The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-06
VICTIMS OF MORPHINE
Large Increase In the Number Of Slaves
Of The Drug.
Women Who Use Opium Regularly
and How They Coptrive to
get lt-Some OF Their
Subterfuges.

women who are addicted to the habit
of morphine eating in the city Of
Louisville than there are drunkards from
liquor. The statement at first sounded
prepostcrous, but on investigation it was
fohnd to be not wholly wrong. The
habit, physicians declare, has increased
during the past five years to an alarming
extent.
When once the habit of morphine and
opium eating is formed, scarcely one out
of 500 is said to reform, and 800 out of
1000 die from the effects. A prominent
physician said yesterday in regard to the
cause for the increase, and thc rapid
growth of the vice, tina il came from sew
eral sources, and although he had studied
the subject carefully he was nah To dis
cover which source was The greater.
"Many women" he said, "are SO accus-
toned to scenes of drunkenness and de-
bauchery in their immediate families that
they become c~allous, and resort to opium
10 drown their grief. But these cases are
few"
"The moral degradation of n husband
or son will more often send a woman 10
extreme pity. i should say rheumatism,
neuralgia and u%nrequited love are the
chief sources Of the habit, and physicians
and mans fickleness the principal pro-
moters. The greatest evil to the present
generation is the power which the knowl-
edge gives that pain can be cured and pre-
vented by the use of morphine. IL is re
gartled by students OF history as the moral
stigma of the nineteenth century. Unless
checked from some quarter II VIII sap the
moral status of any people.
Until the past five years the habit was
unknown To the negro. but of late they
have taken il up with the avidity of the
Chinese. In several sections they AVE
i%naugurated opium dens which have be-
come cesspools of iniquity and n reproach
to the n~eighborhoods in which they are
located. When once they become vic
| Tins of the habit they sink To corruption
with a rapidly u~nequalled by the white
classes. mi die from the effects much
sooner than the race which is physically
more delicate in its composition. But
among the whites. u especially the
women, there is found TO be occasion for
more serious alarm than even among the
negroes
The habit does not seem To he confined
to any one class. Every physician and
druggist who was seen on the subject had
some appalling case To relate OF women
supposed at least To be respectable, who
were constantly under the influence of
'tll tlbE. ~ htst ~ VI ttf'
disease, several said, is a total disregard
for truth, and a carelessness in dress.
As soon as an opium "nend'' enters n
store he can he spotted by an experienced
clerk. Some of their subterfuges are
clever and often ludicrous. After buying
il n few times they become exceedingly
cunning. One purchaser, who is well of,
will buy several other articles which she
appears to read from n list. She will
start out of the door but return and get the
..- A..
she had almost overlooked il. Others,
while walking around the store will sud
denly drop into a chair with a violent at
tack of neuralgia and call for an opiate.
One druggist, when seen yesterday, told
of "A strange ease, where "A young girl ac-
quired the habit by sticking "A hat pin into
o bottle of morphine To test It's bitterness.
She would often come into the store with
another woman who bought il regularly.
At first she would stick her hat pin into
the bottle and then place il in her mouth.
The clerk warned her at the time, and
after that she would watch for an OPP
%portunity when he was not looking, Ia
wet the pin in order tina the substance
would stick To il. Ii was not long before
she was buying 3 cents worth, which
would last her a week. In "A years time
she was taking G grains "A d~ay-enougl
to kill 40 ordinary men. When unable la
get money she would beg postage stamps
ON the street, To write. she said Ia her
sick mother, and then she would exchange
them for the drug. She was finally ar
rested, and AT the request of her friends,
was sent Ia Anchorage.
Another case recently discovered was
that of n young man who, when unable
To buy morphine, would devour onions.
which are said to have IA certain quantity
of opium ia them. Everything had been
done to break him OF the habit but to no
avail. Every day, ii is said, he would go
to the storehouse and when unable TO get
the key would break in To safe his appe-
tite.
sicians and druggists for the fact that
many of the upper classes become victims
to the vice IL rom the use of antipyrene. A
great number of young women. and espe-
cially female clerks. take antipyrene in
such quantities that il finally loses its
restorative power. Then they resort to
morphine. One druggist on Fourth
street said that every day as many as "a
dozen shop girls come into the store for
the medicine, and some two or three
times a day.
In London and Paris. where the gov
nme restricts the sale of opiates, the
consumption Of %an'ipyrene is marvellous.
One woman of position, whose husband
attempted to break her of the habit was
found pawning her jewels ia order TO buy
the drug.
The statement made that there are
more female opium attends" than there
are drunkarls il said To be true 10y the
majority 81 physicians and druggists seen,
when the fact IL taken into consideration
that all men who drink are not the
slaves To the liquor that the women are Ia