The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-11
MORPHINE TEAS.
DISSIPATION IN I 1ERRIBLE F
 FORM.
cation Is Another Form of Dissips- ton That Vrecks the Lives of Many Women.

cation Is Another Form of Dissips
 ton That Wrecks the Lives of Many
 Women.
 The two greatest evils of modern
 times, viewed from their effects upor
 moral and physical man, are the nor
 phine and cocaine habits. Indulgence in these drugs is not confined to the
 lower and more vicious classes; indeed
 they are the dissipations of the ihtelli-
 gent and so-called upper circles ot socl-
 ety. The men and women who seek so-
 lace for their ills in soporitic or stimu- | lating drugs are often people or fecoS-
 nized intellectual ability and high so- cial standing. For the most part they ] keep their vices from the public knoWl-
 edge, and it often happens that the public learns of their addiction to the
 their death from an overdose of mor-
 phine taken to relieve pain
 The morphine habit has of late be-
 come a fashionable fad in some circles
 of London society, says the Chicago
 Chronicle, and morphine tea parties"
 are all the go. They are especially pop
 ular among a certain class of women
 who make some pretensions to social prominence. As a supposed cure Tor the
 blues, never-failing panaeea for eV- cry form of depression, morphia, one or the most deadly of drugs, is unfortun- ately increasing in popularity by leaps and bounds. The parties in which this dangerous poison figures so prominent. ly have only lately come into fashion they originated in Paris, blythe bye but the amount of injury and misery that they are responsible for is already beyond all reckoning.
 What happens is this; A. number of ladies who. owing to the similarity of their individual tastes and weaknesses, are in sympathy with each other, form themselves into what may be termed a morphia club. They meet at about o'clock every afternoon ostensibly to enjoy nothing more harmful than tea, the members providing the ghastly en- in turn. Tea is certainly consumed, but only l to avoid suspicion on the part of the ! 1omestics, for as the repast progresses | he hostes produces tiny syringe con- | aiming morphia The appearance of this | title instrument, which has been eager y waited for by the whole company, is | he signal for the guests to lay bare heir arms. This they do hurriedly | anxious not to lose a moment, | 10 intense is the craving to put them elves under the influence of the poison, The hostess then goes the round of her 'isitors, giving each an injection.
 Very frequently a guest is not satis- led with one injection. She has accus- omed herself to the drug and small ose has no appreeiable effect on her. he cries for three injections. She gets hem if her hostess is devoid of sense, ,hich she genrally is, and thus drives mother nail in her coffin. The women | 'ho resort to this proceedings belong to nat numerous body who, bereft of self ontrol and feather brained to degree. annot live without excitement and ho thirst for new sensations. They at md the morpha tea party to drive way-as they foolishly thing-inelan- l loly. Without the morphia tea party ( ley would not care to exist Life to ' ,em Is an insufferable bore. $ In very short time the poison does s work, The woman who was de- i -essed and dull-eyed when she entered I le room is full of life and gayety, she y lks wittily, even brilliantly. her eyes t e bright, her cheek, but moment be- o ne ghastly white. are flushed, her h hole countenance is animated il But what price she pays for this n lange! Submitting herself to the in- a lenCe of morphia at these parties, as q e does every day, the drug when ad- il inistered in fairly large quantities O lickly loses the desired effect and the t1 retched being must have more. Three Il jectionS once a day are not enough l lC r her; she injects the fluid morning l O ternoon and evening. To get the ir ison she will sacrifice everything-her u arest possessions, her money, her U wels, her all, in fact The result is ol sastrous The poison obtains a com W ete mastery over her--she can no ii ore resist it than she can fly to the pl )on. ST The inevitable consequence is that m e dies an early death, wrecked both di
 mind and body. Nothing is more ghtful than the sight of one of these IT men when she is denied her favorite q ls. Filled with despair, she is capa- JIG , if not watched, of destroying her til f at any moment. In her rage she te Il tear her hair and scream as no te dman could scream. ne Another dissipation of London's idle m , and the habit has obtained strong in thold on this side of the Atlantc-is a 'aine injection The practice can be lili 'ried on So secretly that for a time ly n the nearest friends of the drunk pc have no suspicion of it. Ii has none foi the repulsiveness of ordinary intoxi- ma ion. Doctors are it's chief victims, ia tiers and politicians come next and cil
 more artistic the temperament the diV ater the peril this new habit pre- de ts. ca ocaine injection is, without question, De
 most dangerous and subtle form of Cl' briety known. Compared with it. ! n morphinomania is harmless. It
 WIS on one with amazing rapdity
 gives little or no warning of the m it is doing until the evil is accom- he'd almost beyond recal. With most
 cotics you have quick presage of ling evil Let the average man in
 a dose of morpha and he will find