The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-12
WRECKED BY THE DRUG.
5 BUILDING THAT CONCEALs A
NUMBER OF FAMILY SkELE-
Tons.

Quaker City HeIress-Married With
"A Man She Could Not Respect.
From the Boston Post
few miles from Boston, on an isolated
road, there IS a modest dwelling which
has contained the clOseoSd skeletons OF
more than one prominent family of Bos-
ton and New England.
The mother, the sister, and the wife
have been shut up within its 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 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 hu-
man life and sound there are about this
habitation.
Without it is as silent and peaceful as
the grave; within il is purgatory. Inc
woman whose shapely arm Is SCARED
from shoulder to wrist with the wounds
of the needles she has thrust unhesltat-
ingly into the tender flesh PAGES the moor,
enduring the torments Of the damned as
her craving for morphine is upon her.
girl, prematurely old, haggard ana
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 little black
pills that have ruined her lie.
In fancy she can smell again the pene-
trating. unmistakable, maddenlng odor OF
the opium cooking on the needle.
She grows almost frenzied, so real does
her fancy become, her hands tremDle ana
her whole body quivers with the terrible
longing.
Her prayers and her tears are in vain;
only the restless wind among the dry
pine needles replies.
uneasily at the white spread, trying to
think Of other things and forget her un-
natural appetite for laudanum. Before
she came she was able to take pint of
laudanum with a pint of whisky at a
dose, enough TO kill dozen ordinary wo-
men.
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 GU
rious habit which at one time fastened
itself upon her. Bromo caffenine has had
her securely in its grasp, but she, too, Is
gradually struggling out of its clutches
When fatigued ana nervous She began
using il TO quiet herself and produce
sleep until she finally had an unconquer-
able desire for the cOncoction, even when
it failed to produce the desired result
She became eventually unable to sleep
more than three or four hours out of the
twenty-four, and her nervous system
suffered accordingly.
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 came from houses of
refinement and wealth. 1t costs money,
and a great deal of it, to live in this iso-
lated 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 sad
der tales than any novelist ever penned
If they would Perhaps they do, and we
cannou understand; we only catch the
dreary caaenee OF their voices and think,
with a shrug, 'sHow mournful."t
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 received the
| prize as that of the most beautiful wo-
| mans picture exhibited.
She was a famous belle and heiress in
the old Quaker City, She was spoiled and
headstrong, and on the impulse of the mo-
| ment married a man for whom she die
| not care, and even ceased to respect She
married without obtaining divorce q
man well known in Boston, thus commit
| ting bigamy. She loved him and was hap
| Ply for awhile, and then her real nus
| band thrust himself upon her. He ap-
| peared constantly in places where she was
| likely to be. He rose up like specter be
| fore her wherever she went, revengine
himself by constantly reminding her OF hel
| crime and keeping her in perpetual agony
| lest the truth become known to her huS'
band and the man she really loved.
She became nervous and unstrung anc
| finally began to drink and take morphine
| to benumb the terrible fear at her heart
The occasional drink and dose became a
| daily occurrence. 1t was not long beIOrt
| she lost her strength of will and the mas
| terry of herself. With these she lost hel
| pride and Self-respect. She fell lower ano
| lower. Her sensibilities We're dulleo, ano
finally she one day pawned her clothes
| even her boots. and came home in her bare
| feet through the city streets, the proue
| Philadelphia beauty, followed by moi
| of hooting, jeering hoodlums.
| Perhaps the trees about the little brick
| dwelling tell us the rest OF the story, bul
| we do not understand.
For two months in one of the rooms ir
this house upon the hill a western CIR
paced up and down, enduring the same
| agony that the occupants before her hao
endured All her life long her slightest
| giant wish fulfilled. Probably in all hel
| life she had scarcely stopped dozer
time to pick up anything from the floor
| everything went well for a time. Their
she began to have neuralgia. She could
| not endure pain nor even the thought oil
it, and TO avoid it began the use of mer-
II required more strength of will to stor
than she possessed when once. she had be.
| gun. She was its slave, and her husband
| and her friends looked on in dismay, pow
| erless to prevent the ruin she was bring.
| ing upon herself. Finally, pale, emaciated
| only a shadow of her vivacious self, she
came of her own accord to fight it out
| with herself In this quiet retreat. Fight
| she did, and won, for in two months she
returned home with the habit broken, anG
| although it has been four years now
she has never touched it since.
Every woman in that retreat is the
skeleton in some prominent and wealthy
| family's closet. Each has her own sac
story to. tell, full of her struggles, sor
| row. and shame. While these cases may
| not be exactly common, there will hardly
! be a reader who does not know one OF
| more cases very much the same.
We might go on ad infinitum telling
| these stories, but they are narrowing ano
| a few illustrations sufficiently show the
danger attached to the use of opiates and
| stimulants.