Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-07-03
Sporty Colored Population Fast Be-
coming Enslaved.
DESTRUCTIVEOF MORALS AND HEALTH
ERectis Exhilaratlng for the Moment
Police Say ssCoke', Drunk Is the
Worst Kind-some Drug
Stores Sell Ii.

Il IL Will be a. reVelatlOn TO the great
majority of Courier readers, with ,he
exception Of the police, and especially
to the white people, to learn that the
very large sporting element among
the .eolored people, (by which special
reference is made to the young mem,
is largely addicted to the cocaine
habit or, as the phrase goes, are
t'coke'' fiends.
Tnquiring in doctors Offices and
drug stores confirmed tip given yes
terday to a Courier reporter 1t was
learned that the practice of using this
poisonous drug with intent to produce
sort of intoXication is very general
among the younger colored men. They
sometimes take the drug hypodermic-
ally, but that is the exception on
account of the trouble and the added
expense of a 'sgun' for the shot. The
almost universal habit is to take a
pinch of cocaine powder and snuff it
up the nostrils. The effect is eNhiler-
ating for the moment, not unlike a
drink of whisky, the users of the drug
say, but it is far more destructive of
the moral and physical being than
whisky, Tor in a short time the coke
habit becomes fixed upon those who
indulge in it and then it is only 4 ques-
ton of time when the victim dies or
becomes mental and moral wreck.
The young colored men in Ottumwa
addicted to the habit say that they
got the knowledge of it and the liking
for it from negroes who brought it
here and they say that a certain
iowa town from which these people
came is alive with cooke" fiends.
1t is said that in Memphis, Tonnes
see, the police find dead niger every
day whose death was from no other
cause than doping with cocaine.
One druggist who was yesterday
asked about the matter said every
evening one or more colored men ask
ed for cocaine in his place of business,
''but," said he, 1--WE do not sell it to
them; we fire them out" But it is
evident there are drug stores in town
where the proprietors are not so
scrupulous, for every night there are
scores of young negroes who indulge
in the fatal habit.
In this connection the following
extract from "The Journal" med
ical publication OF Chicago, is apropos.
1t says:
The negroes in some part of the
south are reported as being addicted to
new form Of vice-that of cocaine
shifting" or the cooke habit" as it APP
pears to have this name also. A negro,
!, it is said, will buy cents worth oil
cocain, which is sold ina little paper
box for such purposes. and, taking IL
in the old-fashioned way OF snuff-taN-
ers, proceed to indulge in a cooke
drunk" The effects are described as
much like those of an ordinary whis-
ky drunk; some cocaine 'ssniffers'' are
quarrelscme, some hilarious, some NOR
ose, and many are happy and indiffer-
intoxication lasts. 1t appears even that
the habit is going to succeed to the
recognized legal rights of whisky, as
we read that one community licenses
the sale, allowing, however, druggists
to sell the alkaloid on physicians pre-
scriptions, but imposing heavy penal
. ties on the doctor who prescribes it
for others than patients who require
it incidentally. In this there is pro-
gress in line not altogether encour-
aging. 1t is a pity that anything fur
Their in the way of intoNications should
receive legal recognition. The world
has heretofore got along without CO.
caine exhileration and the necessity OF
it for the negroes of Kentucky, even
could it be confined to them, can not
be reasonably urged. The precedent
is bad, and it is to be hoped the Gus
tom will not be followed elsewhere.