The morning call., 1894-06-02
AS IN A DREAM.
Wild Story of Holmes, a
Morphine Fiend.
Tells How Acting as a StOolsPigeon
lie Was Poisoned by Alleged
Counterfeiters.

George Holmes. morphine fend, by his
own story. had wonderful tale for the
police yesterday. They are not certa n
yet whether he dreamed 1t in one of his
drug-induced slumbers or has really tum-
bled on TO good thing.
The gist of his story is that he tumbled
onto a den Of cOin-sweaters on California
street, and iDciden tally that they tried to
poison him. He has failed to produce the
criminals, but he shows up d mouth. the
lips. tongue and roof of which are badly
swollen, as if by acid poison. which he
claims was given him by the criminals.
Several weeks ago, Holmes told Deiec-
tive Seymour yesterday, he was employed
by Treasury Agent Harris to ferret out the
coin-sweaters, which he had Informed the
latter he had unesrthed. He gave the
number OF the house occupied by tile den
of criminals as 633 California street. In
his capacity as stool-pigeOn, he says, or as
a station on one of the wheels in his
dreams, as the detectives think, he engra-
tiated himself into the good graces o. the
people Of the house.
At this stage in his story Holmes had
worked himself up TO a pitch where he
was really thrilling. AS he rolled his
swollen tongue tendeTly against the roof
of his mouth to aSsuage the pain induced
by the workings of the poison he claims
was given him he fairly sputtered over
with mystery. He worked in any amount
of horrfying detail concerning his spyings
around the house, his mysterious peepings
into plugged keyholes and his midnight
fears of assassination should the victims
of mis- designs become aware of his mis-
sion.
ais Investigations at last bore fruit. He
got conclusive evidence, lie claims, against
I'D nj lyWnfN
as Joe"
Then Holmes became sorrOwful in bis
recital. The victims of his espionage he
discovered by after experience had found
him out. They didn't say anything much
TO lead him to believe so, but yesterday.
that he recalled it, they were jus; little
bit queer They loaned him morphine,
however. in the same old hsil-fell0w way
that morphine fiends have. and they
| worked the GROWER together-ne and
Joe" principally.
1t is this Joe" who finally engineered
the plot to send him TO the ElysieD fields,
where morphine is the only diet and no
sordid druggist demands fancy prices
| for it.
Holmes ran out of morphine and money
| day before yesterday. both together. He
| was suffering at a great rate, and CON-
planned of his inability to satisfy his crav-
| ings. This was the opportunity for which
Joe Dau Decn waiting.
Have some with me-" he said, produc-
| ing a small bottle of the drug. The suf-
| ferer grabbed at the opportunity. He pro.
! duced his needle and loaded her up for q
| good shot. He now recOllectS that Joe
| smiled very peculiarly at the time.
Rolling uD his sleeve Holmes pumped
! about half of the injection under the skin
| Instantly he felt burning sensation tha
! ia not an accompaniment Of morphine
| He became suspicious at once. Withdraw
/ ing the point he opened his mouth anC
! sprayed the remainder of the drug into it
/ In second he became satisfied that an
other and quicker acting poison had beer
worked in on him than morphine. The
| burning pain was intense, and he imme
| diately rushed for water. He gulped &
mouthful of it, and then without castinl
| even one glance at the nefariOus Joe" h,
rushed for the Receiving Hospital. HI
| found relief although his mouth was pain
! fully swollen.
| Holmes Immediately looked up Detec
| tive Seymour and poured his tale of wo,
| into the latter's ears. AS coin-sweatini
was the particular province of the United
! States Treasury officials Seymour tolC
! Holmes TO take his story there. He, how
| ever. while disbelieving the tale made al
| Investigation of the premises and the PEG
| pie and found no evidences of any sucl
| persoDages a. Holmes described or of an,
coin-sweaters. He believes that Holmes 1
a wonderful dreamer. and that the burn
Ing In his mouth was caused by combi
nation OF cigarettes and poor whisky.