The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-06
CURES THE OPIUM HABIT.
Chicago Has a Jailer who succeeds
With the Worst Cases.

Opium eaters, devotees of the. little
sticky brown ball that brings oblivion
and bliss and later horrors, and users
of other deadly poisonous opiates and
drugs, praise the jailer of Cook county;
and his wife. 1t is Father Whitman
and Mother Whitman now w. ! those
elsht persons, six men and two women
who have rid themselves of a. degrading
and crime-producing habit that cursed
their very existence, through the sym
pathy and efforts of the kindly jailer
and his wife-but this is not the story.
A semi-serious problem eonfronts Jailer
John L. Whitman in the future treat
ment OF his forced proteges, who take
thls cure of their own free will a cure
winch leaves them as pure physically as,
newborn babe and with an appetite
that is phenomenal. 1t is this Appetite
that has caused the remaining "fends"
for they SO call themselves, to fear.
that Father Whitman will have to
abandon his crusade against dope tenn
porarily. The treatment requires from
fourteen to twenty days During the
first, or the hypodermic-injection week
the patients lose all desire to. eat Thew
see things" and are in state bor
dering on delirium tremens. During thiss
stage tn patients are isolated in the
".
they can see all the things that push
themselves to the front, and will not
pc made the sport of the other inmates
of the jail
r win the beginning of the second treat
ment, which is known as the e"tonic
week, the patient begins to see life in a
inherent light and develops the appetite
OF an ostrich-and here is where the trou-
pie begins. Jailer Whitman feeds the In
mates we'll; for each inmate he is allow.
Gu u cents day. His plans for amounts
Oh various foods he has to purchase are
maze accordingly. But since he has Wit.
messed the cure of his first class of
opium eaters he sees that if he continues
lhe work OF rescue he has begun extra
I Selsl tss VIII nave to be procured. I'm
less this is done he will be forced to re-
peat what he did before the last of his
CLASS was discharged as cured. He will
nave to buy and pay for the extra food
out OF his own pocket
1t is astonishing said JaiIer whit
man to reporter, chow fast the appe-
tHe grows after we put the patient on
the tonic, treatment. 1t out distances
any growth of appetite | ever heard of or
knew. The regular allowance Of food is
ordinarily enough to satisfy the heartiest
eaters, but when the patient has begun
10 eVlnce an interest in his inner man
thefe is no limit to what he will and can
eat. The regular meals did NOT suff1ce
ana the patient would beg for that left
by the less hungry. If he could not beg
ne would borrow, and if he could not
borrow he would help himself. When l.
found out what was going on I learned
that our supplies would not holdGout So
l bought additional supplies for the pa
llentS, as the county would not furnish
them. The expense would, if kept up. be
heaVy Dram, but as long as there are
inmates mere who want the treatment |
Will see that they get all they can eat
iney need have noafear on that score,
Five of the eight inmates who have
peen cured of their desire for the opiate-
are, still confined at the county Jail The
others have served out their sentences.
and when they left the gloomy north
side building they showered their bless
lngs on the jailer and his Wife They
that had no terrors for them, for they
were slaves no longer. OF the two
women who took the cure one was
discharged the other day from the Jail.
Sne was wreck physically and morally
when she began to serve her sentence
When arrested she was found living in
a levee dive frequented by coiored men
and women.
She was the worst kind Of a .eend-,, :,
said Jailer Whitman, and 5 hardly
thcrght she was worth the effort it would
require to treat her.
An outcast, and white, she had no
1rlendS IN the new world opened up to
her. DESTROYS of remaining true to the
reform she had experienced, she dreaded
facing the outside world again and beg
ged to be allowed to remain within the
Jail From miserable broken down
human being, whose face was a mirror
or r1otous dissipation and the color of
safron, she was transformed into
healthy woman, Her face was full and
her complexion pink and fresh. The ply
sic.an who had treated her has wife and
children. The other night she was taken
into his home
The other woman, known as Williams.
said: Il have been thief all my life:
! was a 'fend' among .fiends.' To get
my dope / stole, and here I am, l came
here wreck and with no desire to live.
not even for more dope I listened to
them and took the cure hope to
lead better life, an honest one. when
I leave here. If / don't and feel the old
desire to steal coming back, / Will get as
far away from Chicago as / can before
| commit another crime for I never will
race Father and Mother Whitman as a
prisoner again. | never knew a mothers
love nor home. Mrs Whitman has
peen a mother to me and this jail has
neen the pieasantest place I have been
IN Tor yearS-Ct IIica go Daily News