St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1901-01-12
A Chinanlan's Gratitude
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XET ELL, there's one good thing
Wv about. Chinaman, anyhow
he's grateful, reminiscently remarked
a Washington man who put in a cou-
pie of cruises as an apothecary in the
United States navy. '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 a Chi
naman's grateful. However, in order
to make the point clear I'll have to
begin at the beginning. So here goes:
"When / was serving on board a
cruiser on the Pacific station I had as
a shipmate private marine named
oh, well, Tom Kingsley's near enough
to it; some of his people, of good sta
tion, are still living in Philadelphia, and
this boy hurt them enough, so we'll
just make it Tom Kingsley. Kingsley
was sent to the ship with a detach-
rnent of marines quite awhile after
/ was attached to the vessel. noticed
him particularly as soon as he came
aboard mot so much because he was
a tail, broad-shouldered, fne-looking.
chap, who completely outclassed the
bunch he joined with in appearance and
bearing, as because I saw what his.
trouble was as sooa as I clapped an
eve on him. I understood as soon as I
made the discovery why Kingsley was
wearing the uniform of a buck private
in the marine corps. It was because
a slavery to which he had become adj
dicted in civil life had rendered him
unfit and incompetent to keep up with
the procession in civil life.
sgThat is to say. I didn't need two
looks at 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
watched my immediate chief, the ships
surgeon, narrowly to see if he was go-
ing to get on to Kingsley when he
passed by the marine in following after
the commanding officer. When the
surgeon passed by the row of marines,
eyes straight ahead, observed that
he gave one sharp glance at Kingsley,
and that was all.
Below, in my storeroom, after in
spection, the surgeon looked at me out
of the tail of his eye.
"'Have you noticed that marine,
apothecary?' he asked me.
"'Yes, sir replied.
'Hum-1'm glad to be corroborated
yet I was sure I.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
dier of the sea, He was aiways right
on the minute, 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
Kingsley, 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
was always under the influence of the
drug, of course. He never ran out of
the stuff. You know how morphine
slaves provide against that awful con-
tingency. He kept on edge all the
time, and never appeared to overshoot
his limit. Kingsley surely was a man
of powerful self-eontrol IN that re-
spect. However, / knew that it would
get him in time, and throw him. 1t al
ways does throw its victims if they
give it rope enough. you know, and
morphine is one of those things that
just demands all the rope it wants.
Kingsley knew by intuition that I
knew about his habit, and he avoided
me very elaborately. One noon-hour,
however, happened to be smoking a
pipe, at the gangWay. Kingsley was
looking out over the beautiful harbor