New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-02

IHN dren on Bundle Day applied to charity
for sufficient clothing with which to
u cover their frost bitten limbs. There
! -. thousands of morphine hends In the city
4 =, are seeking in vain some means of OBJ
'.;,;ns their daily supply OF the drug, for NOR
| .s;,, has gone up 1000 per cent
PHYSICIANS have stated that there is no suf
| ing known to man which equals that Of the
,-z 6end when his enslaved system calls
! :, done and dope is not forthcoming.
r. the hsbitual user of drugs there is moth
Il - so fesrsome as that hour when his habit
&c, 90 unsatished and, to the persons who
-g., deal with him. drug hend with yen"
/ ~hieh he cannot kill by the administration of
,-ugs. is person to be feared and pitied.
This nav in some measure explain why dur
:, N. last seven months the drug hcnds in
N,w York-in spite of the hard times, their
.,-b.r increases every day-have undergone
,o,. real suffering than any Of the thousands
:, o,her men and women who have applied
;, charity for aid and obtained It.
7pITTH IS ELUSIVE. EVEN WHEN PUR-
SUED BY VANDERBILT MILLIONS.
Mrs William K. Vanderbilt about one year
,so gave s., oOo,o 900 for the aid of the slaves
a habit-ior-ning drugs. She has now appeared
.,lote the Board Of Estimate and asked the
men who direct the disposition OF the citys
money 70 render more aid to these unfortu-
,,t.s. and in her most recent appeal she states
hat there are more drug hends in the city
ia, ever before. Mrs. Vanderbilt is right,
NJ, even her investigators, backed by the Van
;,rblt millions, have been unable to get at
ne real truth Of the conditions which to-day
oreysl among the drug users and the Illicit
drug trafickers in the city.
With the advent OF the Boylan law about
eight months ago, drug users and drug sellers
/, New York State and especially in New
York City, realized that from that time on
here would be some diff culty in getting the
forbidden drugs in from points outside the pale
0. the law. and that as result, prices would
!. somewhat higher With a cunning rarely,
4 ever. exhibited by any other class of orirni-
rsls. the drug sellers perfected their arrange
n.n,s 70 duck under the arm Of the law, and
II, dope fends prepared to pay the pedlers
or their trouble.
THESE ARE HARD TIMES FOR THE
DRUG FIENDS.
With their underground railways" estab-
E,hed the pedlers and fends again took up
their daily routine, varied but little except Tor
he fact that the drug users were constantly
growing poorer and the pedlers richer when,
hard on the heels of the Boylan law, came
the war
Hard times had hit the illicit drug business
rushingly The war meant to the drug pedlers
that the principal source of their supply, Ger
many, was shut off from all trade with the
United States, and that meant that few, II
;ny drugs from that country would find their
way into New York.
As long as there are dope hends there Will
be demand for dope that must be supplied,
and realizing that in supplying this demand
there lay fortune, few Of the more daring
drug pedlers made arrangements to evade not
only the Boylan law, bur the shortage IN sup
Plies caused by the war. They succeeded, and
,oday they are supplying opium, morphine
h,roin and cocaine TO a larger number OF dope
tends than New York has ever known before,
but al prices which not only give good reason
to the drug users for their cry OF hard times,
bu, give TO the person WAC knows drug hends
and their pocketbooks even better cause for
wonderrnent as to how the dope fends ever
GET the money to satisfy their cravings.
Before the advent of the Boylan law and the