The Washington times., 1922-06-25

bidding my last farewell TO my
mates. one IN an adjoining room,
his loyal wife citing by his side
and the eyes Of both filled with
tears; another close by suffering
from locomotor ataxia, another
with an arm gone, and still another
paraiyzed-and 30 on. in all the
rooms and wards surrounding me.
Such suffering. misery. helplessness
and despair! What pen or tongue
could do It justice7 The walls Of
agony. the groans Of despair echo
ing through those sepulchrai cor
ridors the long. interminable nights
through ! can still hear them and
they awaken me from my siumber.
Not only are these suffering
wretches convicts. but they are the
diseased and MANNED inmates OF
hospital within the prison. These
indescrfbably hapIess victims are
inaprisonsd ln - doubis senss. II
have seen men die there under
circumstances that would move D
heart OF stone and bring tears to
the eyes Of those not easily moved
by another's woe.
One Of the most narrowing as
poets Of the prison hospital In the
drug addict, whom I learned to
know there in q way to compel the
most vivid and shocking remem-
brance Of him to the last Of my
days.
have seen these addicts seized
with the madness and conyulsions
peculiar to their condition. and
which are terrible even in memory.
As many as q score and more Of
these drug victims were brought
to the hospital at once. and the
first few days Of some Of them
were filled with all the CHASTITY and
gruesome writings, shrieks and
entreaties. all the hideous tor
ments ever conjured up IN the in
fernal regions. .. s..'.e,
"FOR ONE SHOT OF DOPE.
ONE young man, who occupied
the room NEXT to mine shortly
after I entered the hospital, I'm
voluntarily compelled me to share
his agony and torture. For the
first week or more, he could not
eat q morsef Of food. nor be at rest
q moment. His eyes rolled In their
sockets, he raved like q inadmnn.
tore his hair. swore and prayed by
turns, begged to be saved one
moment and pleading for death the
next-Iaii this excruciating agony
for Just one "shot Of the dope"
for which he would have bartered'
his soul to the devil. This lad was
under what 10 called the "ccid
turkey treatment" the drug being
entirely out of I'm accordance with
the rules Of the prison,
The pity I feit for him and for
stheru In . moro or less simiiar
condition made me Ill, Night after
night there was no sieep because
Of the suffering and outcries Of
these wretohed creatures,
Blame them ~ one may, how Ia
u possible In good censcienes to
punish them for their awful af.
fIiction with q prison sentence az
II they were common felonsi
They are sick people. whe re-
quirs special treatment, and not
vicious ones to be sent to the tor
ture chamber Of prison, and It IN
nothing less than q repreach to So
ciety and Disgrace to our ciyiii-
Eation that this malady is branded
as crime instead Of being minis
tered to as an sffliction. which II
most assurediy Is. ~,
II would be quite as rational and
humane to send men 10 the peni-
tentiary and make them slaves OF
the gaiieys because they happened
to have cancer or consumption as
1t Is to sentence and treat them as
criminals for being addicted to the
use Of drugs.
In the light Of such crude and
barbarous misapprehension Of the
evil itself. and the utterly stupid