Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10
THE SIREN OF THE POPPY.
Opium Lures More OF the Race to Destruc-
tion Than Whisky-Women Devotees-
No One Steals Baby's Things-Accuracy
of the Eye-waIt whitman's Memory.

| Sroa10r eudu H1Ost peopto uaVo hhy iuoo W
and seems to be growing. It's disease
When it gets hold of anybody it seems nexI
to impossible to make 1t let go. know
plenty OF opium users, people who use the
| drug in one form or another, and the station
| houses and asylums are full OF those who
have been pulled down by it. Whisky is
bad enough, but as to effects by the side oil
opium all Intoxicating liquors amount to
nothing, comparatively, because its use is
easily kept secret until the victim OF the
habit is practically beyond advice or help.
relative of mine keeps a drug store up
| town, and he could tell tales concerning the
| use OF this terrible drug that would make
| your hair curl so tight You couldn't get your
| eyes shut. The Chinese Joints are but evi-
deice Of the last stages of the disease-the
| lowest rounds of the ladder of human dis
| grace.
"The opium habit thrives in the very high
| est ranks OF society, and comes down per-
meating all classes excepting the working
mechanic class, which is less tinctured with
| the disease than any other. I don't know
| why it is, but you don't find many opium
users among skilled mechanics. It may be
| that men and women who fashion things
simultaneously with brain and hand have
less craving for opiates. 1t is the active
brain worker and the restle idler-tvo e1-
tremes-who are prone to fall before the
deadly poppy plant. The disease assails
women and men alike-and women are the
| most unfortunate because harder to detect.
Respectable people who would consider it
vulgar to drink in public and lasting dis
grace to get drunk on liquor, will go around
under the influence of opium every day and
retire drunk with 1t every night. l don't
mean to say this Is general, but that there
are great many sucl-so many that nearly
drug. Frequently the habit Is the outgrowth
Of illness-acquired innocently and acc1-
denta!ly. If you would look over the pre-.
scription book of any drugstore you would
De aston1shed to see how widely opium 1s
used by physicians; and the same is true of
patent medicines of all kinds. Opium has
its legitimate uses, and confined to these
uses Is a precious boon to suffering man
kind; but beyond these it is subtle dend,
more deadly because insidious, that steals
away brains, honor, life. Better have the
yellow fever than the opium habitr'
Baby Carriages on the Street.
Dozens of baby carriages stand parked
along the pavements of Fourteenth and
Twenty-third streets in front of the big re-
tail stores on pleasant afternoons. Some
times there is baby in one or more, but
they are usually empty of infantile live
stock. The rest of the family paraphernalia
is invariably left to take its chances in the
street while the owner of the outfit assaults
the bargain counter. There is something
immeasurably safe in New York-"babys
things" If other peoples children are not
exactly sacred in a woman's eyes she enter
tains q sentiment as to her own offspring
which scorns the belongings of another
baby. She is more than apt to look askance
upon every passing perambulator as the
possible precursor Of fever, whooping-
cough, measles or some other dire affliction
common to infantile makind and gives it as
wide berth as circumstances may allow.
!twould be poor Investment for the indus
take ''baby's things" even if she got good
chance, for there would be no market for
them. Even the more refined kleptomaniac,
who steals without knowing why, just be-
cause she was born that way and cannot
help it, knows better than to DO that for
she steals only for the home market. Thus
"baby's things" can be left on the crowded
sidewalks from luncheon till sundown with
out danger of loss. And thus they are left
from hour to hour every pleasant afternoon,
while the mother wrestles with the problem
and the wheels of the perambulators grow
clean and bright under the constant friction
of spring trousers and tailors gowns.
The Deadly Little Gas Stove.
"A popular Broadway clubman, who
wears the, uniform of the metropolitan
police, says he has been making an estimate
of the matter, and that anr average of two
persons are burned alive every week in New
York. That is-theys are burned: dead
killed by fire. While an occasional holo-
caust like that of the Hotel Royal startles
the community the real loss of human life
by fire comes from the lamps and gas stoves,
and is the result of carelessness. Some off,
cial figures on this subject would serve as a
timely warning. In New York great many
gas stoves are in use. The flames are ex-
posed to catch the dress Of the economical
housewife, or the hair or clothing of her
children, with every now and then fatal re.
crYlfo Trn fNn Sar, opot ta sod IF
this kind have frequently been recorded in
q week, until the old familiar causes of fires,
the ready curtain and defective f1ue are no
longer in it, and the kitchen-stove-girLkero
sene-can variety OF broil is now a novelty.
Even the long excoriated and anti-legis-
lated car stove, with all its unhappy victims,
little family gas stove for genuine omnipres-
ent danger to human life. The gas stove
has a way OF its own-luring the innocent
housewifeo by degrees and lying promises
of unmeasured savings, insidiously tempt
ing children to sit on 1t. burning with sickly
blue flames that won't melt butter in cold
weather. but will roast the whole family
upon opportunity. Its poisonous fumes |
have slain hundreds who couldn't live long
enough with it to be roasted alive; and the |
jaw bone of the ass who talks people into
such things is responsible for the terrible
human sacrifice
Remarkable Training of the Eye.
The capacity OF the human eye for
special training is even greater than that of
the hand. Ayoung lady employed in one of
the clipping bureaus of this city can see
certain names and subjects at glance at
the page of newspaper. They are the |
names and subjects she is paid to look up |
hundreds OF newspapers every day. |
What the ordinary render wonld have to |
read column after column to 1ind-and then |
might miss-she sees at what seems the |
merest casual glance at the sheet as soon as
it is spread out before her.
"They stand right out" said she, laugh |
ingly, Just as If they were printed in bold |
black type and all the rest was small print. |
When begin to look up q new matter and |
drop an old one 1t bothers me q little-the |
latter by being in my mental way all the
time and the former to be hunted; but in |
pears in some mysterious way, can't tell !
how. l used to think bank cashiers and |
tellers we're a remarkable set OF people, but |
1 now find that the eye is much quicker than
the hand and is susceptible of a higher train
ing."
Tho Immortality of Whitman.
1t was a pretty sight to see the contin-
ual cluster of people in front of q Broad
way window opposite Union Square. For
the window contained the portrait of the
''good gray poet" the late Walt Whitman,
and at the time all that was mortal ofhim was
being borne to the little tomb of his own Sc
lection. This was the tribute of the passing
throng to his immortality. All day long the
people paused and looked and silently passed
,n nodding approvingly. 1t was the await"
Of Is years ago-the hale, robust, leonine
man, who then sought the daily companion
ship of certain Washington street car
lriver. and could be seen standing beside
The latter on the front platform disconrsing
I, Hl,i1 ~ ,iorl,N