The morning call., 1895-01-22

We had reached stevenson street, and
| in the middle of block not far from the
dope den the boy .halted before house
with a sign of furnished rooms to let''
hung on the doorpost. 1t was easy to read
the sign, for there was lamp Just outside
| the door.
'This is the house where l first got
opium, /" he said ''The woman who keeps
it has taken in roomers for over ten years.
1 could not tell you how many have learned
/ to hit the pipe here. She is fend herself,
| but she will deny it, because you are a
stranger, ambush, here she isl
| The door opened as he uttered the
''hush," and pale, restless-eyed woman
with disheveled hair was seen in the door
way.
"Ah! how are you, said the boy jaunt-
| lily. '.I have just brought a lady friend
around to see you. Can we come in"
'.Mollie is not here; but you can come in
if you like replied the woman, shortly,
as she led the way into stuffy back par
Tor, where another disheveled looking
woman, wrapped in thick black shawl,
was snoring heavily on shabby lounge.
After little desultory conversation the
boy stated that his lady friend was think
ing of "hitting the pipe" and wanted to
know something about it from woman s
standpoint.
"You have come to very bad person" )"
replied the disheveled Lady mincingly. II
know nothing at all about opium. / have
talked to few roomers who used it and
they were very good sort of people, nice
and quiet and well behaved, not bit like
! ~ - IL
who raised Cain every time they got a
/ glass of whisky.
''You give man or woman plenty to
eat when they are taking opium, and it
won't harm them. I used to be rich once,
| till l got dabbling in stocks, and I'd lie
awake night after night, tossing and fret
ting, and got sleep and rest from-not
from opium-a glass of whisky, but never
took it to excess"
''Say! you have hit the pipe yourself
sometimes" said the boy insinuatingly.
'rYou insult me-" replied the woman,
drawing herself up with indignant scorn
''How dare you come under my own roof
and insult me-" And amid profuse apollo
gies we hastily withdrew, the boy whisper
ing to me as we went down the steps.
''That insulting business is too thin.
| She is one of the worst fends Lee Lung
ever sold opium to. Did not you notice
| her dead eyes and her white face?" and
was fain to acknowledge that she had all
the signs of the confirmed fiend.
81 guess 1 will take you to see young
! lady now. Mollie says she won't meet a
woman she does not know, but this girl
won't be SO particular"
The boy was wrong, however,
when he made that prophecy, for
after he had conducted me to
the third floor of large rooming- house on
Fourth street, and had obtained admit
tance to room by rattling his fingers on
| the door. he soon ca5n ont with disap-
| pointed face and whispered:
| 'She's smoking, and mans in with
her smoking, too. They say they don't
want strangers"
| This piece of information was superfu-
Gus, however, as the girls shrill voice an
nouncing that she would not let strange
woman in for $40 had penetrated the frall
door, l had also inhaled a Whit of the
pungent bitter smoke as the boy came out.
"I should like you to have seen her," he
said regretfully. "She used to be lovely
girl few months ago, but she has taken to
morphine now and is losing all her beauty.
Yes, Lee Lung persuaded her to take the
pipe. She was respectable till she fell in
with him."
The next house visited did not seem like
the abode of tiend; it was a little bit of
place on Jessie street with everything neat
and dainty in the two little rooms, and
pretty, curly headed boy lay asleep on the
bed. An educated, respectable looking
man, the father of the child, confessed
frankly to being victim to the morphine
habit.
"But / have a will of iron," he said,
''and I will not sink any lower. l have
gone far enough-too far ON the road to
hell.
"How did I begin? A friend that yis-
tied quite often smoked opium. / saw him
at it for six months before took any.
That was seven years ago, and drifted into
morphine five years ago.
at often seems to me that there must be
a cure,' he continued, refectively "Dont
you think there is?" and as he asked this
question his big hollow eyes dilated and
his emaciated face lighted up with wistful
eagerness.
"Some of my friends" he went on,
"have had themselves committed to lu-
natic asylums to escape from the opium
and morphine. They have been
strapped down there, and have cried and
pleaded for the drug in vain. / don't be-
ieve that does permanent good, though.
They take the vile stuff when they get out
again.
81 am going to give up the morphine
next summer-oh surel 1t is easier to go
without it in the hot weather. But what
/ am looking for is cure, a real cure.
Opium and morphine are the only things
the doctors can do nothing for.''
"Poor fellow" said the boy, when we
were in the street again. "He suffers hor-
ribly, but he never increases his three
dopes a day. guess it is his
wife who keeps him straight. She
never will try the drugs to see what they
are like-never but she cannot choke him
off forever. He will surely increase his
dopes or take cocaine before many years
they al do"
And then the boy showed me the last
step in degradation by taking me to All
Sings den of Ia Commercial street.