Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-15
SATURATED WITH NICOTINE.
Colonel Morris H. Alberger. Chicago
 Is sLightning-Proof


 From the Chicago Daily News.l
 During the storm Tuesday afternoon Colonel Morris H. Alberger sat in his of fee in the Marine building gazing at the flood washed street five stories below, where he expects to have his ''L" road trains rushing along by next fall. flash of lightning, accompanied by 'cr-rrack! cr-r-rack!" on the telephone wires, seemed to burst into the room on all sides, while ball of flame hung an instant on the tele- phone transmitter and then appeared to vanish within the box.
 The colonel was smoking long stemmed, curiously constructed pipe aud was not in the least disturbed, while some visitors and all the clerks in the office sprung from their seats with the shock. The army veteran and millionaire smiling ly admitted that he saw the pyrotechnics around the telephone, but denied that he sustained any shock.
 ''I am as perfectly insulated as if my skin were gutta- percha instead of human cuticle," he declared, and by way of expla- nation he related curious story.
 ''I am saturated with nicotine" he be- gan. ''It is the foundation of my existence. If it were not so 1 would have been dead man perhaps before this It is to the eff feet of this drug or poison that owe my present vitality.
 'I have been confirmed user of tobac- co for thirty years. Previous to the time of the last republican convention in the auditorium, where General Harrison was nominated, smoked daily quartsr-bo of perfectos.
 ftIn addition to that went to bed with a pipe in my mouth and the first move I made after waking in the morning was to reach for my pipe, fiil it and have a smoke in bed. This had been my habit for years. | Before the war I was no fonder of tobacco | than any ordinary smoker. But carried | a pipe either in my bootleg saddlebsg | all during the war.
 "We don't get any more such tobacco as | the boys chewed and smoked then. There was the old Killikinick in square packages, l the famous Orinoco in long, hard plugs that always came in blue paper, the Tar | Heel, nigger-h head and Powhatan, and I just about lived on tobacco. I so inoculated | myself with the nicotine that I could stand any quantity of it.
 "A few years ago, however. l began to | notice that my heretofore excellent eyesight at times became dim. This was immedi ately after waking up and when I would perhaps forego my early morning pipe Suddenly one day pain darted through my eyes and I was instantly blind. It hap pened like flash. It was June s and dur ing the week of the convention. For { week or more I lay in bed in constant sui fering, with medicine in my eyes and com presses soaked with the same drug bound over my eyes. The doctor called it optica paralysis, and said I must give up smoking I did so, and it was little trouble after tn, first ten or twelve days.
 "By July 1 I was recovered enough tt leave for the reunion at Gettysburg. Anoth CT week found me in Boston, where wen aboard General Buffers famous yach America for 8 five weeks cruise. It wa one month to a day after I had gone blind Dr. Scilley, of Boston, was aboard, anc when he heard of my case and observed m growing thinEer and weaker each day h just raved. He said the physician wh had advised me to quit smoking should b indicted for criminal malpractice. He SC me to chewing tobacco at 8 great rate, wit instructions to swallow the juice.
 "1t won't hurt you. You need it, h said 'To take tobacco from you woul be like removing the foundations from
 house.
 "He then prepared hot sea- water bath every day for noe. They were so hot tha
 I looked like lobster when l came out 0 , the salt walter. Some of my other organ
 were showing evidence of paralysis and } was frightened. With the return of tn ) tobacco habit, however, I began to mend
 After a bath the exudation from every poI
 was almost pure nicotine. It was easil } perceptable to the smell. My tissues wei I, charged with nicotine. My lungs fed Q [ '