Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-03-27
SLAVES OF MORPHINE.
Incidents Illustrating the Victims Com
plete Subsection to the Drug.


Incidents illustrating the Victims Com
plete Subsection to the Drug.
In collecting, information in regard
to the use of the drug a number of re-
markable instances of it's abuse was
run across. One of its most degrading
effects is the complete obliteration of
all moral responsibility. DR.. james
Z. Wilson relates an incident of a
patient under his care, a woman devout
and refined in all other matters save
the one subject of morphine, eminently
trustworthy. Whom about to undergo
treatment she denied having taken OR
then having in her possession any Of
the drug. II call upon God to wit
ness" she cried, ''that I neither now
have nor have had since I began to be
treated any preparation of morphine
whatever" Within ten minutes sixty
quarter-grain morphine pills were
found concealed under her pillow.
1t was not long since that a man VOL
UNFAIRLY went to Kirkbride's to be
treated for the habit, and concealed in
the sleeve of his coat a few days after
ward were found sixty grains of the
drug that he had struggled into the in
y stitution.
Surveyor of the Port Campbell tells
of a well-known politician of his ward
who died some time ago from the
effects OF liquor and opium, whose
body, when he was examined after
death, did not contain space an inch
square that was not filled with the
needle punctures of the hypodermic
syringe. There is one man at Kirk
BRIDES now who is accustomed to jab
the needle straight down into his leg
at the risk of striking a vein, artery or
nerve
"A pale, nervous young man walked
into an Eighth-street barber-shop not
long ago and sat down on a chair to be
shaved. The barber had hardly lath-
cred his face before he was seized with
fit of; terrible trembling, so that the
shaving could not be continued. With
great difficulty he managed to get a
hypodermic syringe from his pocket
and squirt some morphine into his
arm, and in a half minute he was
calm and collected and ordered the
barber to continue. He told the curl
Gus .topsorial artist that he was just
recovering from a prolonged debauch.
A lady related to the writer the case
of a young victim of the habitconfined
in a convent to be cured. It could not
be discovered how she continued to
keep herself under the influence of the
morphine until one day it was found
that the inkstand on the writing table
was filed with the solution, and what
was supposed to be pen was no other
than a hypodermic syringe.
Some months ago a gentleman con-
nected with the Press was going south
on the Virginia Midland railroad. At
Pope's:Head Run, Prince William Coun-
ty, Va, the train was wrecked and the
engineer was crushed under his en-
CINE. He was frightfully mangled. but
remained conscious, and, while efforts
were being made to release him,
screamed and prayed to be killed, to
be put out of his agony. While strong
men turned away in horror, pretty
young woman ran back to a rear car
and presently returned with her hand
bag. From it she produced a hypoder-
mic syringe and injected a good dose of
morphine into the suffering engineer,
exhibiting an amount of nerve that as
founded the witnesses. The first injec-
ton did not bring relief and she gave
another, exhausting her supply of the
drug. When the engineer was re-
leased he was dead, but his suffering
had been greatly soothed. The pretty
young woman was a morphine 4iend
and she endured untold agony until
she got TO a town where her supply
could be renewed.
One of the drug clerks interviewed
told this story: There is man who
comes here who uses thirty grains OF
morphine a day. One day last fall he
was about to start on a fishing trip,
and before doing so came here, got
his fifteen grains dose and bought a
quantity to take with him. When he
reached the fishing-eround a friend
who knew of his failing asked him il
he had come well supplied. He looked
for his morphine and found to his
Consideration that he had lost it. Al.
though he had taken enough to last
him for eight or ten hours, he i'm.
mediately became like wild man.
His companions could not control him,
and he rode twelve miles over the
country on horseback at a breakneck
speed to the nearest drug store, where
his loss was made good to his great
joy and relief.-Philadelphia Press.
An Old Story Exploded.
The old, old story has been re.
vamped once more, that the German
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