St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-06
A YOUNG LIFE WRECKED.
How Frank WeIlner Was Dragged
Down to the Depths OF Misery


Down to the Depths OF Misery
by Opium.
Chicago Times.
Two young men were walking down
the BOwery in New York one day. One
of them was scarcely more than a boy.
The other was older in years and ex-
perience. They passed Chinese base
ment laundry, and the young man re-
it?''
YES" his companion replied. "Haye
you ever hit the pipe?' No? Then Won
have missed something. Come down
stairs and try it,
The boy had heard good MANY weird
stories about opium and pipe fiends.and
there was a spice of the sensational
about the proposed adventure. He
stepped down and tried one Of the long
bamboo reeds through which the drng
is smoked. He slept heavily; he dreamed
delicious dreams; he thought he was i'm
paradise, and he awoke headachy and
penitent.
He was penitent all the next day. but
along toward night he began to think of
his sensations, his leap into the atmOs-
pnere or soft lights and haZy figures
with more pleasure and even the thought
OF his waking dizziness was less painful
than 1t had been that morning. The bow
suddenly reflected: Its getting the
better of me already. / mustn't go there
tonight" and he didn't gO-not that
night. But he went later on and again
and again, and slowly the dreams began
to fade away and gradually the fumes
OF the cooking opium affected him less
and less. He tried whisky snd found
L.
laudanum, still drinking LIQUOR In
greater and greater quantities, The
laudanum gave him relief but its course
was like the Opium-it satisfied him al
first, but eventually only made his
appetite worse. and the more he
took of it the more he wanted. Their
he adopted the last resort of the
''fend." Finding that the drug smoked
or eaten was slow and unsatisfactory III
Its results. he took to the hypOdermic
syringe. And the other day the result
came when, wild-eyed and disFaught in
mind, he sought refuge i'll Justice KerS-
tens court from imaginary conspiratOrs
who, he thought in his undermined
brain, were banded together to take his
life. His mother stood beside him and
soOthed him when he raved madly of
the plan to aSSasSinate him. Twenty
three years old and al opium victim!
rms was the story of young Z. l..
Wellner, who sat behind the grated
window in the rooms Of the county iail
devoted to the insane yesterday, and
restlessly shifted about to ease his
wretched body. He is an opium mad
man, his body is covered with sores
| from the inciSiOns made by the syringe.
and he has the delirium tremens. And
! these are not his only misfOrtunes. He
| has been married three times.
Twenty-three years old and an opium
victim!
Tweniy-three years old ond three
| times married,
| He was married the first time when
he was seventeen years Old-a year be-
| fore he took to frequenting the dans of
| New York. His wife was divorced from
him. He married again, and was
| divorced a second time. Then he
turned around and remarked his first
| wife, who now lives i'll New York with
| her child. His mother is the wife of
| Harry Thomas, the well-knOWn singer.
| Wellner was telegraph operator and
| StenOgrapher, ard a good one. He
earned $500 month and spent $50 of it
for whisky. The rest went for the
necessities of life-mOrphine and lauda-
mum, and for a few luXurieS like food
and clothes. When he was arrested he
was taking five doses of five grains each
day.