The Washington times., 1902-12-01
USE COCAINE TO SPUR
THEM ON IN THEIR WORK
SOuthernLaborers Take Drug
lnceSSantly.
SUBSTITUTE FOR WHISKY
Habit Began Among Negro Roust-
abouts Of New Orleans to
Tighten LaboTs.

NEW ORLEANS. Dec. lit has been
learned that cocaine as we'll as whisky
was peddled by the whisky pirate ship
Hazel. whose skipper. Captain Hull, was
recently arrested on tho Mississippi
River. charged with shooting the sheriff
and other citizens OF Chicot county, Ark.
In his defense. Hull explains that he did
not Introduce cocaine among the negroes
OF the Yazoo Delta. but merely did what
a great many planters are doing-sup-
piled the demand for II.
The cocaine habit began among the
negro roustabouts OF New Orleans. who
found that the drug enabled them 10 per-
form more easily the extraordinarily Sc
we're work OF loading and unloading
steamboats,. at which. perhaps sor sew
enty hours at q stretch. they hsve 70
work, without sleep or rest. IN rain. in
cold and in heat. The pay Is high. $50
month, but the work is impossible
without a stimulant.
Acts Against Fatigue.
9NJF "N4Ae protecting the negro
against the rain and cold, did not give
him the endurance against fatigue that
was needed. Cocaine proved to be the
very stimulant required
Under it's influence the strength and
vigor Of the laborer is temporarily in
creased. and he becomes impervious TO
the extremes Of heat and cold. But CO.
caine is filing the insane asylums with
wrecks.
From the roustabout the cocaine habit
spread to the levee camps along the Mis-
sissippi. where the work is hard, and the
conditions Of life and work unfavorabIe.
Finally It reached the plantation hand
and here It got the same foothold.
While the work on the cotton planta-
tion Is not so hard as levee building OF
loading steamboats,. still at the cotton
picking season it calls for extraordinar-
ily long hours. AS there is never enough
labor to pick all the cotton it is to the
interest OF the planters TO have the ne
groes work as much extra time as possi-
BILE.
The planters therefore hold out every
encouragement 10 the negro hands TO
put IN a big days work. The negroes
found that the drug enabled them to
work longer and make more money, and
so they took to 1t.
Grown Steadily.
It's use has grown steadily. On many
o. the Yazco plantations this year the
negroes refused to work unless they
could be assured that there was some
place in the neighborhood where they
could get cocaine. and one big planter Is
reported to keep the drug in stock
among the plantation supplies and TO is
sue regular rations Of cocaine just as
he was accustomed to in the past 10
issue rations OF whisky.
Cocaine has not been in use on the
river plantations long enough TO do the
harm It has done in New Orleans. but
the problem is looming up as an i'm
portant one. n the meanwhile the ef-
forts to prevent the spread Of the CO.
caine habit in New Orleans and other
Southern cities have been quite success
full II has been found impossible TO
cure the cocaine 1ends who are fast
drifting 20 the insane asylums. killing
themselves. OF being killed. but it has
been found possible TO stop the future
sale OF cocaine in the drug stores and 20
keep the younger negroes from taking MP
the habit.