Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-07-03
For the Dispatch.l
Opium Addiction.

been written and published on this
subject; still, its literature is meagre-
greatly incommensurate with its para.
mount importance, its eversha1Owing
significance, for not only the present
but future generations. Any coutribu-
.ion from me humbly feel to be sadly
inadequate though | may, without
egotism, ascribe to myself as thorough
an acquaintance as that of many, per-
haps, with the weird and mystic realm
Of the Tbeban nepenthe-- an acquaint-
ance founded and nurtured by a weary
Imprisonment there-since happily
ended, | am charmed to add. People
are apt to listen to statements, however
commonplace, which voice their needs
ard, perchauce, their experiences. But
if possessed the pure and convincing
eloQuence Of Isocrates, | would wreak
its noblest periods, its grandest yibra-
tions on cry that should startle every
American ear, and awaken every Amer
lean mind to the horrors of q habit alas !.
so easily acquired, so impossible to
whatever Grmness 10 overcome.
/. might seem strange that, while
anxious consideration of the grosser
alcoholic intempeTance is so profoundly
agitating the spirits Of the people and
the States governments of the United
States, this immeasurably graver, more
far-reachipg question Of opium-abuse
almost entirely escapes public notice.
They do not see, because with their
mesgre knowledge Of the subject they
cannot comprehend, that demon more
subtle than Gree in beguiling to en-
snsre-fercer and more inexOrable in
cruel exsction and fateful metamorpho-
sis, than that coldly sarcastic, juggling
soTceress of offable-is abroad in mschiey-
Gus ubiquity, borne on the lethal breath
Of the poppy, Throughout. the land.
But Government and people can do
nothing, or little, after all, in this mat
ter-iust as they seem powerless to sup
press alcoholic intemperance. And
were legislation practicable, it would be
atrocious cruelty, involving possible
manslaughter in some cases, to close
the drugshops against those already
addicted while large proportion OF
the latter would get their morphine all
the same, just as men in the teeth OF
all interdiction will have and enjoy their
whiskey to the end Of time. II is the
press, the multipotent press, that must
reach the people and force them to
heed. The spread of the disease should
by some means be arrested, so far as
men and women will hear and receive
instruction. Should not the journals
of the country, as the trusted and pow
erful guardians Of the interests and well
fare OF the people, have something to
say from time TO time, by way Of pro-
test and warning, to such as are still
outside the shadow of this black Asrasl
of the West? 1t were great aud popu-
lar humanitarian measure, | should
say.
Only physicians and druggists can
form any just conception Of the fearful
extent Of opium-addictiOn in the United
States. Were the latter generally
known, together with tithe Of its
horrors, it we're enough, methinks, to
evoke from the gsyest and most care
less the anxious question, What Is 10
be done-what can be done to stop
this wholesale, headlong plunge into
seething craters Of fire whence, through
mere yolitiou. there is no escape? |
recall one case especially, besides my
own, that exemplitied to perfection the
power of tie drug and the sutferlngs
that efforts for its abandonment entail.
The gentleman referred to is a friend
of mine, man of great nerve and ex-
traordihary will-power; and 1t was a
fearful thing to watch, as | did, the
agonies attendant on his efforts for self
emancipation. Finally he gave it up.
Some time afterward, however, | met
him in the country. He had cured him-
self, he told me, efTectually aud pain
lessly; and he laughed gayly as he gave
me details of how he had done it.
There is but one apology for opium,
and even that is negative one. AS
rule, it destroys nothing--it only re-
presses. However long, apparently,
the victims may have been enthralled--
whatever immense quantities Of "ths
drug" have been habitually taken
whenever they do become liberated
and some Of them dot really seems
that they take hold on rene we'd life,
usually free from all aches and pains.
But this is an insecure reliance for those
yet unhabituated to opiates. To such,
my warning-as Of one "who has
sounded all the depths and shoals" Of
that pitilsss and engulfng foods
10 bepare. SURA.
Richmond, Va., june 20, 1886.