The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-13
WRECKED BY DRUGS
A Building That COnceals a Number
Of Family Skeletons.
ONCE BELLIES OF SOCIETY
Within the Four Brick Walls Edu-
ated Wo men. Who Once Reigned
Supreme. Moan and Beg for
atureIy Old.
From the Boston Post.

A few miles from Boston, on an iso.
lated road, there is a modest dwelling
which has contained the closeted skele-
tons of more than one prominent family
of Boston and New England.
The mother, the sister and the wife
have been shut up within it's four brick
walls. engaged in a fearful struggle
with the drugs which have almost
wrecked their lives and disgraced the
names of those they loved best.
The house is on a hill, set far back
among the pine trees. The wind blows
among the branches with a peculiar
dreary, chilling sound, the snow upon
the ground is scarcely broken, the
world might be deserted for all the
signs of human life and sound there
are about this habitation.
Without il is silent and as peaceful
as the grave; within il is purgatory.
The woman whose shapely arm is
SCARED from shoulder to wrist with the
wounds of the needles she has thrust
unhesitatingly into the tender flesh
PAGES the floor, enduring the torments
of the damned as her craving for NOR
phine is upon her.
A girl, prematurely old, haggard and
hysterical. sits with her hands clasped
about her knee, Swaying her body
back and forth, and begging in the
name of heaven for just one of the lit
tie black pills that have ruined her
life.
In fancy she can smell again the
penetrating, unmistakable. maddening
odor of the opium cooking on the
needle.
She grows almost frenzied, so real
does her fancy become, her hands trem-
BILE and her whole BODY quivers with
the terrible longing.
Her prayers and her tears are in
h. las-cs ind "a
dry pine needles replies.
In another room a woman lies pick
ing uneasily at the white spread, try
ing to think of other things and forget
her unnatural appetite for laudanum
Before she came she was able to take
a pint of laudanum with a pint of
whiskey at a dose, enough to Kill q
dozen ordinary women.
This powerful drug taken suddenly
from her. she is a nervous wreck, weak
and helpless. She still hopes that with
the kindly physicians aid she may be
able to become her old self once more
a strong, self-reliant woman.
There is still another patient with a
curious habit which at one time fas-
tened itself upon her. Bromo caffenine
has had her securely in her grasp. but
she, too is gradually struggling out of
its clutches. When fatigued and ner-
vous she began using IL to quiet her
self and produce sleep until she finally
had an unconquerable desire for the
connection, even when II failed to pro-
duce the desired result. She became
eventually unable to sleep more than
three or four hours out of the "a. and
her nervous system suffered accord
ingly.
The cocaine patient, the liquor and
the hasheesh patients all are there
away from the world and temptation,
fighting the fight that means life or
death.
None of them are the women who fire.
quent opium joints and the various
dives of the city. They are educated,
carefully reared women who come from
houses of refinement and wealth. 1t
costs money, and a great deal of it, TO
live in this isolated brick house among
the pines. But a fortune is not too
much to give for a total and absolute
cure. 1t means money for health and
a rescued reputation. The old pines
about the house could tell sadder tales
than any novelists ever penned II they
would. Perhaps they do, and we can
not understand: we only catch the
dreary credence of their voices and
think, with a shrug, How mourn
full"
ONCE FAMOUS AS A BEAUTY.
They might tell the wretched story
of a Dorchester wife whose beauty as
girl made her famous in her native
city. At the Centennial her portrait re-
ceived the prize as that of the most
beautiful woman's picture exhibited.
She was a famous belle and heiress
in the old Quaker City. She was
spoiled and headstrong, and on the inn
pulse of the moment married a man for
whom she did not care and even ceased
10 respect. She left him and the man
disappeared. She married without OBJ
tanning divorce a man well known in
Boston. thus committing bigamy. She
loved him and was happy for a while
and then her real husband thrust him
self upon her. He appeared constantly
in places where she was likely to be.
He rose up like a specter before her
wherever she went. revenging himself
by constantly reminding her of her
crime and keeping her in perpetual
agony lest the truth become known to
her husband and the man she really
loved.
She became nervous and unstrung
and finally began TO drink and take
morphine to benumb the terrible fear
at her heart.
The occasional drink and dose became
a daily occurrence. II was not long be
fore she lost her strength of will and
the mastery of herself. With these she
lost her pride and selfrespect. She fell
lower and lower. Her sensibilities were
dulled. and finally she one day pawned
her clothes. even her boots. and came
home in her bare feet through the city
streets. the proud Philadelphia beauty.
followed by a mob Of hooting, jeering
hoodlumS.
Perhaps the trees about the little
brick dwelling tell us the rest of the
story, but we do not understand.
HER HUSBAND IDOLIZED HER.
For two months i'm one of the rooms
in this house upon the hill a western
girl paced up and down. enduring the
same agony that the occupants before
her had endured. All her life long her
slightest wish had been granted. her
most extravagant wish fulfilled. Prob
ably in all her life she had scarcely
stopped a dozen times to pick anything
from the floor. She married a man who
idolized her and everything went well
for a time. Then she began to have
neuralgia. She could not endure pain
nor even the thought of IL. and TO avoid
IL began the use Of morphine.
Ts gfw