Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-09-27
KING OF "DOPE FIENDS."
Heaviest User of Drugs Known to
the Chicago Police.

Heaviest User of Drugs Known to
the Chicago Police.
There died in the house Of correction
few days ago, says the Chicago Trib-
une, "the king of Chicago dope fiends, "
who, as we'll as being known to the To-
cal police as the heaviest user of drugs
in their knowledge, was known in New
York. San Francisco, Philadelphia and
st. Louis as wandering Georgia.
man who had no home, and who was
driven from town to town by his insa-
table love for narcotic stimulants.
His death at the end Of twelve years
of incessant drug taking, furnishes an
interesting case for science and an ex-
traordinary subject Of the physic and
physical effects Of the habit Of using
drugs.
George Davis was the mans name,
and at the time of his death he was
only 35 years Of age. Ever since his
twenty-third birthday, when he took
morphine to relieve pain in his lungs,
he had used drugs enough to have kill
ed half a dozen men with ordinary con-
stitutions. He made for himself rep
utation in almost every Chicago police
court was known to many physicians
and time and again had been used as a
subject upon which doctors at clinics
demonstrated the effects Of drugs.
From his habits June McCree and
Andy Lewis, the two men who on the
stage reproduce the most unusual man.
ifestations Of the drug habit, secured
many valuable points for their charac-
terizations.
The police, who have much more
knowledge Of and patience with victims
Of the drug habit than they are ever
given credit for, say that George Da-
Wis during his life time broke all the
records. He used at different times,
and sometimes almost simultaneously
cocaine, morphine, opium, chloral and
eau de cologne.
He drank drugs, ate them, injected
them into his arms and smoked them.
They were his food and drink, and the
only sleep he had in his later years was
the heavy slumber which his overdriv-
en- nature claimed after he had perse-
cuted it with drugs. He was not with
out an appreciation Of other things
than his loved drugs. Before he made
the consumption of narcotics his life
work, as we'll as his own dissipation, he
was printer and was as we'll read as
any of his mates.
Many a time he was locked up in the
Harrison street police station and
would solace himself for the absence of
drugs by reading a much bethumbed
and not overly clean copy of DR.. Quin-
ceys "Confession of an Opium Eater.
He often said that he was capable OF
writing a more valuable book than that
written by the great English essay
list, but when, driven to its composition
by lack of funds, he began such work
he dissauded himself from his task.
II will never write a word," he said
that will make drug taking attrac-
tive"
And he never did.
He served many terms in the house
Of correction, but never for any offense
more serious than vagrancy. He was
not quarelsome and never stole a cent
from anyone in the world. DR.. Charles
Seeleth, head physician at the Bride
we'll, came to know him we'll and to
study him.
His" says DR.. Seeleth, twas one OF
the most remarkable cases of drug
using I ever came in contact with. .
Davis was a man Of slight build,
with piercing eyes, the brilliance of
which even his long debauch of drugs
could not impair. He dressed well al
ways, carried some bottle or box of
drugs, which he used wherever he
might be. He was so expert that walk
ing along the street in crowd he could
roll up his sleeve and inject a quantity
of cocaine into his arm without anyone
being the wiser.
He knew all about the composition of
drugs. their uses and their effects, and
sometimes talked Of becoming a spec
ialist in their use. He said he thought
his knowledge Of them would be Of SER
vice to the world, but his project of
turning this knowledge to use, like SO
many Of his intentions, he made while
away from the drug for few hours,
disappeared into oblivion as soon as
he touched the mastering drug again.
Davis was the only man with whom
the Chicago police have dealt lately
who was willing to give them informa-
tion about other users of narcotics.
There is on the levee a sort of free ma
sonry among the men so harshly call
ed dope fiends." Davis, who pitied
these unfortunates from the bottom of
his heart although he knew that his
lot was infinitely worse than theirs. Of
ten called at the Harrison street police
station voluntarily and advised that
such and such a user of the drug
should be cared for at once. He went
even further than that. Many times
he would prescribe their diet and would
help them in every way to rid them
selves of the curse that was crushing
the life out of them.
He was a paradoxical creature in
many respects, but in one thing he was
unfailing. He never advised the use of
drugs and never lost a chance to dep
recate their use.
He had been in bad way for months
and when Justice Dooley sent him to
the house of correction, August %, Da-
Wis said he thought he would never
come out alive.