The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-05-07

ing. IN ore corner or the large room
designated as the clubroom veteran of
the civil war, with a snowy beard and
Cesarian profile, was earnestly engaged
in killing imaginary rats with poker;
and in another corner sallow victim of
morphine sat jabbering incoherently, his
few wits in hopeless confusion, and
ground about on every side" there were
standing the "jags," as patients are
termed, in every stage of redemption,
the novices respondent and the older
ones exultant.
= had arrived the previous evening in
blaze of alcoholic glory, and had been
furnished with good deal of whisky
by the institute, with the assurance that
I could have all l wanted, and was
determined that my breath should be
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
SO long as the barrel held out. On that
first morning of treatment was in my
normal condition of inebriety before 10
o'clock, and maintained that high stand
ard day after day. At regular intervals
the physician in charge gave me an in
lection of a pale pink fluid, presumably
the famous chloride, in the left arm, and
at equally regular hours took two
ounces of an internal medicine which
tasted of cinchona and left a bad taste
in the mouth. M =
The doctor would frequently ask me,
in an expectant way, whether whisky
tasted the same to me as it used to, and
when would reply in the affirmative
wave of sadness would sweep over his
face and he would seem discouraged.
"A man generally goes back on
whisky on the third or fourth day." he
said to me once, ''but you have been
here more than a week and consume as
much liquor now as you did at first.
don't understand it,"
fancied that | understood it, how
ever. WAS making no effort whatever
to cure myself. | was willing that that
pleasing task should devolve entirely
upon the institute, and as the whisky
was good and free and in abundance, l
could see no reason why shouldn't
drink it. There was a gentleman from
Denmark among the patients, who
viewed the matter in the same clear and
logical manner; he had been there six
days, and was drinking quite fuently
when the doctor administered what is
known as a ''cross shot" A layman
cannot explain the nature Of this injec-
ton, but the results are marked and
easily understood. A man who receives
it becomes violently sick at the stomach,
as though he had swallowed a powerful
emetic, and disgorges all that he has re-
Gently swallowed with SO much agony
that he thinks he will never swallow
anything again. 1t invariably cures him
of drinking whisky most abruptly, and
by the time he has recovered his breath
he is anxious to deliver his valedictory
and go home to his wife and children.
When had been under treatment
about week | noticed that my eyesight
was not reliable. There was only one
clock in the clubrooin, but it seemed to
me that | was in jewelry store, and
every object was multiplied by seven;
there were also pains and stiffness in my
limbs, as though the muscles had been
drawn into a bunch and tied. fancied
that was contracting rheumatism and
complained to the doctor, but he smiled
wisely and said that the symptoms men
toned were indicative that the medicine
was securing firm grasp, and ne pre-
dicted that would not drink whisky
more than day longer. But he was
disappointed again, for another week
passed by, as weeks will pass in this
western country and was still drink
ing From twelve to twerty o,lnces day.