The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11

is small table with a box-like cover,
which opened discloses a bottle filed
with light pink liquid, two hypodermic
syringes. two viSsa containing opium and
morphine and an array OF two-ounce and
four-ounce bottles filled with bourbon
whisky. As the doctor comes forward
and fills one of the little syringes from the
pink liquid, a music box on another table
is playing. The first man in the line en-
tiers the room, bares his left arm and in an
instant the sharp point of the needle is APP
piled and he receives near his shoulder
drop of the pink liquid. He hands the
physician an empty two-ounce bottle and
receives in return a similar bottle filled
with bourbon whisky. The next in line, a
tall man with well cut iron-grey beard and
a face that curiously blends resolution and
business energy with an expression of over
strung nerves, receives the injection, but
turns away without asking for the bour-
bon. He, however, gives to an attendant
an eight-ounce bottle, fiat on one side and
convex on the other, on which is written,
''No. 3, and the name of the man. The
attendant brings him bottle numbered
A. The line passes rapidly before the
young physician, all barring their arms for
some receiving a flask of the whisky. few
asking for morphine or opium and getting
it, and many exchanging the numbered
bottles. The music continues. the line
moves on in silence, broken only by an al
most whispered question now and then
from the little doctor as he feels his pa
tents pulse and plies his needle.
After the treatment the men leave the
L oil - Ill -. l..
back to the village. Most of them have a
common destination in hotel down near
the principal business street of the town.
The hotel has fiourlshing liquor BAR and
as the men arrive at the house many of
them pass, through this room redolent
with the doors of the intoxicants. They
perhaps stay and chat over the bar with
the dispenser of drinks who may be serv-
ing customer. They pause, however,
only for moment. as they are bound for
a room just beyond, in one corner of which
is a little case of shelves filled with bottles.
This tiny cupboard is known among the
men and In the village as "the Kelley
bar" 1t Is the repository of the num-
bered eight ounce bottles and of some OF
the whisky TASKS. Ali day il Is unlocked
and the men have free recourse to 1t.
The Institution at White Plains is the
New York state branch of the Kelley san
itarium in Dwight, Ill. twas established
five months ago by Charles K. Persons,
who came on from Dwight and spent five
weeks trying to find village that would
have the conditions of Dwight in respect
to having no liquor saloons, and failing in
that located in the pretty little town in
Westminster county. Since the opening
of the institute, as il is called, l6 cases
have been treated, and forty-seven persons,
including six women, are now undergoing
the course of doctoriuc About % per
cent. of these are victims of the opium
and morphine habit.
The daily routine at the institute in the
periodical visits of the patients for hypo-
dermic treatment is varied by the arrival
of new patients, usually much under the
influence of alcohol or opium Often they
come In carriages, but more frequently on
foot, alone or attended by friend who can
give history of their case.
The patient is usnered into the office of
DR.. Van den Burg, the physician in charge,
and If the newcomer is in a condition to
listen and talk intelligently he is asked
concerning both his general health and his
inebriety. If the subject is an habitual
drunkard. but is afflicted with no organic
disease, the hope is held out to him that in
three weeks he will be in the condition of
a person who has never had any appetite
for alcoholic stimulants, and that
il he ever drinks intoxicants af-
ter that he will do so from no
craving for the liquor, but because he de-
liberately or carelessly abandons himself
10 the possibility of reacauiring the appe-
tite. To the periodical drinker, however,
not so positive promises are made He is
told that the craving for intoxicants will
be eradicated by the double chloride of
gold. but that the periodicity may return
at its accustomed time. There will be the
usual premonitoTy symptoms, and if not