The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-23
Former Essex County Minister
Writes Sheriff SOmmer
a Confession.
DRUG EVIL CRUSADE
BRINGS WEIRD LETTER
First Downward Step Described
by "Fiend," Who Sounds
Warning to Fellow Men.

Confessions of a Cocaine Fiend.'' The
drug victim was once a minister re-
siding in Essex County, and one who
followed his varying and terrible, ex-
perience as a cocaine victim with a
pen at once trenchent and teeming with
marvellous descriptive power.
The confession came Into the hands
of Sheriff Sommer during the course
of his crusade. against the drug evil.
The name of the former minister is
known to the sheriff. but is withheld.
Partt2 of the confession here fol-
lows:
PART IL.
"Such a state of nervous depression
could not but, In time, Unfit me for
the active work of the ministry. In
the course of events, which l need not
~particularize, there followed my resig-
nation from my charge, in one final
burst of mental anguish, and my re-
turn With shattered health and uncer-
tain prospects to my mothers home in
Oldark.
After a few weeks of waiting and
searching for employment l secured a
position on the staff of a prominent
city newspaper and plunged into a
life as different from that to which I
had been accustomed as darkness is
from light. No man, who has not actu-
ally experienced it, can understand the
entire reversal of all the habits of
thought which az man must undergo
who m from such a sheltered call
ing as the ministry Into an intimate
contact with the rough affairs of life.
mo longer has he the comforting
stay of a wide feminine sympathy; no
longer is he let down easily into the
world of things by the carefully re-
strained v of all he meets. All
the badness and %bleakness of exist
ence are suddenly forced upon him.
So 1t was with me.
81 became a searcher after news in
slums and police courts; went where
crime and misery lower. The details
of the events | reported seemed sordid
and meaningless after three years of
writing upon the great themes de-
manded in the ministry. The accidents
and quarrels and meetings which 1t
was my business to write up were like
alien matters to me-waves tapping
against my mental island of a~loofness.
Words Fail Description.
at is hard to describe the intellec-
tual desolation of that period of my
life. No inhabitant of a lonely Pacific
coral roof dwelt farther from his kin
in bodily presence than / did in spirit
amid the rush and confusion of city
life. To be brief, l was in just the
state of mind when some powerful
stimulant would seize hold of me with
a giants grip.
"A long while ago ] had heard of
cocaine, and one dull evening of sultry
early summer it suddenly came into my
mind that l should try it. I knew the
name of the drug, merely, and that 1t
was generally used hypodermically.
Between decision and action not five
minutes interviewed.
81 marched boldly into the first drug
store MT hand and bought n hypoder-
mic syringe md n thin bottle of cocaine
tablets, which the druggist sold to me
without question or remark. 1 shall
never forget that evening.
II went quietly home, and, locking
myself in my room, took out my new
treasures to examine them more close
ly. l found myself in possession of a
small black box lined with purple felt.
There was a glass cylinder with a
tightly fitting piston, n two sharp
and ~cruel-looking hollow needles to be
screwed on. The little bottle of cocaine
tablets interested me very much. Each
tablet contained one-eighth of a grain
of cocaine h~ydrochlorate, the inscrip-
tion informed me.
First Application.
Il fitted one of the needles upo the
glass piston, and practised drawing
water up inside it and projecting it in
a slender stream through the point. A
- - g., -ot0otiaa nrorna111o mo 1G i
became familiar with the working of
the dreadful little thing. 1 felt that L
was about to enter some new and un-
tried calm of e-xperience-to explore
q land that might reveal infinite pos
sibilities of beauty n joy.
"As ] knew nothing of the strength;
of the drug with which 1 was dealing,
l determined to try only one tablet at
a time. Pouring a little water into a
glass and d%issolving one of the tablets
in it, I flled the syringe with the color
less fluid. My heart beat like a trip
hammer and I trembled in every nerve
with u~nmingled eagerness and appre-
hension.
.Raring my arm above the elbow,
with one sharp sting of pain ! pushed
the point beneath the skin and pressed
the fluid slowly into a whitened mound
which rose in the tissues. 1t was done.
I prepared to await the effect. But
there was no waiting.
BEFORE I could renrranRe the syringe
In its case, IN indescribable glow and
warmth began to steal over me-, an cleo
trio thrill Of tense strength. stringing
every muscle into wire. accompanied by
a I~ight-headed sense of exhilnrnticn
and power. Every fog of apprehension
and despOhdency rolled from my mind
ns the mists melt over the lens before
the morning sun. All the melancholy
made instant end complete Indication.
The bondage OF despair was broken and
nv clarified and enlarged reason stood
forth like an ermined king, proud and
dauntless.
II placed the syringe and the tablets
in my pocket and went forth into the
streets. AS | walked ] seemed scarcely
10 touch the pavement, and l sped along
the blocks with the springy step OF a
nanther. Mile after mile of sidewalk
rolled behind me. and it seemed as X
there we're a fountain of strength far
down in the recesses of my body which
sent waves and currents of energy into
every muscle.
Everything Changes,
II would stretch out my hands and
feel INV arms tightening into bands Of
T - N4oraoxtar + xNag never so