The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-12-01
MANY INTOXICANTS.
VA. JOHNSON, WHO TRAVELS. FREE
LY DISCUSSES THE SUBJECT.

LY DISCUSSES The SUBJECl-
ne Occasionally IndulEes In H>sheesk
Himself = How an Opium Habltue Was
cured-E.herIc as = Substitute For Al
eshoIic Exhns-atioa-
johnson travels for New York
state wine and brandy producing firm
and is a veritable mine Of information
concerning wines and spirits, alcohol
perccn.aces, b9uQuets, methods and
rrocesses Of refining and ''aging wines.
and besides is a connoisseur Of no mean
quality in everything drinkable- No
one ever saw him drink more Of any al
coholic LIQUOR than the half dozen drops
he sins before passing a wonderfully
near irfaIiible verdict on a sample Ney-
erfholess johnson remarked one day TO
a friend that he took an occasional
snree Not an alcoiSlic drunk, :" he
oxplained. but hasheesh vision
'sHasheeshr' exclaimed the other.
why, I've always regarded that Gs
more dreadful than spirits "
Perhaps it is, - replied johnson Il
don't advise any one to use IT But IN
narts of Europe and in ell oriental COM
t.ies many persons use hasheesh as do
The effect Of the drug taken IN the
larger quantity is 70 stimulate the i'm
agination. It seems 70 release the soul
from the body's bonds Fatigue, depres-
sion. mental weariness, business cares
all harassments, in fact, are thrown OF.
and the mind revels in an abnormal and
pleasursble superactivity. | never expe-
rienced any unpleasant reaction
Persons Of different temperaments
are affected in different ways / knew a
man who wanted TO try dose OF
hasbeesb with me He had most un-
nleasant time of it He said that his
mental sufferings were indescribabie,
fear. or rather apprehension, Of some
thing mysterious and more grewsome
than all the ghost stories ever told rolled
into one awful horror expressing him
throughout the short time that he was
under tie spell of the hemp. He never
VII. Try it again. for which am glad.
for be might get into the habit OF IT.
Johnson's business takes him among
pharmacists a good deal, and by way Of
adding to his disclaimer Of being a
hasheesh slave he remarked that every
druggist has among his customers one
or more opium "fiends" who do not
feel the bondage of the drug, although
they arc cnslaved- II saw a clerk max
ing 100 small I,owders Of morphine one
dav. d" said johnson, land / asked him
why ne was putting up 50 many. The
clerk replied that he put up chat num-
Der every Thursday for a certain LADY
on renewal of a physicians prescrip-
tion. The physician had authorized the
renewal, and the patient had been tax
ing the morphia for several years in the
same quantity Tho habit probably
grew out of the drug having been pre-
scribed originally for the relief Of some
obstinate pain The patient only knew
that the powders kept her pain away
This same drug clerk also told of
the successful cure Of sufferer from
the opium habit, another lady who re-
allied her situation and lOnged 70 be
free. She went to live at her physician's s
house. She had been drinking so much
laudanum day. The doctor began 10y
allowing her the equivalent in NOR
phine in capsules. taken at the hours at
which she had been accustomed to take
the LIQUID He kept her ON a nourishing
and stimulating dict and very gradual
". without the patients knowledge,
reduced the size of the doses Of mOrphia-
after a time he substituted for cne of
the morphine capsules daily one of the
same appearance, filed with cinchoni-
dia. an aIkaloid Of Peruvian bark like
quinine, but weaker. The patient did
not feel the difference. Another cincho-
india capsule was substituted daily aft
er another week or two, and 50 on, until
after some months the habitue was tax
ing nothing but cinchonidia one day,
with, perhaps, two morphine doses the
next. AS gradually as before these
were eliminated, and the patient was
told one day that she had had no NOR
phia for a month She was surprised
and incredulous, but she at last real
lied that she was cured don't know
that every one could be freed from the
opium habit in that manner.
Tho druggists clerk told me OF a
fellow employee Of his who had pas
sion for ether He had found him sew
eral times asleep or DOING in a heap On
excelsior packing in the cellar, and at
last discovered that the young man had
been stealing ether He would saturate
a sponge, put it into pasteboard cone,
hold 1t over his nose, and thus anes-
thetize himself You know that the
sensation of passing under the influence
of ether is very pleasant Ii is akin 70
the exhilaration Of alcohol The patient
about to be operated up5n is in a state
of high spirits, no matter how great his
anxieties may be, as soon as the ether
has b gun 20 intoxicate him
But in one part of Ireland, 4nere
the making of 'potheen' has been
squelched by the excise, the simple IA
tives have taken to using ether-a prod
net not extensively purified like that
used by surgeons Only instead OF in
haling it they drink it. 1t induces ex-
treme exhilaration, then sleep, and The
drunkard awakes with a headache. q
sick stomach and an unpleasant. sweet
taste in the mouth, just as the surgeon (
patient does TIE ether drinking make:
a man noisy and quarrelsome and reck
less while its exhilarating effect lasts
and is in other ways far worse thar
whisky. A man may be drunk and so
bcr again in Is minutes The local cler
gy are very bitter against the excisemeE
for driving out the comparatively harm
less 'potheen- New York Mail anC
Express.
Tired Locomotives
Locomotives, like human beings have
their ailments many Of which defy the
skin of those deputed to look afteI