1. MOST DEVILISH INTOXICATION.--What is the most devilish, subtle
alluring, unconquerable, hopeless and deadly form of intoxication,
with which science struggles and to which it often succumbs; which
eludes the restrictive grasp of legislation; lurks behind lace
curtains, hides in luxurious boudoirs, haunts the solitude of the
study, and with waxen face, furtive eyes and palsied step totters to
the secret recesses of its self-indulgence? It is the drunkenness
of drugs, and woe be unto him that crosseth the threshold of its
dream-curtained portal, for though gifted with the strength of Samson,
the courage of Richard and the genius of Archimedes, he shall never
return, and of him it is written that forever he leaves hope behind.
2. THE MATERIAL SATAN.--The material Satan in this sensuous syndicate
of soul and body-destroying drugs is opium, and next in order of
hellish potency come cocaine and chloral.
3. GUM OPIUM.--Gum opium, from which the sulphate of morphine is made,
is the dried juice of the poppy, and is obtained principally in the
orient. Taken in moderate doses it acts specially upon the nervous
system, deadens sensibility, and the mind becomes inactive. When used
habitually and excessively it becomes a tonic, which stimulates the
whole nervous system, producing intense mental exaltation and delusive
visions. When the effects wear off, proportionate lassitude follows,
which begets an insatiate and insane craving for the drug. Under the
repeated strain of the continually increasing doses, which have to be
taken to renew the desired effect, the nervous system finally becomes
exhausted, and mind and body are utterly and hopelessly wrecked.
4. COCAINE.--Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the Peruvian
cocoa tree, and exerts a decided influence upon the nervous system,
somewhat akin to that of coffee. It increases the heart action and
is said to be such an exhilarant that the natives of the Andes are
enabled to make extra-ordinary forced marches by chewing the leaves
containing it. Its after effects are more depressing even than those
of opium, and insanity more frequently results from its use.
5. CHLORAL.--The name which is derived from the first two syllables
of chlorine and alcohol, is made by passing dry chlorine gas in a
continuous stream through absolute alcohol for six or eight weeks. It
is a hypnotic or sleep-producing drug, and in moderate doses acts on
the caliber of the blood vessels of the brain, producing a soothing
effect, especially in cases of passive congestion. Some patent
medicines contain chloral, bromide and hyoseamus, and they have a
large sale, being bought by persons of wealth, who do not know what
they are composed of and recklessly take them for the effect they
produce.
6. VICTIMS RAPIDLY INCREASING.--"From my experience," said a leading
and conservative druggist, "I infer that the number of what are termed
opium, cocaine, and chloral "fiends" is rapidly increasing, and is
greater by two or three hundred percent than a year ago, with twice
as many women as men represented. I should say that one person out
of every fifty is a victim of this frightful habit, which claims its
doomed votaries from the extremes of social life, those who have the
most and the least to live for, the upper classes and the cyprian,
professional men of the finest intelligence, fifty per cent. of whom
are doctors and walk into the pit with eyes wide open. And lawyers and
other professional men must be added to this fated vice."
7. DESTROYS THE MORAL FIBER.--"It is a habit which utterly destroys
the moral fiber of its slaves, and makes unmitigated liars and thieves
and forgers of them, and even murder might be added to the list of
crimes, were no other road left open to the gratification of its
insatiate and insane appetite. I do not know of a single case in which
it has been mastered, but I do know of many where the end has been
unspeakable misery, disgrace, suffering, insanity and death."
8. SHAMEFUL DEATH.--To particularize further would be profitless so
far as the beginners are concerned, but would to heaven that those not
within the shadow of this shameful death would take warning from those
who are. There are no social or periodical drunkards in this sort
of intoxication. The vice is not only solitary, unsocial and utterly
selfish, but incessant and increasing in its demands.
9. APPETITE STRONGER THAN FOR LIQUOR.--This appetite is far stronger
and more uncontrollable than that for liquor, and we can spot its
victim as readily as though he were an ordinary bummer. He has a
pallid complexion, a shifting, shuffling manner and can't look you
in the face. If you manage to catch his eye for an instant you will
observe that its pupil is contracted to an almost invisible point. It
is no exaggeration to say that he would barter his very soul for that
which indulgence has made him too poor to purchase, and where artifice
fails he will grovel in abject agony of supplication for a few grains.
At the same time he resorts to all kinds of miserable and transparent
shifts, to conceal his degradation. He never buys for himself, but
always for some fictitious person, and often resorts to purchasing
from distant points.
10. OPIUM SMOKING.--"Opium smoking," said another representative
druggist, "is almost entirely confined to the Chinese and they seem to
thrive on it. Very few others hit the pipe that we know of."
11. MALT AND ALCOHOLIC DRUNKENNESS.--Alcoholic stimulants have a
record of woe second to nothing. Its victims are annually marching
to drunkards' graves by the thousands. Drunkards may be divided into
three classes: First, the accidental or social drunkard; second, the
periodical or spasmodic drunkard; and third, the sot.
12. THE ACCIDENTAL OR SOCIAL DRUNKARD is yet on safe ground. He has
not acquired the dangerous craving for liquor. It is only on special
occasions that he yields to excessive indulgence; sometimes in meeting
a friend, or at some political blow-out. On extreme occasions he will
indulge until he becomes a helpless victim, and usually as he grows
older occasions will increase, and step by step he will be lead nearer
to the precipice of ruin.
13. THE PERIODICAL OR SPASMODIC DRUNKARD, with whom it is always
the unexpected which occurs, and who at intervals exacts from his
accumulated capital the usury of as prolonged a spree as his nerves
and stomach will stand. Science is inclined to charitably label this
specimen of man a sort of a physiologic puzzle, to be as much pitied
as blamed. Given the benefit of every doubt, when he starts off on one
of his hilarious tangents, he becomes a howling nuisance; if he has a
family, keeps them continually on the ragged edge of apprehension, and
is unanimously pronounced a "holy terror" by his friends. His life and
future is an uncertainty. He is unreliable and cannot be long trusted.
Total reformation is the only hope, but it rarely is accomplished.
14. THE SOT.--A blunt term that needs no defining, for even the
children comprehend the hopeless degradation it implies. Laws to
restrain and punish him are framed; societies to protect and reform
him are organized, and mostly in vain. He is prone in life's very
gutter; bloated, reeking and polluted with the doggery's slops and
filth. He can fall but a few feet lower, and not until he stumbles
into an unmarked, unhonored grave, where kind mother earth and the
merciful mantle of oblivion will cover and conceal the awful wreck he
made of God's own image. To the casual observer, the large majority of
the community, these three phases, at whose vagaries many laugh, and
over whose consequences millions mourn, comprehend intoxication and
its results, from the filling of the cup to its shattering fall from
the nerveless hand, and this is the end of the matter. Would to God
that it were! for at that it would be bad enough. But it is not, for
wife, children and friends must suffer and drink the cup of trouble
and sorrow to its dregs.
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