The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-29
MORPHIA'S SLAVES.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE FALLEN
VICTIMS TO THE DRUG.
The Lady at the Banquet-How Per-
sons Acquire Taste for Morphine.
Its Exhilarating Eject
Ultimate Result.

truly recherche! It was given by q Sc
date gentleman, prior to his departure
for Europe. Eight ladies and ten of the
male sex were his guests. All were in
full dress. The table was banked with
rare roses, and tropical palms and ferns
embowered the windows. The bills OF
fare were printed on satin and were ex-
quisitely illuminated. The boutonniers
were marvels of beauty. A string band
of surprising excellence filled the air
with piquant music. At my right sat q 5,
lady richly dressed and of remarkable
beauty. Her husband was on her right.
he Was Brooklyn phisician. His wife
wore V corsage and tight-ftting lace
sleeves. Her features were regular, her
nostrils thin and firmly chiseled, and her
face had the charm of extreme delicacy.
Her eyes were large and liquid, and her
complexion exquisite. Her words were
uttered as sweetly and distinctly as the
notes of an Andreas canary. Her wit
| flashed like the scintillations of dia-
mond, and she was the life of the south
! ern end of the table. Everybody was
charmed by her intellectual radiance.
The conversation eddied suddenly to an
other quarter. The Brooklyn lady es-
| sayed a remark that died away as though
frozen on her lips. Hooked at her in
astonishment. All her elan had gone.
The luster had fed from her eyes. The
roseate lids were partially closed, and her
face was as pale as alabaster. She
seemed to be going into trance. A
peal of merriment at the other end of the
table had attracted the attention of the
guests. The husband saw my gaze riy.
tied upon his wife. Leaning toward me.
he murmured: "May I beg your good
offices for moment2 Oblige me and bs
so kind as to steady my wife" -
He was as cool and collected as though
in his own drawing room. I took the
lady by the arm and placed my hand on
her waist, fancying that he wished me
to assist her in leaving the table. But
no. He had drawn from the inside
pocket of his dress coat small hypoder-
mic syringe. He drove its point between
the meshes of the lace into her white
arm. In an instant the syringe had done
its work. Within thirty seconds the
large eyes were again sparkling with
pleasure. The rich color returned to the
cheeks, and the fair creature was again
smiling upon the sea of merriment. She
had more than regained her chic and
gaiety. The husband drew sigh Of re.
lief when he saw that he had revived
her without attracting attention. His
wife was as witty as ever, and she drank
copious draughts Of wine, apparently ut
terly impervious to its effects. :
L. ohoo fo1 70 1afoY
in the evening was hardly necessary. Ths
lady was slave to the morphine habit.
It was first acquired when the drug waa.
prescribed in sickness. The taste for
morphine thus developed, the lady for q
long time supplied herself secretly from
her husbands medical laboratory. He
discovered it too late to check her desire
for the drug. He tried to shut off the
source of her supplies, but she outwitted
him by patronizing pharmacies in New
York. ''It's of no use," he said bitterly.
sThe habit is confirmed, and death alone
will stop it."
Every drug store in the city is patron
lied more or less by the victims of NOR
phine. When the habit becomes settled,
the weak mortal grows crafty and artful.
The drugis obtained at pharmacists far {,
away from his residence. He places the
powder on tho PLAN of his hand, and
laps it secretly. A drug store on Hud-
son street has two regular customers.
Both come from above Fiftieth street,
the buyers fancying that they are en-
tirely unknown. The morphine is put
up in what are known among druggists
ms "drachm walls" Each vial contains
sixty grains. One of the Hudson street
customers consumes two of these vials 8
week. They are always labeled
"poison." The law limits sales to these
vials. Any one taking the contents OF
two vials week is totally unfit for work.
1t takes two or three yelrs for the habit
to become chronic. After that cure is
utterly impossible. The cost of vial is
IS cents. Nothing exhilarates the mind
and the body like morphine. Liquor
th;ckens the utterance and Supplies the
b.ain. Morphine, on the contrary, frees
the tongue and makes its accent as dis
tinct as the notes of well-played banjo.
It makes the brain bright but insouciant.
A veteran morphine eater is proof
against stimulants. Whisky and brandy
no not intoxicate him. He de6es all
drunkenness except the intox cation pro-
duced BY the drug. His muscles grad
ualIy become filled with the poison.
Frequently pins and needles can be
thrusted into his flesh without produc-
ing any pain. When thoroughly satu-
rated with morphine, the victim either
dies or attains an extraordinary size. No
matter how thin he may be, he begins to
grow fat and in some cases is said to die
of suffocation. The mind is usually
shattered in advance of the body.
These few facts have learned from
druggist, who in lifetime has known
many victims. He says that the fate of
the morphine slave, however, is not more
shocking than that of the confirmed taker
of chloroform. The taste for this an-
aesthetic is becoming as great as that for
morphine Dissipation and nervous ten
sion both produce slecpless nights. To
WOO sleep chloroform is used. "Hun-
dreds in our large cities" said the drug
gst, "saturate napkins and handker-
Chiefs with chloroform at night and fall
asleep in breathing the fumes. The habit
produces palpitation of the heart, and
in time the victim is sure to he found
dead in bed."
While was conversing with this drug
gist Il pale but handsome young woman
came in with prescription. She seemed
downcast and melancholy, but quickly
frightened up when the prescription was
filled. AS she passed out with hasty
- tLo