Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-06-19
THE MODERN BABYLON.
Wicked Paris INDUCING In a New
Form OF Dissipation.
The Vice OF Morphia Injection Growing
Among the Upper Classes OF French
SOciety-The Mental Condition OF
the Drugs Victims.


the Drugs Victims.
The practice Of injecting morphia is the
latestfashonable vice in London and Paris.
few years ago 1t was a vice almost I'M
known, but we grow rapidly nowadays and
at the present moment 1t is byno means I'M
common In the great world and the half
world Of the two capitals. 1t has in great
measure superseded another and far coarser
habit-the undue consumption OF alcoholic
tntoxicants. The fairer-seeming but more
dangerous Valentine of civilization has
routed the brutal Orson Of the gutter and
the latter skulks away from the park, the
ballroom and the boudoir to rougher and
more conRenial quarters. 1t Is compare
lively rare nowadays to hear the old accu-
Sation Of spirituous indulgence advanced as
the explanation or the excuse Of fashion
able PERSONS eccentricities of demeanor,
forgetfulness Of mind or uncertainty of
gait there is something so low, so degrad-
Ing, In the idea that in the opinion Of 80
cdety' 1t ought not TO be lightly raised. It
10, In fact, tantamount to a charge Of social
a. we'll as moral degradation, and there is
NO necessity to study the pages OF Juvsnal
60 know that one of the results Of the re-
hning process of extreme civilization Is to
create an undue estimate OF the former
at the expense Of the latter. "Morphia,
on the other hand" we can imagine
the world observing In its quiet, Gym
Zeal way, 'is quite different. 1t neither
brutaliEes the character nor degrades the
mind. IL does not unit the victim for the
oompanionship of the world until it pro-
duces total incapacity for enjoyment of 1t.
lis unhappily slowly destructive, both TO
the mind and the body, and of course its use
10 morally lndefensible; but still 1t Injuries
nobody but the person principally con-
cerned, and certainly does not constitute q
reason for exclusion or secluSion from So
ciety. Morphine IL at least suggestive Of
the boudoir; drink II dreadful with the
r0ek OF the streets. II she must take
something let her take morphine"
Imagine an instrument about the size Of
penoil-case constructed somewhat after the
model Of wasps sting and fitting into a
thy case which will 60 with ease in a muff,
the waistcoat pocket or the bosom Of the
dress. The instrument itself may be Of
gold, and the case may be fashioned like q
jeweled scent bottle or other trinket, and
hang suspended from a golden chatelains
with the most innocuous air. This II the
injector, and a slight punctuation Of the
skin with the waspish point IL sufficient to
enable the required quantity Of the magic
liquid to be discharged into the system
Nor is the term magic an exaggerationI for
by the pills which the travellers swallowed
In the cave of Monte Cristo than that which
results from the injection Of morphia. II
must be, however, observed here that there
are three distinct stages Of morphia-ab-
sorption, all Of them brief in duration, the
last one briefest of all.
Durihg the first stage the results are
purely pleasurable; they bring draught
OF fresh life into jaded limbs. The faculties
receive sudden stimulus, the callous sense
of pleasure 10 sensitive once more, the
vision Of the world cast on the mental eye
IL drawn in rosy lines, the whole appreci-
alton of things earthly is that Of one who is
prepared to drain the cup Of life to the bot
tom and enjoy it to the full The subject
lives In a Rlamorous sense Of vague happi-
ness, her half-closed eyes reveal the state
OF exquisite lassitude which laps her limbs,
she feels that her one enemy Is exertion,
she is too happy TO trouble about any thing;
all that she asks Is that her friends should
be happy around her even as she Is happy.
Her hold on eternity loosens as her desire
for it decreases. "Why take thought for
the morroww would run her new reading
Of the text; Sufficient for the day is the
happiness thereof"
In time, however, change comes DER
the spirit o. this rose-colored dream. Its
continuity becomes broken by dreadful in
tervals OF reaction, during which the victim
10 oppressed by all the horrors Of intense
melancholy and weakness, and from which
relief can only be obtained by continual
repetition of the process of injection. The
baneful habit acquires a firmer hold by
counter-irritations. 1t is so easy to drive
away the blue devils that are making them
selves apparent, TO check the reaction
which has begun to set in, to change the
Oh ClOuAfnu "a
vision Of life into the rainbow hues of the
morning, to transform the victim of
melancholy, the prospective suicide, into
the laughing child OF pleasure whose creed
is: ''Let US enjoy what God has given u.s."
SO easy-but only by constant use Of the
fatal drug; and as the former slight in
sections have lost their power, large doses
of the stimulai1t must be launched into the
system before the desired effect is produced.
The result, however, of the increase of
the quantity injected is to develop the feel
ing of lassitude until Ia time-such brief
period lit completely oyerpewers the
senses, and the victim becomes practically
lost to the world She lives in a rose-col-
ored world Of her own, In which happiness
reigns supreme and which shs would not
leave IL she could; for her re-entry into
the life she has forsaken can only be &C
.complished by passing through period of
Intense mental and bodily torture. She
knows that she Is slowly dying, that she is
slipping 70 extinction in a soulleSs and me-
chanical way, like clock which inevitably
runs down when tts motive power is ex-
hausted, but her appreciation Of abstract
ideas has become blurred; life has lost its
meaning, death it's torrors. Better tits, she
thinks, so far as she compares her condition
at all, to fade slowly and happily out of
life without a thought or care to checker
the last brief period of existence than to
face the struggle by which alone she could
be saved. Indeed, it is doubtful whether,
even IL she could be kept by force from the
use of the stimulant, she would not feel its
loss SO acutely that she would die in hor-
rible agonies almost as quickly.
BY a curious peryersion, therefore, Of the
original object, il has been reserved for
modern science to bring into existence and
use the dream of the ancient poets-the
drug which conferred happiness I'm.
checkered and unanoyed. Were II pos
able, however, to analyze the mental
condition Of the victim during the hours Of
reaction, says the St James Gazette, II
might be possible 70 realize also the tort
ures Of the damned In tho medieval hell.
NOTED MEMS DOUBLES.
People Who Are the COunterparts of Moi
Famous In Public Life.