Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-12
Mistellaneons 8eadins.
USE OF COCAINE.
Terrible Drug That Makes Fiends Of
Good Men and Women.

Terrible Drug That Makes Fiends of
Good Men and Women.
The frightful effects of the cocaine
habit are all too slow in dawning up
on the minds and consciences of the
people of this country. Degradation
is almost instantaneous with the be-
ginning of the habit. A current mag
aZine story emphasizes its dangers
and points out the difference there Is
between cocaine and morphine, as a
matter of information. The morphine
habit is bad enough, but cocaine is in
finitely worse. The effects of one dose
of morphine will last for many hours
often twenty four, but the effects Of
oIe dose of cocaine cease within sim
gle hour, so another dose must be
taken, and another and still another.
A man may take morphine for twenty
years or more and do his work, but
the slave to cocaine does no work and
rarely lives more than five years.
Coke fiends"-as they are called
have no desire for food. They fire.
quently go days without eating and
become gaunt and emaciated. They
pass many nights without sleeping, in
fact, they cannot sleep until they fall
into stupor of exhaustion. Out of
this stupor they come back to their
senses with only one fierce desire,
more cocaine they must get 1T to re-
lieve their intolerable suffering and
craving and they are ready to get it
by any possible means. They Will
break any law, they will commit any
crime to get the drug, or to get money
to buy it. 1t takes a great deal to-
satisfy a coke fiend"-it is far more
expensive than buying enough alco-
holic spirits or morphine to satisfy the
victims Of those habits.
In the larger cities the cocaine hab-
it has reached it's most formidable
importance, where it leads directly
and inevitably to crime. This is true
not only of victims in the underworld
and the sporting world, where the use
of cocaine prevails extensively. but
also in the upper world, the social
world, the professional world, where
it also prevails to a disquieting and
even an alarming extent. The same
magazine writer referred to tells the
story of Mrs. Annie G.. Myers, Chi
cago woman, once well connected So
cially, in fact, she was one Of the board
of managers of the Columbia eXposi-
ton. She became a slave tn the CO.
caine habit and in a remarkable con-
fession tells of many crimes that she
committed in order to obtain the drug.
That confession, as contained in the
article, is as follows:
In 1894, while attending to some le-
gal matters" she says, my lawyer,
who noticed that l was suffering from
a severe cold, advised me to try a
catarrh remedy He gave me bot
tie and that started me on my down.
ward course From well-balanced
Christian woman l became nag
gard and physical and mental
wreck. My thoughts were only Tor
more of that accursed poison-cocalne
that was dragging me down TO de-
struction. From city to city / wan
dered. and as l was using ten dollars
worth of cocaine a day, l was torced
to steal. Readers of newspapers eV-
erywhere were greatly shocked to near
of my arrest in 50 many places. AS
the first effects of the drug produces
kleptomania, | was continually in
trouble"
She tells how she was arrested In
Detroit, Cleveland, st. Louis, lndlah-
apois, and repeatedly in chicago lot
stealing things in department stores.
She had completely lost her moral
sense.
81 had been driven to such a state
that l thought the world against me-
and made up my mind to fight the
world. to steal, kill, and play conf
dence games. l associated with the
worst class of forgers, counterfelters
and confidence men.
Il would break the windows OF a
vacant house and get in to keep from
freezing. so that the money | would
he obliged to pay for a nights lodg-
ing might he saved for cocaine IN
vented what is known as the cocaine
dance and would go to the sport
ing houses and dance and a coilec-
ton would he taken up and given TO
me. | would run without a nat 10
the drug store Immediately to get my
idol. used to pet it and call 1t m!
baby and my old friend, cry over
it and laugh and dance like an insane
person.
81 once went twenty-five miles from
the CITY of Chicago to rob house.
first had to kill the dog, which | did
by rough on rats then entered the
house and learning where the money
was kept, | stole one thousand dol
lars and escaped.
And another time, thinking that
did not have enough cocaine to last
me until morning, and having no
money, il also being too late to go