The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-09
COCAINE HABIT AMONG NEGROES.
How 1t Is Filling Southern Insane
AsyIums.

New Orleans Letter in New York Sun.
1t has been learned that cocaine as well
as whisky was peddled by the WHISKY
pirate ship Hazel, whose skipper Captain
sippi river, charged with shooting the sheriff
and other citizens of Chicot county, Arkah-
sas. In his defense Hull explains tnat ne
did not introduce cocaine among tne ne
groes of the Yazoo delta. but merely ala
what great many planters are DONG
supplied the demand for It. The COCAINE
habit began among the negro roustapouts
OF New Orleans, who found that the urus
enabled them to perform more easily the
extraordinarily severe work OF loading ana
unloading steamboats,, at which, perhaps
for seventy hours at a stretch, they nave 70
work without sleep or rest, In rain, IN coiu
and in heat. The pay is high, $50 month,
but the work is impossible without slim
ulant.
Whisky. while protecting the negro
against the rain and cold, did not give him
the endurance against fatigue that was
stimuiant needed. Under its influence the
strength and vigor of the laborer is tenn
porarily increased and he becomes I'M
pervious to the extremes of heat and cold
But cocaine Is filling the insane asylums
with wrecks.
From the roustabouts the cocaine habit
spread to the levee camps along the MIS-
siSsippi, where the work is hard and the
conditions of life and work unfavorapie
Finally 1t reached the plantation hand and
here 1t got the same foothold. While the
| hard as levee building or loading steam
boats, still at the cotton picking season IT
| calls for extraordinarily long hours. AS
| there is never enough labor to pick all the
| cotton 1t Is to the interest of the planters
| to have the negroes work as much extra
| time as possible The planters therefore
hold out every announcement to 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 It.
| Its use has grown steadily. On many
| of the Yazoo 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 PLAN
| of cocaine, just as he was accustomed in
| the past to issue rations Of whisky.
Cocaine has not been in use on the river
plantations long enough to do the harm II
has done in New Orleans, but the problem
| Is looming up as an important one. In the
| meanwhile the efforts to prevent the spread
! of the cocaine habit in New Orleans and
cessful. 1t has been found impossible to
! cure the cocaine fiends who are fast drift
| ing to the insane asylums, killing them
| selves or being killed, but ii has been found
| possible to stop the future sale of cocaine
| in the drug torres and to keep the younger
| negroes from keeping up the habit.
| The negroes themselves have been very
active in this movement. and the police
| have shown so much energy that the public
sale of the drug has almost ceased in New
| Orleans. A crusade against the use OF the
| drug has begun in most of the towns, but
| as yet no effort has been made to prevent
| it's sale in the country districts.