The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-14

nerve to tell the girl to come in again.
and whacked down a roll of bills on my
desk in such a hurry that she must have
thought 1 had been counting the moments
until could enjoy the tremendous salts
faction of settling up
Charles ID. OBrien. a travelling man from
Baltimore. has just bad an experience
which, he says. has caused him to become
of less charitable disposition than for
merly. Zone day last week." he said. in
telling the story, while was in Cleveland
/ was accosted by shabby-looking fellow
in front of the Hollenden Hotel. He asked
me If wouldn't, for the love OF heaven,
help a man who had encountered miser-
able misfortune He spoke such good Eng
lish and told such straightforward tale
OF bad luck that 1 was interested in spite
Of myself. The gist of his story was that
he had met with severe injury while
working in factory in Kansas City and
had been compelled, through physical in
ability. to give up his job. He had learned
few weeks ago that his mother, who
lived in Rochester, n. Y, was not expected
to live more than a month or two, and he
| had started out to work his way to Roches-
ter. He had managed to get as far as
Cleveland, but seemed unable to get work
| in that city. He hated to beg, but he felt
that he must be hurrying on eastward. I
gave him half dollar.
-Four days later I came here to Indianap-
! oils. after day in Columbus. o. When 1
had finished attending to some business
last Tuesday afternoon among some Of the
| wholesale houses on South Meridian street
l started back to my hotel. 1t was about
5 o'clock and quite dark as / crossed west
on Maryland street from Meridian. In
| front of the Grand Hotel barber shop my
old friend and I met again. He didn't rec
ognize me i'm the dusk of the evening, but
l knew that rather musical voice and the
| well-chosen words in instant-to say
nothing Of the story which he was start
| ing in to tell me. 1 allowed him to pro-
| coed with his narrative until he reached
the point where he made up his mind that
he would work his way to Rochester to
| see his mother once more before She
| And that's where stopped him. placed a
| hand on each of his shoulders, looked him
| straight in the eyes, and said: My poor,
unfortunate friend, your geographical
| knowledge of the United States is sadly de-
| ficient. When you got as far as Cleveland
| you should have gone on eastward to reach
| Rochester. You have made a miserable
| mistake in coming to Indianapolis-it is
| far out of your way. In fact, you have
| been coming westward instead of eastward
| Then he knew me. What did he say? Well,
| he said just what any ordinary tramp would
| say. he said, III be d and he beat a
| hasty retreat that was well worth seeing"
| XXX
| 1T would be a good thing" remarked a
prominent Indianapolis physician. IF the
| State Board of Health should concern it
| self with some method of doing away with
| the great sale of certain cough medicines
and so-called grip cures that make their
appearance on the drug market about this
| time every year. Many of these patent
| medicines contain morphine and cocaine in
no small amounts. This abominable meth
| cd Of making money through the sale of
poisonous stuff, which in itself brings on
disease, should not be tolerated. If the gov
| ernment only realized how harmful some
| of these medicines are it would surely not
sanction, and protect by it's copyright laws,
the making of paupers and demented crea-
| lures which it must afterward support in it's
] asylums and hospitals. / have made ii a
| point to analyze some of the cough syrups'
| and cold cures on the market this winter
and can say that the quantity of narcotics
| and poisonous substances which some of
| them contain is astonishing
| Its an actual fact that the constant use
| of these medicines throughout a period of
| illness is likely to make morphine or
/ cocaine fend of any person, no matter how
| strong minded that person may be. re-
cent number of a well-known medical jour-
nal estimates that the growth of the CO.
caine habit is becoming most alarming in
| the Southern States, and these pernicious
medicines have been largely responsible for
| the spread of the vice. The cocaine fiends
in Louisiana and Mississippi are said to
| number thousands. the habit being especial
| ly noticeable among the negroes There
| are any number of men calling themselves
| doctors here In Indiana who are making a
| great deal Of money out of the sale of such
| poisons. You will notice that there are
| scores OF new cold cures placed on the
| market with each winter season; just about
| one out of dozen of them will prove
otherwise than harmful to the misled per-
sons that purchase the stuff. The selling
| of these mixtures is a criminal act-and
| that's all there is about it