Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-12-14

!
! eighth will do for her.
An eighth replies the doctor, short
1y
| Your friend, taking it for granted
YOU know nothing-quickly flips ~
your sleeve so as to bare your wrist
: and before you have had time to say
OH real loud. the doctor has caught
your arm. gwen it a little jab with q
gun, so that the needle inside pierces
the skin of your wrist-and frightens
you. But you drop into a chair and
watch your friend. whe is experienced
and knows much better how to pro
coed
For your friend the doctor takes a
teaSpoonful Of water off Il little gas
stove, which supports steaming tea.
kettle and pouring the teaspoonful OF
water into Il tablespoon, drops a few
grains of whitish powder in the bowl
and begins to stir carefully When the
powder is dissolved the doctor puts
the solution into the gun and fires
it into your friends skin
And your friend! What has she been
| doing? Why, she has been getting
ready, of course. Being an old hand
at using the gun, and a confirmed OPT.
UNI taker, she knows that each iab
sufficient to carry so much fluid into
! her skin will leave a mark as deep az
pockmark, and so she is getting ready
to have the jab made where it will not
show.
Pulling up her tailor made skirt,
and silk petticoat to her knees, she
draws down one side of her stocking
and exposes a little round spot of skin,
J just big enough for the doctor to find
with the point of the morphine gun.
; One jab-then another-a panied,
COW! Owr' and the work is done The
doctor calls it the treatment
| Then you go back to the luxurious
parlors and fall asleep. Your friend
looks over the magazine, and mayhap,
rouses you to go back to the office
with her for another Urea tment." Blu,
your own dose has been enough for
you and you sleep the sleep of those
who are wandering in very pleasant
but forbidden lands
! Meanwhile the par1ors have been
filling up. A handsome middle-aged
woman has wandered in, and another
woman who looks old and carewOrn.
Then there are several rather good
! looking women. quite Shabbily dressed,
and some almost in rags.
| In answer to your unasked ques-
ton your fliend explains: They have
MI l,11t al
! g ne on morphine. Now their friends
won't give them any more"
| But how do they get the 80 cents
for admission and IS cents for the
treatments?
; ooh, that is easy. They ask for
money for car fare and then walk to
save the few pennies. That woman
who looks SO shabby goes without her
lunch every day and spends it for NOR
phine. Her friends give her a living
and a, little income for pin money. She
earns something making fancy work.
But it all goes! See! Look at that wo-
man who is coming in now. She is
of an excellent family, and is the dear
est home body in the world. But she
I loves morphine. None of her family
knows it as yet. She is the house
keeper and finds it easy to spare the
money from tile grocers bill and the
butchers. She broke off her engage
ment on account of her passion for
morphine. And her folks all think it
was on account of her devotion to the
little orphan children whom she cares
fOr-her sisters children. Her brother
in-law idoliZes her-is falling in love
with her. Isn't she a little fraud?
But then, she can't help it. Morphine
is stronger than she is, you know"
$50 it appears" you respond dryly.
Now shake of your drOwsiness,"
your friend commands, land we will
go down into the parlor. These rooms
are merely for those who are begin
ners, or haven't much money. or who
cannot stay long. Never mind how
your bangs look! Nobody notices you
here. See! That woman over on the
couch does not even lift her eyes"
Down into the parlOr you go, and
here you find life and revelry. But
it is life as still as if it were death
cide's joy at the barren feast.
There is the same luxury, only it is
intensified. The touches are broader,
and there are pillows rich with en-
broidery and smooth with oriental deft-
ness. There are low divans where you
can steal away and lie down to sleep
with a screen turned around you, lest
some one disturb your slumbers There
are beautiful pictures and lovely pieces
OF bric-a-brac-but no books nor papers
here.
To get into this room costs you S.,
your friend tells you. But you notice
that all the women are elegantly dress
ed, and you know that this sum is
nothing to them.
There are blondes-loyely blondes
in this room stretched out to sleep on
the touches. There are brunettes, with
hair as black as night and long, dark
aShes shading the cheeks that look
corpselike in the subdued light of the
gas-illumined room. There are plump
forms and long, slender ones-an lying
asleep in the different corners of the
room. And all apparently very COM
Portable as they stretch themselves
drowsily More
They look so innocent, with their
heads pillowed in their hands, and the
soft breath coming and going so regu-
larly. They are not bad women % Won