The Washington times., 1923-01-27
DANGER. Of
HABIT IS
CITED
Continued from First Page.)

oriental smell or opium.
And 1t was the same in the gold
''diggin's."
Under the towering pines and be-
side the clear brown waters Of the
high Sierras the yellow men made
their vagrant camps, and always
when the days work was over the
perfume of the wild azalias and the
fragrance of the aromatic pines was
min led with the exotic smell of
the smoke rising from the dream
pine" of the Chinese.
And white boys brought to these
alien camps by a boys curiosity
learned the fearful fascination Of
the opium pipe.
The Chinese brought to America
not only their industry and their
patience and their sterling honesty
but the love and lure OF opium.
Only q few years ago I said to
the chief of police of San Francisco:
!. Whats become OF all the hood
1ums? There used to be such a
lot of them, they say. We never
hear of them any more?"
And the chief of police, man Of
Drawn and muscle. with a pair of
blue eyes that told the story Of his
birth and lineage palmer than any
EGa0UtOSyp lGdMEu QkICA All
put his head in the attitude Of one
; who grows drewsy, stretched out an
imaginary pipe, took q deep breath
of seeming lethargy, and watched
with his blue eyes half closed a
phantom wreath Of smoke.
Hollow-Eyed Wrecks. 4,
'sEop.' he said. 1--WE haven't had
any trouble with the hoodlums since
they got the hop habit from the
chinks."
And IN and out of Chinatown we
went. the chief and I, climbing the
steep hills and treading our way
through evil alleys. and there we
saw in the underground dens of
Chinatown the hoodlums of "yes,
OF opium to pasty-faced, hollow
eyed wrecks who cared for nothing,
wished for nothing, hoped for
nothing, remembered nothing-but
opium and the grisly enchantment
OF it.
: That day. too, is gone.
Even the young Chinese do not
shit the pipe" any more.
They have found q quicker,
easier. simpler way.
Morphine and the hypodermic
needle have taken the place Of the
opium layout.
This change began-not in Amer
Tea, but in China.
Morphine Draining Manhood.
When the Chinese made their
desperate and courageous fight to
throw off the chains of opium and
burned the opium layouts along
with the opium in the public
squares, the drug ring deliberately
and Systematically introduced the
new vice of morphine and the
needle to take the place Of opium
and the pipe.
And now that China has gone
back in despair to the traffic she
tried SO hard to kill, IL is morphine
and the morphine needle that is
draining the manhood and the
power of China today.
In our own slums. whether up.
town or downtown. whether the
itch slums or the poor slums, IL
you will look carefully enough you
will find the blackened spoon in
which the morphine is dissolved,
and perhaps a hypodermic needle
Many addicts don't bother with
the needle at all.
It costs dollar and a half to get
a good hypodermic-in most States
1t is against the law TO carry one
without a permit-and plain,
everyday safety pin and a fivc-cent
medicine dropper is quicker and
cheaper.
Morphine dulls' the brain and
tears down the body.
Morphine will take a healthy,
vigorous boy and make a trem-
bling, weeping. sodden wreck of
him in six months.
' Lie and Steal and Rob.
Morphine addicts are not dan
gerous to others-as long as they
can get their drug.
But a "hop-head" who needs his
hop will lie and steal and rob to
get the money to feed his craving.
A morphine addict is a coward
and liar and thief.
He will not work, he cannot
think, he forgets all conscience and
cuts with cold, relentless hand
every tie that ever bound him to
any human obligation.
He will corrupt others with his
habit-he will promise and break
his promises. He will beg, cajcle.
and threaten anybody, anywhere to
BGl JOit
He will betray his best friend,
sell his wife to the streets, re-
duce his children to beggary. and
put his own mother in the aims
house-and never blink an eye
Ii st,~-not if he can get his drug.
Iae his morphine away from
ht'zi and he goes through an agony
~ suffering which is absolutely
without an equal in the whole do
na'r of human pain.
5i9t the morphine addict does not
IS rule commit murder.
RE AZ too much of a coward for
that.
1t is the coke fiend' who does
the killing.
Cocaine is made from the leaves
of the coca plant, which grows in
South and Central America.
One time In Guatemala l heard
strange and vibrant cry which
called me to the window. looked
out and saw an Indian with the
bloated carcass of q goat strapped
to his back.
Aqua" he cried, Aqua"
He was a runner who had come
down from the mountains with the
great skin full of fresh mountain
water.
"He has come twenty miles to-
day" said the friend with me. who
knew the country. "He will go
back again tonight"
"Afoot? How does he managed?"
1T is some leaf he chews,'' said