New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-01

commitment. but she signed herself a
yagrant and was made a prisoner
Bat, prison though 1t is, it has been
heaven 10 me-" Mrs. Wells told me.
Her eyes shone 'as she glanced around
the sunny ward She ia a pretty wom-
an, for all her more than forty years.
fair skinned and sweet Of face. II
wasn't easy, she said, for her TO give
her story TO the world but she felt
impe led 10 for the sake Of other VIC
tins of the drug, and in gratitude for
the treatment she received at the
workhouse.
Everybody has been so good-the
nurses, Miss Harris, the superntend-
cnt OF women az the workhouse; Ward
en- Fox and his wife, everybody. Ii !
hadn't been e sufragi5t before Mrs.
Wells assured me. being here and
hearing about the improvements that
have been made since woman became
Commissioner Of Correction would
turn me into one
| had a pass from Commissioner
Davis which permitted ME to go up
and down the ward and talk 10 the pa
tients without supervision. There were
none there, as II CHANGED. who were
directly under the cure. All had taken
il and were recovering. Anyhow,
have promised not to speak Of the
treatment, and Dr.. Bishop, who won't
be interviewed on the subject now,
SAYS it isn't ripe to give out.
| talked with the old Southern Wom-
an and with her daughter, both vic
TINS for many years They told me
how they were arrested when return
ing from New Jersey TO buy the drug
N 10 val t.sft .
buy it," the old woman told me IN her
quavering tones. But oh, they ought
10 have prepared places where we could
be cured before they passed il. Think
of the thousands and thousands of vic
tins, and the way that We are handled.
My daughter and | were put in Jetfcr-
son Market jail and kept there four
days. suffering fortunes for the drug.
Free from Craving.
Twice the doctor from Bellevue
came and gave US medicine, but it
wasn't any substitute for the drug our
bodies cried out for. When we came
here il was like heaven. took the
cure in January, and have not wanted
opium since. have faith that | never
shall. When we go out of here, at the
end Of our six months sentence, we
shall feel free for the first time m
many years
Al the other end Of the moral scale
was a girl | talked with IN another
part % the woTkhOuse. She had come
off the cure" "a they say, and was
serving out her sentence IN the prison.
She was a girl Of many aliases, frankly
a girl of the street, hard as nails, but
with the marks Of great prettlness in
her defiant face,
q shifted heroin,' she said, coolly.
81 suppose it's worse than plain NOR
phine. What did J do il for? Oh, COM
pany, pleasure. IL makes you forget
your troubles. But I'm through with
the stuff. ! don't feel that | ever want
u again"
Up IN Ward d group Of former
show girls, recovering from the use Of
the drug, gathered around me and told
their stories. One, a slight, fair, dcll-
cate creature, was prison case" sent
over from Queens County prison for
the cure.
"I'm IN Queens prison for year,
convicted Of selling the stuff. Did you
ever hear the like?" she said bitterly.
"For il WAS a frame-up. The detec-
tiyes had their stool pigeons after me,
and they followed my husband and me
into a restaurant and planted a package
of the stuff on the floor near our table
and said | dropped IT. I never sold It,.
I was d user, and said so frankly. But
Freschi gave me a year. It's treatment
like this that makes streetwalkers OF
girls. The police don't mind how they
lie poor girls into ruin
Need Moral Airing
u is said that morphine users love
to get the ear Of the crcdulous and tell
weird stories of their experiences. !
don't know how much truth these girls
were telling me. They were OF diff
ferent quality from Mrs Wells and the
old Southern woman, and | had no
corroboration of their statements, as |
had Of that of Mrs. Wells.
But they succeeded in making ne
feel that I'd ike TO take some of the
courts and jails and plainc!othes men
they talked OF and hang them on line
and give them a good moral airing.
One cannot say with gertrude how
many Of the morphine victims who go
90 the workhouse hospital are perma-
nently cured. They 20 out into the
world and are swallowed up by II. But
thus much, Warden Fox says, Is sure.
Almost none Of them comes back, out Of
the nifty a month or so who axe treated
and discharged.
That leads to the conclusion that
they do not relapse" he said. "and
makes me feel that the results are
good