The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-05
Father Curry's Anti Cocaine Fight.

When reporter for THE SrN visited
the Rev. james Il. Curry at the rec
tory of ST. Jamess Roman Catholic
Church to obtain the story Of the
priests fight against the abuse OF druga
particularly cocaine, Father Curry after
waving his visitor to an armchair
walked across the room to his desk and
rummaged through the drawers until
he found what he was searching for.
The priest returned with small
white box and a small bottle Of brown
glass. He removed ;hc aver from the
box and permitted III, visitor to view
It's contents. The box was half filled
with white powder, which Father Curry
referred to AK "snow."
THAT small box and bottle were tho
means Of enlisting me in the fight
against cocaine in 1905.' said Father
Curry. AT that time the cocaine habit
had not obtained much of n hold In this
city and We seldom heard anything
about the drug. ] was n pioneer In tho
fight and few persons thought It worth
while to take up the cudgels against the
drug. Since then thousands OF persons
have been enlisted in the war on tho
drug. including many prominent men
and women.
"But getting back to that wooden box.
II had been brought To my attention
that Whaling drug was being sold to
boys and men In the downtown section
Of the city, but no one was able to tell
mo the nature Of the drug. We knew
It was harmful and finally decided 10
obtain some IL tt II possible.
zone morning AS sat at the desk
here in the r"ctory ! casually glanced
l A L.. s,...x
men on the opposite side Of the street.
I think one Of them was "A marine. They
were acting susplciously and ! decided
To watch them.
"Oue of the men drew wooden box
similar to this from his pocket and took
the cover off. Then he drew quill
! md dipped it IN the bon. He placed tho
quill in his lcft nostri' and ! noticed
! him inhalc. lie dipped the quill again
and touched i To- his right nostril, in
| hal.ng as he did before.
"In short time the snlffer began to
act puoerly. lie went through cortor-
tions and apparently he could not con-
troll his arm, and legs. HIS companion
after INDUCING IN the contents of tho
| wooden box seemed to have the same
difficulty in making his limbs behave.
determined to obtain some of that pow
der Il possible. learned that drug
store IN the ncighborhood was the sup
| ply point for those who wished to buy
the powder Being well known in the
vicinity. / realized il would be useless
for me to endcavor to buy the powder
from the druggist: he wouldn't sell me
any. Put there We're many young men
To-. l..
| willing - make an effort To obtain
some for mo
"nne of these young men succeeded IN
! making friends with = man coming
from the druggist After much per-
suasion his man promised to buy some
u tho powder On condition that he
should got a sni.f of il when he brought
it out
"The agreement was made and tho
man got tho powder. The box was
turned over to me and forwarded to tho
Board Of Health to be analyzed The
analysis showed the powder to he al
most pure cocaine. That report was
sufficient to start me in the fight against
that terrible drug and one Of the first
things accomplished was driving the
druggist who sold the drug ont OF bust
ness.
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