Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-02
GETTING COKE TO THE "FIENDs.'
Sniffer, Tells How the Combine Sup
plies Consumers With Dope.

So they've caught the heads Of the
Coke Combine in Chicago. have
they?" said Jimmy the Sniffer, the
man with two habits. as he poured
out a small quantity of cocaine and
shifted it up his nose with surprising
enthusiasm.
His eyes frightened and Jimmy al
most stood erect. Although only 2S
years old, he has the manners of an
old man. Weak and with high-pitched
voice Jimmy goes around bent almost
double. his head not more than four
feet from the ground. He picks up
every piece of string he sees in the
street, and spends much of his time
tying knots and then untying them.
No one knows why he does it. No one
knows how he lives, if his manner of
life can be called living.
81 don't eat hardly anything and I
sleep in Railways and sometimes stand
ing up-like a horse" Jimmy says
win a mirthless laugh.
The Sniffer was a hanson cab dri-
YER six years ago, and was noted for
his combativeness and energy. He
stood in Long Acre square. near the
Criterion Theater, and allowed no
other cab to get in his way. He
caught cold in his stomach and a doc
| tor prescribed morphine, and then
James prescribed it for himself. He
gave up his cab for the delights of
dope.
Jimmy says there is a coke combine
in New York. but that the police new
er will find it out.
"It is because they don't want to-"
said Jimmy. THE police don't care
|if we sniff or eat morphine. What
difference does it make to them, any
way? Dope fiends are harmless. They
mostly herd together and don't care
what others do.
I'VE would not mind if there was
an earthquake so long as it did not
interfere with u.s." continued Jimmy.
I'VE don't care for anything at all.
Elections, hot weather, killings, base
ball-nOthing bothers us so long as
we get our dope.
Sure, there is a combine in this
city. | don't know who is the head of
it, but he hangs out somewhere i'm
Seventh avenue or maybe it's Eighth
avenue. Never NINA.
What he does is this: He gets
big lot of the dope together, cocaine.
I'll say. And then he makes up a
small package of it and walks down
the street and meets a man and he
hands the package to him, and the
man slips him $40. Then the man
takes the coke and he divides it up
into % bottles. then he goes out and
slips the % To another man and he
gets $25 for them. Then the man with
the % bottles goes home and divides
each bottle up into five smaller ones
and sells them for so cents apiece.
THE one who gets one of these
small bottles. he mixes something
with the stuff. | guess. and peddles it
out in small packages for as low as 20
cents each. And all down the line
everybody makes a lot of money out
of it.
II don't suppose $40 worth of coke
is sold day right over the counters
i'm drugStoreS in this city, mean to
the coke fiends. us people who have
got To have it. Nearly all or It's ped
died right out of pocket here and
there. Some of the lucky ones got
prescriptions calling for coke. and |
myself got one that calls for NOR
phine. | can always get some of the
stuff if | got the price.
Some of the fiends have lots of
money Why. ! know Il man that is
rich and takes as much morphine in
Il day as | do i'm II week. and can
take my share of the stuff with any
one. He married Il woman about a
year ago and she had the habit, too.
| think they married because each
knew the other had a habit-he NOR
phine and she coke They sit tOgeth-
er i'm restaurants and drink cham
pagne by the quart and take their
dnpcs between times. They always
are happy-both rich.
$50 long: | got to run around here
where it's dark. | got a yen on now"
New York Telegraph.