The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-01-23
MIDWEST
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blue and white lilacs at the gates;
green lawns; a nice, well-built school
house or SO, and an astonishing num-
Der of churches.
Lots of young people in Peoria
they run to big families in the small
towns, you know.
Mary and Kate, and Elizabeth and
Jim. ana Tom and Billy-they all go
to school together and build snow
men. in the yard when the air begins
TO be white with fluttering feathers.
I'll warrant you could count at least
q dozen snow men in the dooryards.
OF Peoria the first day after the
first real snow.
Old.Fasfioned Americans.
Young Peoples Endeavor, Epworth
League, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls,
Ladies' Aid Societies, church oyster
suppers, strawberry festivals, trips
to town in the opera season; a regu-
lar matinee crowd in the theatrical
season, fudge parties, sleigh rides, old
friends, old neighbors-a town fun
% good. old-fashioned Americans
that's Peoria.
Well, they arrested and convicted
Just nineteen doctors and druggists
In Peoria not so very long ago, and
every one of them was caught sell
Ing morphine and cocaine and heroin
selling these things to their neigh.
bors and their friends and to the
children OF their neighbors and their
friends.
Oh, yes. the Federal narcotics
agents know Peoria-they've known
1t for q long time.
Sold dope By Mail.
They caught a man in Chicago
sending ounces OF dope through
the mail to Peoria-that was after
the obliging druggists and the enter
prisinS doctors had been caught and
put out Of Observation-Disclosures
anyhow.
And Peoria is Just one Illinois
tewn that 10 alive with dope
There are Joliet and Elgin and
Aurora. There are Rockford and
Geneva Any good, lively dope
peddler in Chicago can tell you right
off where to 80 in any one of these
towns and get enough dope to kill
at least q dozen people.
Nashville, Tenn. Dear old town
Nashville, You can't help falling in
love with it to save your life. Hos
pitable doors, wide porches, mag
nolias In bloom by the gallery"
Nashville knows all about dope"
Ask the wise old judge who sits in
that district. Ask the shrewd family
doctor who holds half the secrets of
the town>in his neighborly hands.
Two Girls Gone Wrong.
saw two girls from Nashville up
On the red.light district in Chicago
Q few months ago. One Of them was
@s pretty as q pink and the other
had such "a way with her. that she
didn't have to be pretty, and they
were both dope" addicts.
Cousins they were, good family;
both Of them had nice mothers, and
one OF them had q proud and influ-
entail father living.
When met them, they were
crouching in a black hole they called
O room. climbed three pairs Of
slin1y stairs to get to them.
There wasn't a stick of furniture
In the room except a tumble-down
chair and a hideous mattress lying
on the bare floor.
They'd sold everything for dope"
and they were not ready yet to
way that was the only thing left to
them.
SeafhstresS Taught Them.
They learned to dope" from a lit.
tie seamstress who was making the
wedding clothes for another cousin.
They started it just for fun and it
got them-just as dope always
does get them"
In
with them when they began to
change and alter slowly, surely
surely.
They were afraid to be found out,
30 they ran away to Chicago to hide
They wrote home that they were in
the Art Institute, helping in some
of the sutdios-poor things, I hope
NO one from home has ever found
out the truth about them.
One Of them showed me q picture
Of the brides brand new baby-the
bride had managed to escape some.
how.
How hard she tried not to cry
when we looked at the picture Poor.
pale, trembling little Bonnie EIoise,"
that's what they called her at home,
che said, because here eyes were 80
blue.
Recruited Frem Country.
While we talked together in the
fetid cave they called a room, we
could hear the lake outside fretting
and pounding on the pebbly beach.
It sounded so clean and 80 kind
some way, 1 wondered if Bonnie
Eloise never heard it when the night
was dark and her heart and brain
were full Of the agony of her degra.
dation.
wondered il she never thought
how clean and cool and quiet it
would be at the bottom of the lake
poor girl.
And she and her cousin are only
two OF the great army of dope" vic.
Tins recruited from the clean, quiet
country towns Of the United States
Of America.
Out in Seattle a few months ago
they brought fourteen girls into the
police court-everyone Of them a
dope" addict.
Everyone of them under seven.
teen, and every one of them, up to
that time, was the respectable daugh-
ter OF a respectable farmer.
Crawling With dope"
The mining towns of upper Michi.
gan are crawling with dope" We
9aunee and Ishpeming. two twin
villages set in q wonderland Of green
forests and blue lakes. Strange
stories they can tell you Of these
placeS-the Ftderal narcotic officers
The California small towns are