The Russellville Democrat., 1889-02-07
WOMEN WHO EAT TEA.
Discovery of . Now and Dangerous VI
 Reported from Boston.

Discovery of . Now ana Dangerous vice
 Reported from Boston.
 Two servants who were hauled up before police justice here the other day charged with creating rumpus, indignantly denied having been drnnk. They said that they had been some what under the influence of tea, which was responsible for their eccentric be- havior
 But remarked the judge. '1 never knew that any one could become really intoxicated from drinking tea
 No more they can, yer Honor" was the reply. "We ate it.
 It is becoming quite popular vice in Boston, and presumably elsewhere this tea eating. And, curiously enough, it's victims are mostly found among the help" who, having the household tea-caddy always accessi- ble, get accustomed to helping them selves from it. a pinch at a time, Of the dry leaves. These they chew, thus extracting the alkaloid, which is a toxic agent of n most powerful de- scription. Its first effect is no agree able exhilaration. Ultimately it in duces slecplessness and an abnormal condition of mind, with strange wishes and delirium. It is an amusing fact, by the way, that when tea was first brought to England, about the year 1865, 1t was served experimentally for eating in bowl. like spinach. For a long time after that it was regarded as a deadly drug, and people who sold it were considered disreputable.
 ! It is positively wonderful how the demand for new and particularly de- structive vices gives birth to an appar- sntly exhaustless supply. One in par ticular that is said to be making great progress among women is the habit of ether drinking. This chemical product, so well known for it's virtues as an auasthetic, is an ethereal spirit of alcohol, containing that ele- ment of alcohol which has the effect of deadening pain. Most people have had opportunities of observing this ef- feet in drunken men, who suffer se- we're hurts without feeling them. ap parently.
 Ether, taken internally, produces a feeling of exaltation, which is not fol- lowed by the disagreeable after-sym D. toms arising from overindulgence in the crude whisky or other spirits. Its results are slower, affecting the mind by slow degrees and depriving the vic tim of all moral sense The confirmed ether-drinker will murder her own grandmother, without so much as qualm of conscience, to get fifty cents wherewith to purchase a bottle of her favorite intoxicant.
 In its effects upon the moral being, ether bears strong likeness to opium, which might be called poison for the soul. The use Of this latter drug is said to be fearfully prevalent among the wives of New England farmers, who devote the pennies they earn by selling eggs-always the private per quisite of the country women in this region-to secret purchases of the deadly stuff from itinerant peddlers. One woman in small rural communi- ty will spread the vice among all her female friends, who, wearied by the endless monotony of their lives, are eager for any excitement.
 The experienced eye can detect the habitual eater of opium by an uncer- tainty of gait, a sallowness of skin, and other symptoms It is likely that the sallow complexion and weakly appear ance so universal among the Chinese one secs are due to this cause. Everywhere throughout that part of China which is familiar to travellers the fields of rice are checkered with wide areas of growing poppies. the seeds of which the natives steep to make an intoxicating liquor. This is the most primitive method of consum- ing opium. For commercial uses it is gathered by cutting open the poppy seed heads with knife, leaving the gum to exude. Ropes, held taut, are then dragged across the tops of the plants by pairs of laborers, and the gum sticks to the hempen strands. from which it is subsequently, taken and packed for sale. The people of the far-away mountain region in China, where opium is unknown-particularly in the rugged North--are big, strong and healthy. y.-Boston Letter.
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