life seemed
a continuous, never-ending day.
I had no satisfaction from my
sleep, and felt dispirited in conse-
quence. If l had only taken warn
ing then! But 1 did not, for this
same peevishness is the earliest symp-
tom of that coming i%rritability of
chronic congestion of the brain, which
the continuous use of choral V
fails to produce. About two months
after l had begun taking choral l
first became sensible of a strange heat
on the top of my head, together with
a sense of fullness in the head. Ny
nerves. too, began to be shaken, / could
do things slowly, but any hurry or ex-
element at nee confused me.
In justice to myself 1 ought to say
| that | had no suspicion it was the hy-
drate of choral that was doing me
all the mischief. | was treating N.Y.
self for brain congestion. [ noticed
now that [ was losing flesh. Day after
day l observed this in the glass; crows
feet began to appear about my eyes,
and wrinkles where never wrinkles
We're before. My pulse, too, got more
and o thready. Even at this early
stage l had very little hope of ever get
ting well, and SO, day after day, I
marked in the glass my thin,
worn face, and the gathering wrinkles,
and waited and waited for death.
Had l died now, or at any time dur
ing my illness, l should have died
with my finger on my pulse counting
even the last beat. Ny sutferings were
now increased by periodic attacks of
tic doloureuN OF a very distressing
character, and my remedy was more
chloral. A strange thing was that I
could never bear any allusion to my
illness. Although l felt sure 1 was dy-
ing, / kept the secret secure in my own
breast, and made every effort to seem
well in the street by walking quicker
than my strength would permit, and
refusing ven the aid Of my cane I
had friends and relations who would
gladly have come to see me, but Inever
yer told them that l was alive; I pre-
ferred death among strangers.
1t is the end of June-the air is beau
tiful but hot. l crawl down to the sea-
side and lie for hours sheltered from
the sun by a bush. This is the only
time in the day 1 have the slightest
freedom from pain and misery. Ex-
cepting this solitary walk, it is months
since / have been able tc go out or
keep any company. 1 am constantly
reading or thinking. trying, as the
Germans say, to ''solve the infinite"
My constant prayers had been that I
| mjoht either ret slowly well or snaadi1v