Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1899-10-04
A SAD. SAD STORY.
The Horrible Plight of a Former We'll
 Known Prescott Druggist.


 The Post-Intelligencer of Seattle, Washington, of Sunday, September 24, contains a very lengthy account of the sad mental, physical and financial plight of Dr. W. B. Cox, a druggist, formerly of Prescott, and who will be remembered by most of our people. The following IS but a very brief portion of the article re- ferred to:
 BaIefooted, his skinny arms pro- truding from the ragged sleeves of an old shirt, he cra*led over the cold stone floor of the cell on hands and knees. Snow white hair fell over sunken bloOd-shOt eyes, wide staring eyes of che mailman who looks over or through you at the snakes you cannot see. His cheeks were sunken, the cheek-bones seem ingly ready to burst through the skin, and saliva dripped from his half-open mouth as you've seen il fall from the jawls Of a beast hall maddened with fear. The ragged shirt was open, had been torn open from neck to waist line, disclosing a breast covered with unhealed wounds too frightful for description. As be crawled, dragging one knee after another across the stones, his breath came and went in hacking gssps as If a hand gripped the throat and sought 10 stTangle.
 Suddenly the crawling thing, half man, half beast t. Lhe eye in the dim light of the cell, stopped, t3rew back his head and with shriek that sent the blood m the velns of the onlcokers freezing back to their hearts, he fell upon hls side in a spasm of such agony that men turned away their heads, and there he lay, wide-staring eyes, every nerve and muscle quivenng, his fingers digging into the stones of the floor, his feet drawn until they loOEsd like the claws of bird of prey, while the short breaths whIstled through his clenched teeth,
 It was nine at night before the victim of the drug whose condition in the afternoon has been tru.hfully described was ready to see us. We sat in the snte-rOom of the police station and awaited his coming.
 He was still barefOoted, but be had evidently attempted to ''dress" himself as best he could, and his first words We're, You will excuse my appearance, gentlemen" Then | r. hr M c talked 10 us, and this IS what he told us of his own life as slave of the syringe, of his attempts to es- cape, of his sensations, experiences, study of the Darcotic PoisODs and of the men and women besides himself here in Seattle who have become 'fends."
 "Seyen years ago I was a druggist in this city and had business that plid me a profit of over S2,0OO a month. For years l had sold nor phiue aud cocaine without thought of ever Ising a grain of It myself In fact, had warnings enough ssa'asf s.- uSs, every day from see ing the miserable wretches. such as I am now, addicted to its use come for their supply of the drug; hear ing them beg and plead for just a little when they had no money to buy. If any one had suggested to me tten that I would be one day as bad ss the worst of the victims be- fore me then, 1 would have laughed him to scorn, for were not the ceT- tain consequences of the use of morphis there before me in living picturesi
 How true it IS that man proposes snd-I will not say God-but fate disposes. met with a ser,ous acci- dent, fall, and for time my life was despaired of. For five weeks 1 lay in bed a maniac f-Om pain and fever, except when under the in- Guenee of morphine, My doctor was victim of the drug. although 1 never knew or suspected 1t, and be used it unsParinglys Hith me. As l began to convalesce 1 naturally be- gan to take an interest in myself and my affairs, and one day l was as founded to learn from the prescrip- tions how much morphine was talk ing. Being both a physician and a druggist, the danger of my situation, a situation for which l was in DO way responsible, appealed to me with full force, ard l determined then and there to stop taking the drug. The doctor laughed at my fears. excused bis conduct on the ground of saving my life, and l con tinued his treatment, saying to my self that as soon as l was stronger and able to be up and around l would treat myself. When at last I got out of bed | was a confirmed morphine slave, and 1 have been one ever since.
 1t is useless to tell you how l rapidly grew worse, lost u-y business, my friends, my property my man hood, gave them all to the unsuitable devil that lies on his snow white cot of crystals in the morphine bottle. Gradually l increased the doses until 1 was taking twenty, then forty, then sixty grains of the drug in twenty -four hours"