The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-25
AWFUL
LURES TRACED BY
MINISTER VICTIM
Former Essex Clergyman Lays
His Downfall to the Se-
ductive Drug.
SHOCKING CONFESSION IS
SUBMITTED TO SHERIFF
Describes Rapid Way in Which
Poison Desire Grows and How
Easy 1t Is TO Get 1t.

THE EVENING STAR today pre-
sents the fourth installment of the re-
markable confessions of a cocaine flend,
written by n former minister, still resi-
lent in Essex County.
With a strong and facile pen the
drug vi,tim continues to trace his
downward course. ever lured into
deeper abysms of black despair by the
seductive narcotic.
Sheriff Sommer declared today that
the ex-minister's story of his downfall
points a terrible moral.
The continuation of the confession
follows;
PART ".
at would be tedious to recount the
rapid way in which the drug grew
upon me. Eight complacent druggists
In the city would sell me cocaine. 1
became expert in the operation of the
syringe, so that ] could use it in the
streets without attracting attention.
"At evening 1 would retire to my
room with Ave or six dracbms of n
strong solution Of cocaine, aud, inject
ing it at intervals, would spend the
entire night. wrapped in n lanket,
reading. At such times l could fairly
devOur BOOKS.
"Du Maurier's weird tale of the
dreamer Ibbetson was strangely fascin-
ating to me, especially since, during the
previous summer. 1 had spent halcyon
days in wandering about the environs
of Paris. This long story l read in a
| c;,, ole NIGHT p1innihp rnnidlN OUaf fha
sliding pages with a marvellous grasp
and a%cuteness. Nights of reverie, how
can l ever forget you?
Il lived in the very heart of the city
and, awake as 1 was and stirred to my
inmost depths by the exciting drug, l
noted the gradually lessening roar of
the deep chord of traffic-the far-off
rumble of the wagon, rising and falling
as the distant canons of streets opened
4 and closed n for sound approach
THE footsteps drawing carer in louder
staccato and then losing themselves in
faint, half audible patters-and as the
night deepened the growing somnolence
of the leviathan of commensurate then
the vacant reaches of the darkness in
whose sable e~nfoldings l sat motionless
and alone. like some huge owl in al
l~ivy-coyered belfry. ~
Indifferent TO Health.
Sometimes 1 would stagger to my
feet and look at myself in the mirror.
Already repeated applications of CO.
caine had begun to pry their rude levers
among the delicate meshes of nerves.
My cheeks We're sunken and CHASTITY,
my skin of a dull yellow color, and
when the drug was in my system it
- = xJsa4aI.. l...-.7 AZ, rayao IL, ~ y
eyeballs. The pupil was enlarged until
but a narrow thread of iris ringed itself
about a central lake of black which
glittered and shone with an insane in
tensity.
"Yet with all the bodily cancellation
and weakness which was growing upon
me, 1 conceived a strange Indifference
to my physical condition. 1t was the
clear and fOrcefuI operation Of the
thought / desired. What cared 1 that
my legs shook and tOttered under me
In the street. What cared 1 that my
hand trembIed like a wind stirred nspenf
Let the day be never so bleak and
dead, let the sunlit hours drag them
selves way in ever so hopeless a
monotony, at night l bathed in oceans
of fancy n exulted in a boundless
mentality. My mind burned it's way
easily through the most stubborn vo-
cabularies of metaphysics, cleared up
the vagueness of Schopenhauer's philo-
sophie gloom, and tore out the heart of
Kipling's stories in one fierce clutch OF
insight. stevenson and lonely midnight
and cocainel
what sudden CLEANS of magma
ton pictured to me the sea birds crying
around the wrecks on Midway Island
and Mares and Dodd bending over the
puzzling charts-what STRINGS of
vague terror as 1 followed Hyde
stamping eastward at a goodly pace
along the London water front-what
visions of the wide sea and sun
bleached shore and booming of Pacific
breakers.
Pleasures ShOrt-Iived.
LET no one be misled by this ac-
count to the delusive idea that the
pleasures of cocaine can be enjoyed