Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-19
WOMEN FIGHT
GRIP OF DRUGS
Heavily Yelled They Testify
in a New York City
Probe

New York, Dec. ia score OF
'fashionably dressed women, seVeral
of them heavily yelled, appeared
voluntarily before the Whitney joint
legislative committee at the City Hall
the other day and confessed them
selves drug addicts. Assured that
their identities would not be re-
vealed, they had come to tell the
committee, in it's search for a hu-
manfarian solution OF the drug ad-
diction evil, how they had peen
''bled" by INSCRIPTIONS physicians
and imposed upon in sanatorluiils
where they were not cured.
Three women testitled tnS .p;r. nL5r
day. Later others will tell OIL thelr
Struggles against the drug mastery.
When the victims have said their
last word, coupling it as they nave
been doing with pleas that they De
treated as patients and not as
"outcasts fit only for prison., phy,
sicians and proprietors of so-called
sanatoriums, whose names meLe
mentioned yesterday, will be called
FANNY III Drugs Grip
Mrs. A (the committee so deslg-
mated her) was the first witness.
She was described later by the chair
man, George IL. Whitney, as "a So
ciety woman" A green veil, dou-
bled so that her features might be
undiscernible, did not prevent the
committee from noting that she had
much red blond hair and carried her
head proudly.
Mrs. A interlaced her ring-enclr-
cled fingers nervously when admit
ting that she was about 40 years
DID, but felt as though she had
'lived q century" She had been
taking morphine for nearly ten
years, following an operation which
made it necessary to keep her un-
der the influence of the drug for ten
weeks.
Relief was sought by Mrs. A in
what she described as stylish sana-
toriums," at Mount Clemens, Hot
Springs and other ItashlonaDle
places of retreat" Pronounced
cured in each instance, the old
craving" she said, returned, and she
would again suffer the tortures or
the damned" and "frantically beg
for narcotics"
Miss B, young, pretty and seem
ingly normal, was member OF
happy family circle a few years ago.
Her father, VINO had amassed more
than 100000, broke his leg. To
allay his pain, the attending physl-
clan administered narcotics.
Miss b nursed him day and night
She became q nervous wreck. The
physician administered narcotics, to
her. When she took to her bed, the
mother acted as nurse.
The strain overcame the mother
When she could not sleep the phy-
sic1an administered narcotics to her.
To-day father. mother and daughter
are addictS.
Doctor Gave Drug to Former Addict
Mrs. d, described as a ''profes-
Sional woman widely known to the
public" prefaced her story with a
plea for "a civic and humanitarian
endeavor" to help the prosecuted
victims" of what she considers "a
definite disease" Narcotics admin
years, following an operation,
brought her into Slavery" she said
This was in 1908. Two years later
she was pronounced we'll.
II was staying in Paris in 1912"
Mrs. d went on. II was taken ill.
The hotel physician was called. He
suggested a hypodermic. / remon-
strated. l told him L had been an
addict. He assured me there was
not a narcotic in the drug he pro-
posed to use. / consented. After
nine weeks 1 discovered he had de-
ceived me. developed all the
symptoms of the morphine slave. 1
was told this same physician had
made addicts of scores of men and
women"
Mrs. d returned to New York in
1915. "after three years of unut-
terahle torment" She went to q
hospital and, after remaining there
several months, came forth, "a free
woman once again.
Mrs. c, elderly to the point of
feebleness, told of having taken
morphine since 1889. She averaged
from eight to ten grains day.
'Havc to take that much to feel
normal, you know" she said, with a
smiling, sidelong glance at the COM
mittee chairman.
Spent Fortune on Drug and Cures
AS to her experiences with ply
sicians and places of alleged cure,
she said:
II was quite wealthy once. But it
all went to the doctors and for the
drug. I'm practically penniless now.
The last doctor l went to- when he
found / hadn't money, took my dia-
mond rings"
The national committee for the
study and relief of drug addiction is
helping the Whitney comittee. It's
representatives are assisting in
bringing witnesses from many walks
in life.
The national committee also ex-
pressed the fear that many sick
addicts" are being taken into the
Army with conditions resulting that
are detrimental to military eff
cheney, possibly implanting this ter
rible disease in many of our brave
defenders"
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