The Washington times., 1925-09-01
FORMER BEAUTY
KEPT ALIVE
BY DOPE
.TheIma Lee, OF Old Eo1..cn
Family, Now Living in
Squalor
BY international News Service

JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Sept. /.
-"Oueen of the Midnight Sum-"
/, she once was called, but now she
lives in a dark, dingy little room
In one of the lack alleys of this
CITY, a subject of charity, and
curses the drug that has dragged
her from the heights of romance
and popularity into the depths CT
disgrace and pity.
Thelma Lee is her name, de-
scendant of one of the old aristo-
cratic families of Boston, Forty
one years as a drug addict has
made her one of the most pittul
subjects of charity in all FlolIda-
Physicians Know Her
All physicians here know Thelma.
An Of them befriend and pity ner.
They have done all within their
mower to cure her, but fourteen
unsuccessful efforts have discour-
aged them. Thelma now has the
certificates of several physicians
stating that she would not live
longer than a few hours We're 1t
not for the drugs with which she
continues to saturate her body. In
two years she dwindled from lo5.
pounds to 80 pounds.
The city health officer gives
Thelma several grains Of morphine
a day, enough, physicians say, to
kill one who is not accustomed to
using drugs. She said that she had
taken as much as sixty grains or
morbhine and sixty grains OF CO.
caine in a single day. when dope
could be bought on the streets OF
New York like molasses candy"
Was High Stopper
Thelma related colorful tale OF
life and what it has held for her.
at have been q high stopper in
my lffe," she said 81 have worn
the best OF clothes and diamonds. I
have seen the world and know its
entertainments. its joys and its sor-
rows.
s.I was born in Boston in 1870.
I ran away from home at the age
Of fourteen. because my father mis-
treated me and wouldn't allow me
any pleasures. He wouldn't even
have a piano in the house. He said
a washboard was all the piano
needed.
Met Crooked Doctor
s.At the outset of my worldly
crooked doctor. I stayed at this
doctors house for three DAYS and
nights. He urged me to take NOR
phine. He said it would make me
feel fine and beautiful. I did take
II. We both took it together.
was crazy. It was a new world,
a new adventure for me.
Finally, my mother discovered
me and got me out OF his clutches,
but not until he had started me
on the road to using drugs. The
doctor died three days later from
an overdose.
'Soon after I became a show
girl. I was a toe dancer. I APP
peared in the Crystal Slipper,
Over the Garden WaH,s Around
the World in Eighty Days, and
was captain of the cadets in Duff's
was "Thelma Delmore.'
ct frequented all of the high
class cabarets. ] was beautiful in
those days. They called me
Queen Of the Midnight Sum-"
Thelma is fifty-five now. but she
still maintains those delicate fea-
lures, and that pleasant smile and
disposition which bespeak a past of
beauty and popularity. She hasn't
a gray hair in her head. She still
uses cosmetics and smokes cigar
cites.
In 1918, Thelma developed a dis
located spine, caused partly by
tuberculosis and partly by sleep
Ing in chairs. She was afraid to
go to bed for fear she would die.
Welded Chinaman
The1ma came to Jacksonville
about twenty years ago. Her mother
was in dire circumstances and he=
father was seriously i'll. She need
ed money. She wanted money to
give her mother, so she married
a Chinaman. Charles Lee, of this
city. who, she said, gave her $500
cash to send to her mother.
Charles Lee was a gambler in
those days, she said He made
plenty Of money and gave her
plenty TO spend. Her extravagances
in Jacksonville at that time can be
recalled by numerous people now
prominent in the social life Of the
city.
Thelma did not like Lee, how
ever. and he left her about two
years ago and she hasn't heard
from him since. Her relatives,
whom she delighted to talk abou:,
never knew that she married a
Chinaman. she said. She insisted
she wouldn't have married him had
she not needed money badly at that
time and had he not been dope
fisnd and supplied her with plenty
Of opium and other drugs.
When asked what she thought of
the fight the Government is making
to stamp out drugs, The1ma sad
she thought it was one of the
greatest services ever rendered nu-