The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-12-07
A CHINAMAN'S
GRATITUDE.
Story of a Morphine Taker.

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"Well. there's one good thing about
Chinaman. anyhow he's grateful
remniscently remarked n Washington
man who put in couple of cruises as
an apothecary in the United States ma
Wy. You may of late. in the great
mass of rubbish that's been written
about the slant eyes. have seen that
fact disputed but | just happen to
know that ChiuamanS grateful. How
ever, in order To make the point clear
I'll have to begin at the beginning So
here goes:
"Whcn 1 was serving on board a
cruiser on the Pacific station, | had as
a shipmate a private marine named
ah, well. Tom Kingsley is near enough
to it. Some of his people, of good sta
ton. are still living i'm Philadelphia,
and this boy hurt thom enough, So we'll
just make it Tom Kingsley. Kingsley
went to the ship with n detachment of
marines quite awhile after l was at
tachcd TO the vessel | noticed him
particularly as soon as he came ahoard
not SO much that BE was tall, broad
shouldcrcd fine looking chap, Who
completely outclassad the bunch he
joined with i'm appearance and bear
inc, as because saw what his trouble
was as soon as I clauned MY eye en
him. l understood as soon as I made
the discovery why Kingsley was Wear
ing the uniform Of a bUe., private in the
marine corps 1t was because q SlaN-
cry to which ne lad become addicted in
civil life had rendered him unfit and i'm
competent to keep up with the process
sion in ciyil life.
"That is to say, I didn't need two
looks mt Kingsley to see that morphine
had him. His gray eyes focused to
pin points, and he had all of the other
exterior indications Of the man chained
in the morphia bondage.
"At the inspection on the Sunday
following Kingsley's coming aboard l
watched my immediate chief, the ships
surgeon narrowly to see if he was 90
ing to get on to Kingsley when he
passed by the marine in following aft
er the commanding officer. When the
surgeon passed by the row of marines
drawn up in their mastering clothes,
eyes straight ahead, | observed that
he gave one sharp glance at Kingsley,
and that was all.
Below. in my staterOOm, after in
spection the surgeon looked at me out
ofthe tail of his eye.
"'Have you noticed that marine,
apothecary| he asked me.
eyes. sir l replied.
"Hum! I'm glad to be corroborat-
ed. yet | was sure | couldn't have been
mistaken, said the surgeon. Better
have an extra eye to your store of
morphia. Keep it under cover
However, Kingsley didn't become
incapable. He was an admirable sol
der of the sea. He was always right
on the minute, a top notcher on guard
duty, a spick and span man always.
The marine officer in charge of the
guard never, of course, suspected that
there was anything wrong about Kings
ley, and he thought so much of the
mans faithfulness that he had him
made a corporal a couple of months
after Kingsley joined us. Kingsley
.
drug of course. He never ran out of
the stuff You know how morphine
slaves provide against that awful con
tingency. lie kept on edge all the
time and never appeared to oyershoot
his limit Kingsley surely was n man
of powerful self control in that respect.
However l knew that it would get
him in time and throw him. 1t always
does throw its victims if they give it
rope enough. you know, and morphine
is one of those things that just de
mands all the rope it wants.
"Kingsley knew by intuition that l
knew about his habit, and he avoided
me very deliberately. one noon hour,
however, l happened to be smoking a
pipe at the gangway. Kingsley was
looking out over the beautiful harbor
of Acapulco in his dreamy, dopy way
his way, that is to say, when he was
off duty. Well, edged over to Kings !
ley. We were quite apart from the /
rest of the men.
'Bucko,' said in as kindly a way
as / could felt sorry for Kingsley, /
who was NEST obviously gentleman
you want TO cut it out You do for a |
fact. Itll nail you. It's a game you
can't beat. Nobody can beat it. | can |
reduce you gradualy-eighth of a grain .
day. Better let me take hold of you.
It'll be on the quiet
"'Thats good Of you, pal replied
Kingsley, never taking his eyes away
from the horizon to look at me. 1 won't
forget it, but I've tried reducing be
fore. l am going to make the fight
alone. I'm going to hang on if it kills
me. Death is only n little thing. any
how, compared to this slavery. When
we hike away from here for the islands
next week, I'm going to heave all I've
got of the stuff over the side. Then
It'll be me or the powder. I'll do the
best know. I'll be trying to win. any,
how. Much obliged to you all the
same
Bad job breaking it off all of a sud-
den,' l told him. Dangerous, at that.
Yet you're a pretty husky looking fell
low. You may beat it.
Il was pretty skeptical about it. but
/ didn't want to discourage him. Well.
the mudhook came up ten days later,
and away we went for Honolulu. We
started in the morning l didn't see
Kingsley until along toward night. He
looked pretty bad too. knew that he
Eas making the fight.