Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-09-19
THE MoRPHIA FIEND.

apparently growing at an alarming
rate, and causing devastation tc
body and soul i'm a degree which
can only be estimated and realized
by those who have the misfortune
to witness its effects upon the un-
fortunate creatures addicted to its
use.
Imagine (says the wiiter an in
strument about the size of pencil
case, coustructe somewhat after the
model of a wasp's sting, and fitting
into tiny case which will go with
ease in the muff, the waistcoat
pocket, or The bose m of the dress.
This is the injector, and slight
punctuation of the skin with the
waspIsh point is sufficient to enable
the required quantity of the magic
liquid to be discharged into the sys-
tenn. Nor Is the term magic an ex-
aggcration, for not more magical was
the effect produced by the pills
which theitravelers swallowed i'm the
cave of Monte Cristo than that
which results from the injection of
morphia. II must be, however, OBJ
served here that there are three dis
tinct stages of morphia absorption,
all OF them brief in duration, the last
one briefest of all.
The faculties receive sudden
stimulus, the callous sense of pleas
ure IN sensitive once more, the vision
of the world cast on the mental eye
IL drawn in rosy lines, the whole APP
probation Of things earthly is that
of one who is prepared to drain the
cup Of life to the bottom and enjoy
II to the full. The subject lives In a
glamorous sense of vague happiness,
her half-closed eyes reveal the state
Of exquisite lassitude which laps her
limbs, she feels that her one enemy
IL exertion, she is too happy to
trouble about anything, 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 1t decreases. "Why
take thought for the morrow"
would run her new reading of the
text, "Sufliclent for the day Is the
happiness thereof"
In time, however, a change comes
DER the spirit OF this rose-colored
dream. Its continuity becomes
broken by dreadful intervals of re-
action, during which the victim Is
oppressed by all the horrors of In.
tense melancholy and weakness,
and from which relief can only he
obtained by continual repetition of
the process of injection. The bane-
full habit acquires firmer hold by
CONGRATULATIONS. II Is 80 easy to
drive away the blue devils that are
making themselves apparent, to
check the reaction which has begun
to set In, to change the dark
shadows which are clouding over
the vision of life In the rainbow hues
of the morning, TO transform the
victim of melancholy, the prospect
i've suicide, into the laughing child
OF Pleasure whose creed Is that of
the half-pagan Leo n, LET us en-
Joy what God has given us" So
only by constant use of
the fatal drug; aud as the former
slight injections have lost their
power, larger doses Of the stimulant
must be launched In the system be-
fore the desired effect can be pro-
duced.
This result, however, of the in
crease Of the quantity injected Ia
TO develop the feeling Of lassitude
until In time-such n brief leriod!-
Il completely overpowers the senses.
aud the victim becomes practically
lost To the world. She lives In "A
rose-co.ored word of her own, in
which happiness reigns supreme
and which she would not leave II
she could; for her re-entry into the
life she has forsaken can only be
accomplished by passing through u
period of Intense mental and bodily
orture. She knows that she Is
'lowly dying, that she is slipping
% extinction In n soulcss, meclani-
val way, like clock which inevita-
by runs down when Its motive
,ower is exhausted; but her up
,reclation Of abstract ideas has be-
'ome blurred; life has lost its mean.
ny, death It's terrors. Better IL Is,
he thinks, So far as she compares I
'er condition at all, 10 fade slowly
nd happily out OF life without "a
hought or n care 10 checker the
lst brief period OF existence than TO
zoe the struggle by which alone she