The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1903-04-03
A CHINAMAN'S
GRATITUDE.
Story of a Morphine Taker

/
reminiscently remarked Washington
man who put in couple of cruises as
IAN apothecary in the United States ma
w You may of late, in the great
mass of rubbish that's been written
about the slant eyes, have seen that
fact disputed. but | just happen to
know that Chinaman's grateful. How
ever. in order to make the point clear.
| Ill have to begin at the beginning. So
here goes:
when | was serving on board a
cruiser on the Pacific station, | had as
IA shipmate a private marine named
ah WELL Tom Kingsley is near enough
to it. Some of his people, of good sta
ton. are still living in Philadelphia,
and this boy hurt them enough, so we'll
just make it Tom Kingsley. Kingsley
went to the ship with a detachment of
marines quite awhile after | was at
tached to the vessel. | noticed him
particularly as soon as he came aboard
not so much that he was tall broad
shouldered. fine looking chap, who
completely outclassed the bunch he
joined with in appearance and bear
ing. as because | saw what his trouble
was as soon as | clapped my eye on
him. | understood as soon as made
the discovery why Kingsley was wear
ing the uniform of buck private in the
marine corps. 1t was because a slav
cry to which he had become addicted in
civil life had rendered him unfit and in
competent to keep up with the process
sion in civil life.
THAT is 20 say ! didn't need two
looks at Kingsley to see that morphine
had him. His gray eyes focused to
pin points. and he had all of the other
exterior indications of the man chained
in the morphia bondage
AT the inspection on the Sunday
following Kngsley's coming aboard |
watched my immediate chief, the ships
surgeon. narrowly to see If he was go
ing to get on to Kingsley when he
passed by the marine in following aft
er the commanding officer When the
surgeon passed by the row of marines
drawn up in their mastering clothes,
eyes straight ahead, | observed that
!
and that was all
Below, in my stateroom, after in
spection the surgeon looked at me out
of the tail of his eye.
"'Have you noticed that marine,
apothecary? he asked me.
eyes. sir replied.
"'Hum! I'm glad to be corroboIat
o1 ,,o+ I xr-o G c,1ra I oo11Idn't ho va bnnT
mistaken said the surgeon Better
have an extra eye to your store of
morphia. Keep 1t under cover
However. Kingsley didn't become
incapable He was an admirable sol,
der of the sea He was always right
on the minute. top notcher on guard
duty, a spick and span man always.
rhe marine officer in charge of the
guard never, of course, suspected that
there was anything wrong about Kings.
ley, and he thought so much of the
mans fathfulness that he had him
made a corporal a couple of months
after Kingsley joined u.s. Kingsley
was always under the influence of the
drug of course. He never ran out of
the stuff. You know how morphine
slaves provide against that awful con
tingency. He kept on edge all the
time and never appeared to overshoot
his limit. Kingsley surely was man
of powerful self control in that respect
However, knew that it would get
him in time and throw him. 1t always
does throw it's victims If they give it
rope enough, you know, and morphine
is one of those things that just de
mands all the rope 1t wants.
kingsley knew by intuition that |
knew about his habit, and he avoided
me very deliberately. One noon hour,
however, | happened to be smoking a
pipe at the gangway. Kingsley was
looking out over the beautiful harbor
of Acapulco in his dreamy, dopy way
his way, that is to say, when he was
off duty. Wen. | edged over to Kings
ley. We were quite apart from the
rest of the men.
"'Bucko said in as kindly way
as could-l felt sorry for Kingsley,
who was most obviously gentleman
you want to cut It out. You do for a
fact. It'll nail you It's game You
can't beat Nobody can beat it. | can
reduce you gradually eighth of grain
a day Better let me take hold of you
4 It'll be on the quiet.
"'That's good Of you, PAL replied
Kingsley. never taking his eyes away
from the horizon to look at me. i won't
forget it. but I've tried reducing be
fore am going to make the fight
alone. I'm going to hang on If It kills
me. Death Is only a little thing, any
how, compared to this slavery. When
we hike away from here for the islands
next week, I'm going TO heaye all I've
/ got of the stuff over the side. Then
it'll be me or the powder I'll 90 the
best know. I'll be trying to win. any
how, Much obliged TO you all the
same
"'Bad job breaking it off all of sud
den,' told him. Dangerous. at that.
Yet you're a pretty husky looking fell
low. You may beat it,
Il was pretty skeptical about 1t, but
l didn't want to discourage him. Well,
the mudhook came up ten days later,
and away we went for Honolulu. We
started in the morning didn't see
Kingsley until along toward night. He
looked pretty bad too. knew that he
was making the fight.