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DOCTOR JUDAS 
 
 A PORTRAYAL OF 
 
 HE OPIUM HABIT 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ROSSER COBBE 
 
 Opium is tJie Judas of drugs; it kisses and then betrays 
 
 Quceque ipse ntiserritna vidi 
 Et quorum pars magna fui 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 
 
 1895 
 
DOCTOR JUDAS 
 
 A PORTRAYAL OF 
 
 THE OPIUM HABIT 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ROSSER COBBE 
 
 opium is tlie Judas of drugs ; it kisses and then betrays 
 
 Quaque ipse miserrima vidi 
 Bt quorum pars magna fui 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 
 
 1895 
 
 <k 
 
Copyright, 1895 
 By S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 
 
 K. K. DONNELLEY & SONS CO., CHICAGO 
 
TO MY WIFE, 
 
 WHO, INNOCENT, SUFFERED MOST FOR MY TRANSGRESSIONS, 
 
 AND IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION 
 
 OF HER GENTLENESS, FORBEARANCE AND LOVE 
 
 THROUGHOUT THE LONG NIGHT OF OPIUM SLAVERY, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 In Vinculis Tyranni, 17 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 The Master's Iron Rule, 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Links of Lying and Deceit, 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Whimsies Rule the Slave, 56 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Fears Encompass Him, 68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Loquacity and Obstructed Memory, 80 
 
 ■ CHAPTER VII. 
 Impairment of Memory, 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 Pleasures of Slavery, - 97 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The English Opium Eater, 108 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Slave of the Pipe, 124 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Slave of Many Masters, - 134 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Drug Before Anything, iS5 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 How THE Tyrant Enslaves, i68 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Assaults upon the Body, 179 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 How the Drug Works, igS 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Voices of the Air, 207 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Double and Distorted Vision, 218 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Laudanum Phantasmagoria, 227 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Sleep, Insomnia and Semi -cerebration, 238 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Dreams of the Night, 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Fantastic and Horrific Dreams, - 263 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 A Wonderful Battle Scene, 274 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Vision of Judgment, 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Sympathy for the Slave, 296 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 The Chains are Broken, 309 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "What the gods impose upon us," says Eurip- 
 ides, "we must bear with patience." The un- 
 happy opium eater, alas, has no such consolation 
 as that intimated by the great poet and philoso- 
 pher of the Greeks. Could the victim of the in- 
 satiate drug but feel that the infliction was part of 
 the divine harmony, he might learn to submit to 
 a ministration, the justice of which is to him 
 past cognition. He does understand perfectly 
 that it is not a punishment from the gods, but, 
 rather, determining by effects and suggestions, a 
 device of the Spirit of Evil wherewith to torture 
 men before their time. Of all the ills that exist 
 the opium habit is most utterly barren of a 
 suggestion of consolation. The heavens are 
 closed to the prayers of the habitue for deliver- 
 ance, the charity of the world is denied him, and 
 the skill of the physician is diverted in other 
 directions. His faith is destroyed, his hope has 
 passed into infinite despair, and his love is tinc- 
 tured of the misery that comes of distrust. Will- 
 
 7 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 less, helpless, nerveless, and desolate, he is of all 
 creatures most unhappy. 
 
 Cured as by a miracle of the dreary and heart- 
 breaking habit, the woes and sorrows of those 
 j-et under bondage have borne upon my spirit 
 by da}- and by night. Searching the libraries 
 for literature bearing upon the addiction I 
 have been appalled at the absolute dearth of 
 reliable information concerning the effects of the 
 habit. The world cannot be greatly reprobated 
 for its want of sympathy for the sufferers, since 
 it has had no education upon the all-important 
 subject. Mine has been the misfortune to gain 
 all the needed facts (at a price so terrible the 
 blood runs cold at the very thought of what 
 perils I endured and those I escaped), and there 
 has been with me an ever present urgency to 
 relate in as intelligent a manner as possible the 
 agony of those years in which I suffered. 
 
 I make no pretense to special inspiration, be- 
 cause I may not understand the term properly, 
 just as the world fails to agree upon its meaning. 
 Still, I do say, that, if complete submission to 
 inner promptings that are irresistible be such, 
 then is every word contained in this book an 
 inspiration. Neither the fame of man nor his 
 wealth could have been any possible temptation 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 to pursue the painful task that has been under- 
 taken and now practically ended. There has 
 never come a thought of how the intelligence 
 would be received — what motives might be as- 
 cribed to me, or what the critics would say. " I 
 heard a voice saying unto me, write." The sense 
 of the obligation has overshadowed everything else. 
 This is unequivocally true — ray testimony 
 comes of intimate knowledge. The story is as 
 .^neas said to Dido, of "Scenes of misery which 
 I myself witnessed and in which I took a principal 
 part." The facts are as represented and can never 
 be successfully confuted. They must at some 
 time be accepted as truth by the scientific world, 
 because they are words of soberness, verified in 
 my life, as well as in that of many others who 
 suffered in all things as I suffered. It is not 
 for me to distress myself over the immediate 
 action of medical men and ' others concerning 
 the evidence. Truth is invincible when it asserts 
 itself. There has been a groping in the dark, 
 and it would be vain to hope that the shadows 
 will be banished in a trice. The good God orders 
 things well, and He can pierce any soul however 
 obdurate with the spear of infinite truth. Sub- 
 missively I wait His good time, and rest me in 
 the fact that according to my understanding I 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 have withheld nothing. A thousand facts I would 
 have gladly concealed, a hundred weaknesses I 
 preferred should not be made known ; but called 
 to the witness stand by that inexorable judge, 
 conscience, there was insistence, rigorous and in- 
 flexible, that the whole truth be told, and that 
 naught should be extenuated, just as nothing 
 should be set down in malice. Precisely as a 
 trusted, though once sorely tried memory, evoked 
 the shadows from out of the valley of opium night 
 they will be found in the pages of this book. 
 
 There could be no higher restraint placed upon 
 one outside of the sense of responsibility to God 
 than that which has bound me in the writing of 
 "Doctor Judas." There has been ever present the 
 knowledge that hundreds of dear friends (once 
 slaves of the drug but now free) would at once 
 promptly detect any errors or exaggerations in the 
 recital, and they would be sorely distressed if they 
 found that in any degree I was guilty of prevarica- 
 tion. Then, too, it must be said at the risk of being 
 charged with presumption, I have had the conscious- 
 ness that the testimony would go down to the chil- 
 dren of this generation and their children indefi- 
 nitely, so long as the poppy grows and man is 
 weak. Other books will be written upon this all- 
 important subject ; yet the facts herein related must 
 
PREFACE. II 
 
 be and abide because they are truth. Writing for 
 the living and for those yet to live, mindful of 
 the duty one owes to self and God, the sense of 
 profoundest responsibility has been ever present. 
 
 The work has been executed in a period of de- 
 cided professional activity and the exigencies of 
 the case have demanded greater expedition than 
 was desired. Under most favored conditions it 
 could scarcely have been hoped that all errors and 
 mistakes would be avoided ; under existing affairs 
 a claim to perfection would be absurd ; but the 
 insistence is as to the facts, the rationale of the habit, 
 the terrible effects, the blinding, absorbing, fright- 
 ful slavery, — all these are given with most faithful 
 exactitude. Where the critic would discover sug- 
 gestions of fancy or riot of words, let him reflect 
 that the Judas of drugs is mad in its diabolic revel- 
 ing with the brains of its slaves and that faithful 
 record demands a following of truth wherever it 
 may lead. 
 
 The pathology of the^ habit may clash with pre- 
 conceived ideas in certain quarters ; yet it must 
 stand because it is scientific truth. If accepted 
 science has not yet advanced so far, this is no fault 
 of the writer. This portion of the book is neces- 
 sarily brief, being confined chiefly to a single 
 chapter ; temptations to enter more fully into the 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 technical phases of the subject were successfully 
 resisted, because the story is that of an habitue, 
 designed for the general reader and not for scien- 
 tific students and scholars only. 
 
 Dreams constitute more than sixty per centum 
 of the life of the slave, for the reason that their 
 realism forces them into his waking moments and 
 makes infinitely more horrible the conjured shapes 
 of sentient hours. Consequently they have been 
 given prominence, and certain of them have been 
 minutely recorded, in order that some idea may be 
 conveyed of their grewsome nature. Terrible as 
 are those that are recorded and the others to 
 which reference only is made, it is here solemnly 
 declared that the worst has not been told, because 
 the world is not ready to accept the whole truth in 
 the matter. 
 
 What is written concerning De Quincey was 
 essential to a proper understanding of the subject. 
 He is dead, it is true, and it is a good and charita- 
 ble sentiment which urges that nothing be said of 
 the dead, except it be good. Yet the highest obli- 
 gation is to the living and those unborn. The evils 
 of the fascinating " Confessions of an English 
 Opium-Eater " have been beyond estimate and are 
 daily luring innocents to eternal ruin. With intense 
 admiration for the genius of the man and infinite 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 sympathy for his invincible weakness, the dutv was 
 laid upon me to puncture the inconsistencies and 
 misleading evidences of the author of the "Confes- 
 sions," and it has been done in a spirit of kindness 
 and charity. There may be an imputation of im- 
 pertinence upon me in assuming a criticism of the 
 corypheus of critics ; yet impertinence even may at 
 times become a sublime necessit}'. 
 
 There is danger, it is plainly foreseen, that the 
 utterances concerning physicians are likely to be 
 misconstrued by some members of the profession, 
 who will fail to appreciate the fact that one may 
 entertain a high admiration for a science that is far 
 from perfect, as well as for a body of professional 
 men which may have some derelict members. 
 Medical science is by no means as yet exact, and 
 medical practice is not free from mistakes. Such 
 views as these do not constitute disloyalty to the 
 healing art nor prove want of confidence in practi- 
 tioners. Because I have suffered I speak, and be- 
 cause of positive knowledge I warn physicians to 
 exercise greater caution in the use of opium. 
 
 A word here as to the title of this volume : It 
 will be seen in a subsequent chapter that when 
 a child I was fed with opium cordials to quiet 
 my infantile cries. The drug in this way took 
 the place of the family physician, and this associa- 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 tion, with the subsequent bitter experience with 
 this most treacherous of all remedial agents, led 
 me to give it a personality ; hence the name and 
 the title, " Doctor Judas." 
 
 Broadened investigation since the cure has 
 demonstrated a fearful increase in this and other 
 enslaving habits. There are thousands of books 
 on drunkenness and thousands of public speakers 
 who warn against the evils of strong drink. Silence 
 profound exists as to the opium habit, the victims 
 of which are chiefly people of intelligence and 
 merit who deserve deliverance. Men rush on their 
 fate ignorantly and without warning. The province 
 of this book is to tell the world that there is no 
 palace of opium full of delectation. The way leads 
 down to hell, and the path is filled with horrors 
 whose shapes are so fearful human pen cannot ade- 
 quately portray them. 
 
 Eighteen months have passed since narcotic, 
 stimulant, or medicine of any kind has entered my 
 system. In all this time there has been neither 
 desire nor 'need for any of these things. The 
 former things of an enslaved existence have passed 
 utterly away in the light of a completely restored 
 manhood, which dares undertake any duty what- 
 ever its magnitude. Those yet in slavery may be 
 in all things as I ; this is so positively true that I 
 
PREFACE. IS 
 
 swear it as in the presence of a God who does not 
 pardon perjury. Those who have not yet experi- 
 enced the agony should know that where one has 
 been delivered a million have died in chains, and 
 
 herewith be warned. 
 
 The Author. 
 Chicago, III., 
 January, 1895. 
 
DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN VINCULIS TYRANNI. 
 
 A sense of fancied bliss and heart-felt care, 
 Closing at last in darkness and despair. 
 
 Co WPER — Hope. 
 
 Inexorable dut}-, and that alone, has urged the 
 writer to the painful task of recording the terrible 
 story of a nine years' slaver)^ to opium. Nothing 
 can be farther from his mind than a purpose to 
 crave sympathy ; for he, like Bunyan's Christian, 
 has had his load removed ; the memory of it alone 
 remains, and this no amount of pity can efface. 
 The all-pervading law of compensation cannot be 
 evaded by any creature of God, and my sins find 
 their constant punishment in the remembrance of 
 them. This record of sorrow is made that others 
 may escape the great transgression, and that those 
 now in the valley of the sombre shadows may find 
 courage of hope in the wonderful deliverance of 
 him who writes. 
 
 I was born of parents whose natures were highly 
 sensitive, both being subject to melancholy and to 
 periodic attacks of excessive nervousness. My 
 
 3 17 
 
i8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 father was upwards of fifty at m)^ birth, and he was 
 born when his father was more than three-score and 
 a drunkard ; my mother owed her being to an old 
 man of seventy. While freely- admitting the merit 
 of the argument for the resistant properties of bod- 
 ily cells to toxic drugs, where the habit has been 
 confirmed for one generation or more, still, it is 
 none the less true that old men afflicted with ner- 
 vous disorders, whether superinduced by alcoholism 
 or the result of natural infirmity, cannot be fathers 
 of children who will be indifferent to nerve exci- 
 tants. Physical diseases may not be hereditary, but 
 it is an inflexible law that the weak cannot give 
 forth strength. If the fathers have eaten the sour 
 grapes of senility, the children that come at such 
 period must have their teeth set on edge. Out from 
 the thunder and cloud of Sinai burst the prophetic 
 curse of innocents because of the sins of their sires. 
 No physicist dares to deny that the denunciation 
 includes mental and nervous, as well as moral dis- 
 orders. 
 
 Nothing is more sure than that from the womb 
 I was heir to physical weakness, my earliest recollec- 
 tion revealing a peculiar sensitiveness to pain, ner- 
 vous disorder, upon slight provocation, and a ten- 
 dency to non-assimilation of food. This was up- 
 wards of forty years ago, when physicians did not, 
 as now, urge h3'gienic prevention of disease, but, 
 rather, made medicines the highest court of appeal, 
 as well as the lowest trial place, in all cases. Un- 
 happily, too, in those days the dicta of physicians 
 
IX VLXCULIS TYRANNI. 19 
 
 were deemed infallible, and they not only gave med- 
 icine for every ailment, small or great, but they 
 also prescribed it in heroic doses. When but eight 
 years old I was given fifteen grains of calomel at a 
 single dose for the warding off of a hypothetical 
 malarial attack, and ten hours later was coerced 
 into swallowing twenty grains of quinine. "Sooth- 
 ing" remedies for children were in universal use by 
 mothers as well as physicians; nearly all these pre- 
 parations then, as now, having opium as their basic 
 principle. Thus from infancj- up I was fed upon 
 paregoric, Bateman's drops, Godfrey's cordial, or 
 laudanum, whenever lamentations from any cause 
 evoked the spectre of impossible disease. Natur- 
 ally, as time passed, these pernicious decoctions 
 were gradually discarded, but there can be no ques- 
 tioning of the insistence that the persistent use of 
 them in earl}' childhood gave to the physical cells 
 an appetite which they never lost. The readiness 
 with which the mature man of thirty-eight suc- 
 cumbed to opium was undoubtedly due to this early 
 habitude and hereditary environment. 
 
 Ungrateful and untruthful indeed would be a 
 single reproach cast upon the authors of my being, 
 who in all matters relating to the care and education 
 of their children, as well as in all the relations and 
 duties of life, were guided by the brightest light of 
 gentle and affectionate Christian conscientiousness. 
 They but practiced the lesson taught by their teach- 
 ers, the physicians of their time, in whom they had 
 implicit faith and confidence. Herein they differed 
 
20 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 greatly from millions of parents of this generation, 
 who persist in giving opiates to their children, in 
 reckless indifference to the protest of enlightened 
 modern practitioners. 
 
 A detailed history of my life, eventful as it has 
 been, would not be pertinent to the purpose of this 
 writing, which is to reveal the danger of the poppy 
 gum, even when restricted to the prescription of the 
 physician, and the infinite despair of opium slaver}-, 
 from which so few mortals have been emancipated. 
 Only such portions, then, will be given as may have 
 bearing upon the addiction which so nearly ended 
 in utter destruction. 
 
 At the age of fourteen the sound of guns turned 
 against Fort Sumter proclaimed the civil war and 
 throughout the entire four years of contention 1 was 
 in almost daily peril ; this at a period of life when 
 there was the greatest need for the quiet and pro- 
 tection of home. A nervous, easily irritated, and 
 physically weak lad does not improve his condition 
 by being thrust into adventures that challenge best 
 intelligence to emerge from without fatal disaster. 
 Mental strains protracted through weeks, incarcera- 
 tion in military prisons, pursued by the enemy and 
 forced to dwell among wild beasts in the jungles are 
 not conducive to the healthy development of ado- 
 lescence ; yet these and many additional perils were 
 endured before the age of eighteen. In view of 
 such an experience, it need not surprise anv that at 
 this time I was attenuated in body and confirmed in 
 bodily ills. Thenceforward nervous unrest con- 
 
IN VINCULIS TYRANNI. 21 
 
 stantly called for change and my lot was cast in 
 many places during the next twenty-five years. 
 
 Immediatel)^ following the war two years were 
 spent in a counting room, where the responsibilities 
 were grave, especially for one so young; in addi- 
 tion, studies that had been too frequently inter- 
 rupted during the war were renewed with nervous 
 ardor. Again and again, after unremitting labors in 
 business during the day, would the entire night be 
 passed among text-books ; it was rare that four 
 hours of the twenty-four were spent in bed. At 
 the end of the first year of this life an irresistible 
 resolve came to enter the Christian ministry ; a step 
 that was foolishly improper and one that led to 
 infinite after disquietude and wretchedness. Such 
 an impulse could have come, under the conditions 
 that existed, only of a mind that was distraught 
 through unhealthy speculation upon the deep and 
 unfathomable things pertaining to the infinite here- 
 after. Far back in childhood there was displayed a 
 remarkable precocity in matters relating to Christian 
 duty, religious dogma, and reflections upon the 
 Divine character. Before the age of six I seriously 
 inquired concerning the beginning of God, a subject 
 that Hindoo philosophy declares to be too profound 
 for the sanity of mature minds. Favorite authors a 
 year later, the seventh of existence, were Paradise 
 Lost, Pilgrim's Progress, Dr. Dick's Works, Young's 
 Night Thoughts. Pollok's Course of Time, lives of 
 saints and modern prelates, with divers other books 
 along the same lines. Had the unhealthy child 
 
22 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 been less reflective and more confiding, intelligent 
 parents would have diverted the mind from such 
 injudicious reading. The mischief grew unchecked, 
 until, at the age of seventeen, there was ill-defined 
 skepticism, which excited great alarm ; because, 
 brought up in the orthodox faith, doubting could 
 not remove the threats and promises of the Script- 
 ures. The mental struggle continued, until, in 
 despair of other solution of the vexed problem, the 
 determination was reached to enter the ministry, 
 under the delusion that doubts dare not penetrate 
 the holy of holies of a temple dedicated to the ser- 
 vice of the Infinite Good. 
 
 Looking backward through nearly thirty years, 
 no excuse can be found for such a proceeding. The 
 pious and eminent man who instructed me in spir- 
 itual truth loved me as a son in the flesh ; a single 
 word would have caused him to check this wayward 
 movement of immature and inconsiderate youth. 
 Pride, which has been the evil genius of a checkered 
 life, urged to silence and precipitate study ; so that, 
 eighteen months later, the bookkeeper and account- 
 ant was a clergyman. 
 
 Nothing could have been more ideally delight- 
 ful, exteriorly, than a pastorate which covered but a 
 single year. Assigned to a circuit in one of the 
 wealthy and aristocratic counties of the Old Domin- 
 ion, as assistant to a minister of distinguished 
 goodness, my home was in his happy family. The 
 infinite charm of that domestic hearth remains in 
 quickened and precious memory, which tells with 
 
IN VINCULIS TYRANNI. 23 
 
 affection and gratitude of the disinterested kind- 
 ness and ineffable sympathy of that righteous man, 
 now resting on the bosom of Christ, and of his 
 saintly wife, and beautiful and intellectual daughters. 
 The two sons, also, became closely bound in 
 warmest brotherly affection. Theirs was a Chris- 
 tian home that presented the sublimest form of liv- 
 ing ; a home where discord never entered, but the 
 great law of life was the law of gentle love. Beneath 
 such a roof doubts and fears should have been 
 dispelled like mists before the bright, rising sun. 
 
 I made many warm friends, because I worked dili- 
 gently, honestly seeking to do the right. The 
 people everywhere were kind and considerate, being 
 ready at all times to overlook callowness and accept 
 immature utterances for words of intended wisdom. 
 The country was strikingly picturesque, the air 
 delightful, even in midwinter, and horseback rides 
 were made daily, covering wide stretches of romantic 
 country. Still, neither the solace of a peaceful and 
 happy home, nor the charm of wood and field could 
 bring rest to a spirit that brooded constantly over 
 the unknowable. 
 
 While oppressed with doubts and fears an ap- 
 pointment as chaplain in the United States navy, 
 unsolicited and unexpected, turned thought and 
 action in an entirely different direction. After a 
 year of " waiting orders " at home I was assigned 
 to duty at the Gosport (Virginia) Navy Yard ; but 
 precarrous health demanding a change I was soon 
 transferred to the " Severn," flagship of the North 
 
24 
 
 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 Atlantic squadron, joining her at Key West, Florida. 
 The serious illness of m}- wife, for I had married 
 the previous year, necessitated a return home. 
 Early in June, 1871, orders were received for duty 
 at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis ; 
 thence I accompanied the midshipmen upon their 
 cruise in northern waters, as chaplain of the old ship 
 " Constellation." During the first month or two 
 after the return to the Academy I was acting chap- 
 Iain of the institution, preaching to the expressed 
 satisfaction of officers and cadets, but to my own 
 infinite misery. Great was the relief, consequently, 
 when the clerical duties came to an end and I was 
 made an instructor in the department of ethics and 
 English studies. Such a life as that now led should 
 have brought contentment, peace, and happiness ; 
 because I was on the best of terms with the faculty and 
 students, 'the salary was ample for modest wants, 
 and the position one for life ; while domestic rela- 
 tions were all that could be desired, a baby having 
 come to strengthen marital love. Nevertheless unrest 
 continued, and health finally giving away I was 
 detached at my request in November, 1872. In the 
 following January I was ordered to the Mare Island 
 (California) Navy Yard. The climate of the Pacific 
 coast was found to be most hurtful ; returning east 
 I resigned the commission as a naval officer, because 
 of an abiding belief that there was moral culpability 
 in discharging the duties of a clergyman when 
 fitness was lacking for that work. Credentials as a 
 minister were not surrendered until a year or more 
 
IN VINCULIS TYRANNI. 25 
 
 had passed, because of a desire to spare the feelings 
 of a devoted mother, whose heart was set upon the 
 continuance of her son in that sacred office. 
 
 Retirement from the navy was almost immedi- 
 ately followed by service in the internal revenue 
 department, the duties being discharged in one of 
 the Southern States, during which time active 
 literary work was begun and has continued to the 
 present hour. Concerning the subsequent six years, 
 at the end of which came the fastening of the 
 gyves of opium, but little need be said. This was 
 a period of greatest possible intellectual activity, 
 there being the duty of conducting a daily paper in 
 a small city. This involved the writing of every 
 editorial, all of the miscellany and much of the 
 local copy ; managing the entire business depart- 
 ment; giving personal care to the mechanical 
 work (there being a job printing and book bindery 
 department). Besides the daily a weekly edition 
 was issued, while two monthlies were published 
 under contract. Added to these duties were local 
 party [leadership and active participation in local 
 public improvements, to say nothing of compre- 
 hensive reading and study or of voluminous writ- 
 ings upon a wide range of subjects. A frame that 
 had never been strong was at last crushed by these 
 superimposed burdens, and physical and mental 
 disaster followed. 
 
 What was needed at this time was a long rest 
 from labor of all kind. There was superlative 
 nervousness with great irritability and most dis- 
 
26 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 tressing insomnia. Any excitant, and opium is a 
 powerful disturber of the nerves, was a menace to 
 life, which was then on a tension that stretched its 
 limitations to the utmost. 
 
 There had been ever present since childhood a 
 consuming desire for stimulants, which self-respect 
 and exercise of the will kept under control. Not- 
 withstanding these facts and this condition, advant- 
 age was taken of an illness to saturate the system 
 with the hell drug, morphine, and when conscious- 
 ness returned the mastery of the tyrant was com- 
 plete. The curse had been fixed, and weak, help- 
 less, and crushed, I was bound like Prometheus, 
 while the vultures of despair tore at my vitals. 
 
 This book is in no sense an apology for the 
 frightful addiction, yet the confessions are value- 
 less, except they be veracious and entirely candid. 
 It is simple truth that no more responsibility at- 
 taches to me for my opium slavery than to the 
 babe which contracts diphtheria through the igno- 
 rance or heedlessness of its mother. From the 
 hour the horrible fact was revealed until the final 
 deliverance, there was a persistent endeavor to 
 break the chains and escape from the gloomy dun- 
 geon. Alas! I was as powerless as Laocoon in the 
 coils of the writhing serpents. 
 
 Now, emerged from the gloomy prison house 
 and competent to testify concerning the habit, in 
 behalf of the innumerable hosts that are bound 
 hand and foot, it is meet, right, and a bounden 
 
IN VINCULIS TYRANNI. 27 
 
 duty to declare that the opium " fiend " merits the 
 profoundest sympathy of every heart that has been 
 touched by a single woe. The first work of the 
 Judas drug is to double-lock the prison door of the 
 will, so that successful struggle against the demo- 
 niac possession is impossible. During the subjec- 
 tion I fought nine times three hundred and sixty- 
 five days against the diabolic master. Again and 
 again the adversary seemed to be nearly overcome, 
 the daily quantity having been reduced to a mini- 
 mum, while in one titanic contest there was com- 
 plete victory for five days ; not one drop having 
 entered the mouth in that time. At the end of 
 these one hundred and twenty hours I was in a 
 most deplorable condition. The entire surface of 
 the body was pricked by invisible peedles. If one 
 who has felt the painful sensation of a single one 
 will multiply that by ten million, he may dimly 
 grasp the intensity of that form of suffering. All 
 the muscles of the body wQre relaxed ; there were 
 copious watery discharges from mouth, nose, and 
 eyes ; the fingers seemed to be falling away from 
 the hands, the hands from the wrists, and the knees 
 smote together in an agony. Every joint of the 
 body was racked with consuming fire, while inter- 
 mittently from every skin-pore there issued a del- 
 uge of sweat, which speedily, dried and left the skin 
 like parchment. Above all, the soul was oppressed 
 with disquietude, the heart fluttered like a wounded 
 bird, and the brain faltered from irresolution. Thus 
 
28 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 tortured by bodil}' inquisitorial demons, crazed by 
 wild darting nerves, and devoured by apprehen- 
 sion of shapeless death, I held out my hand and, 
 placing the poisoned chalice to the crackling lips, 
 soon subsided into physical quiet and mental 
 torpor. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 
 
 What pale distress afflicts those wretched isles. 
 There hope never dawns, and pleasure never smiles. 
 Falconer — Shipwreck. 
 
 No STARS were visible in the long night of the 
 opium habit. The face of the moon was hidden and 
 there were no sweet influences of Pleiades to bind 
 the spirit. Visitors in Mammoth Cave, who stand 
 by the black and silent waters of Echo River, can 
 extinguish their lights, and, in the mighty shadows 
 of a darkness that may be felt, hear the heart-beats 
 of their companions. Infinite as the physical gloom 
 of this cavern and awfully silent as its depths is the 
 night of the soul in thrall to opium. The way 
 leads along the edge of yawning chasms, and 
 gnomes and goblins infest every path. It is time 
 that the beauteous garb which distorted fancy has 
 thrown around the Jezebel drug be torn off, and 
 the hideous, painted hag be revealed in all her 
 hateful deformity. 
 
 It is not denied that, as a rule, beatific visions 
 appear to the opium neophyte ; but only too soon 
 the inexorable tyrant leads his vassals out of the 
 myth paradise into the Inferno over whose gate 
 burn the damning words, "Abandon all hope, ye 
 
 29 
 
30 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 who enter here." The periodicity of exaltation 
 gradually diminishes, the ecstatic visions pale and 
 finally go out like the sputtering candle in the 
 socket. Vainly the victim has repeated recourse to 
 his drug; uselessly he resorts to increased quantit}-; 
 its power of enchantment is lost forever. Between 
 the stages of delight and pain there is a middle 
 ground of hebetude, where one " forgets one 's self 
 to marble"; he is cold, indifferent, supine, and cal- 
 lous. Presently the pricks and goads are applied 
 and the quivering flesh agonizes under the affliction. 
 The stricken one passes into an arctic night of hor- 
 ror, unrelieved by borealis, or moon, or star, a night 
 of thick cloud and darkness, where phosphorescent 
 phantoms with seeming of real substance torture 
 remorselessly. 
 
 Personally there come out of the past no visions , 
 or dreams of an ecstatic character. This may have 
 been due in part to physical pain, or to a tolerance 
 for the drug, so that the quantity taken was not 
 adequate to the end attained by others. That such 
 recollections do not return is assuredly no fault of 
 the memory. Would to God that a great wall 
 might be built up to shut off forever the accursed 
 fields of opium land. Possessed of a prodigious 
 memory, that faculty has in no sense been impaired 
 by the saturation which the brain received. All the 
 events, scenes, incidents, tragedies, doubts, fears, 
 dreams, and visions of that epoch are graven as 
 deep in the mind as hieroglyphs in Cleopatra's 
 needle. Designing that these confessions shall be 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 31 
 
 honest before God and man, the effort has been 
 earnest, yet vain, to call out from among the grim 
 spectres and multiform apparitions the Agepomena 
 and ravishing attractions so graphically portrayed 
 by De Quincey in his "Confessions of an £nglish 
 Opium Eater." That there was excitation during 
 the first months is true, but at the best the day vis- 
 ions and night dreams were as the semi-delirium of 
 the fever-touched brain, which flashes elusive 
 wraiths whose smiling lips are shadowed by eyes of 
 •melancholy. In all the Jeztx de theatres of the evanes- 
 cent imagination no single scene is presented in 
 which angels hover over the boards, or fairies enter 
 with God-offered gifts. There were periods of in- 
 differentism, many of them, when the lethean 
 draught caused the realities of the world to appear 
 ^s shadows and time passed as in a dream, although 
 the senses lay awake in their restful cells. But 
 this was, after all, an i?tsouciant state, a fiddle-faddle 
 existence, little removed from that of the dormouse 
 or slug. In such hours there was positive insensi- 
 bility to pain, but likewise incapacity to enjoy. 
 
 The distinguished writer quoted dwells with unc- 
 tuous delight upon the ineffably sensuous dreams 
 and the Canterbury Tale visions of his waking hours 
 during the first years of his addiction. His expe- 
 rience is similar to that of most opium takers whom 
 I know, except that not one claimed that the fool's 
 paradises of the night or the fairy lands of the day 
 endured for more than one year. The greater num- 
 ber declared that all the pleasure they derived from 
 
32 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 it ended with the first six months. Their evidence 
 is to be credited before his, because they have been 
 cured of the addiction, with its associated evils of 
 lying, deception, and moral cowardice. 
 
 The hours of that long night of gloom are num- 
 bered; it is possible to give the events that hap- 
 pened in them, in their order ; but it seems best to 
 follow out ideas and impressions to their logical re- 
 sults, emphasizing in this way the several effects of 
 the drug, rather than to pursue incidents in their 
 sequence. The latter course would result in a rec- 
 ord of symptoms and tendencies that grow in inten- 
 sity with time, since nearly all of the evils were 
 manifest in the first year of the habit ; merely tak- 
 ing on added potency with the persistence of the 
 dispensation. 
 
 The habit was riveted in the form of mor- 
 phine b}- injection. A million years would not 
 eradicate the recollection of the first flash of 
 the truth upon a brain that had been clouded 
 by fever. It was upon an autumn day when 
 a broad landscape was revealed through ah 
 open window, showing groves of vari-colored foli- 
 age, meadows, and hilltops yet green. A noble 
 river flowed through a lovely valley, flashing its 
 brilliants regally as it overrode the eternal rocks 
 that sought to impede its progress. The sun was 
 sinking in splendor of crimson in a bed of purest 
 gold, throwing out goodnight benisons upon wood 
 and field and water. Just awakened out of sleep, 
 the beauty of the entire scene was flashed at a 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 33 
 
 glance. Here was an Eden, with but a single habi- 
 tant ; my heart for a moment exulted in the posses- 
 sion of it ; but, within an instant, almost, an inde- 
 scribable horror rushed upon me with the fury of a 
 cyclone, and in that whirlwind was brought the con- 
 sciousness of slavery. There was not needed any 
 confirmation from the lips of the physician, who was 
 responsible for the immortal soul committed to his 
 keeping in the helplessness of physical weakness. 
 There is no quibble or evasion by which accounta- 
 bility can be transferred from the intelligent direc- 
 tor of the act to the unconscious and helpless suf- 
 ferer. Either there is no sin in the opium habitue's 
 life, or his misdeeds belong to him who made them 
 possible. 
 
 Lying there in an agony of thought, the gloam- 
 ing came and star gems glittered in the bosom of 
 the night, suggesting an eternity of entailed suffer- 
 ing ; when the cause of the wretchedness entered. 
 What boots now his tergiversations and his final ad- 
 mission, with the avowal that the drug had saved 
 life. Mercy is the name of the good angel through 
 whose benign influence knowledge of the future is 
 hidden from mortality. Had it been possible to 
 foresee what the future would bring, there would 
 have then been enacted a double tragedy. Let the 
 curtain be rung down upon this scene, for the poor 
 fool who was the prime demon of the drama is not 
 worthy the attention he has already attracted. Le 
 jeu ne vaut pas la cliandclle. 
 
 When dawning consciousness permitted intelli- 
 
 3 
 
34 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 gent reflection, it became apparent that hypodermic 
 injections of morphine would speedily lead to a use 
 of extraordinary quantities of the drug. Each 
 exaltation was followed by a depression lower than 
 the preceding one, which necessitated an increase of 
 the opium salt, that even then was racking the 
 entire nervous system. The first attempt at relief 
 was one that looked to a complete breaking asunder 
 of the bonds. A thought came of Samson bound 
 and forced to "grind in bonds of steel" for his cap- 
 tors ; and there was a willingness to be buried in the 
 ruins of the temple drug, if only the strength might 
 be present to tear down and destroy the devil of 
 melancholy and unrest that was goading the spirit. 
 As Jacob at Bethel I wrestled with the good angel 
 of resolution and refused to let him go ; invoking 
 the assistance of that Deity whose physical laws had 
 been ruthlessly violated and whose providence had 
 been doubted. The intensity of this period of 
 struggle endured for weeks ; yet, though the contest 
 was manful, the conviction finally and despairingly 
 came that I was hopelessly fettered. There was no 
 Vulcan to break with his hammerthe forged chains, 
 and, panting and half-expiring, submission was 
 made to the inexorable tyrant. 
 
 Then it was that a compromise was suggested 
 and acted upon. Knowing that quinine, an alkaloid 
 of cinchona, was more active than the bark and that 
 persons who were unable to endure the former read- 
 ily took the latter, I concluded that gum opium was 
 less nerve-and-brain exciting than its active salt. It 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 35 
 
 was an easy matter to refer to the dispensatory and 
 learn that the two and one-half grains then taken 
 (morphine hypodermically given has twice the 
 potency of that taken by the mouth) would be 
 represented by about 34 grains of opium (dr}^). 
 Gum and powdered opium were, however, most 
 nauseating, and, within a fortnight, laudanum was 
 substituted. The authority referred to shows that 
 10.4 minims of laudanum (tinctura opii) are equal 
 to one grain of the gum ; so that the diurnal allot- 
 ment of the tincture was 374 minims, or 6.25 fluid- 
 drachms (teaspoonful). This quantity was divided 
 into three portions, taken at 7 a. m., i p. m., and 7 
 p. m., daily ; these hours remained unchanged dur- 
 ing the continuance of the habit. This was in the 
 fourth month of the addiction ; eight months later, 
 the allowance had grown to twelve fluid-drachms, or 
 four teaspoonfuls thi^ee times daily. Then came the 
 knowledge, profound and immutable, that the long- 
 abused stomach could not possibly endure more of 
 the poison ; that election must be made between an 
 early death or a fast holding to the point then 
 reached. Great as is the enervating effect of the 
 drug and terrible as is its prostration of the will, yet 
 a determination to abide by the then imbibition was 
 maintained throughout all the subsequent stages. 
 Physical ills multiplied, nervous excitation increased, 
 and the woe of an irrepressible sorrow became ever- 
 present; yet, except upon three occasions that may 
 be noted elsewhere, nothing could shake this resolu- 
 tion. How the man without will could exercise this 
 
36 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 firmness in a single direction is inexplicable, because 
 the struggle was one of daily occurrence and increas- 
 ing with the passage of time. The cumulative evil 
 effects are certain and depressing influences magnify 
 in intensity. There were times when the tincture had 
 no more effect, seemingly, than would an equal 
 quantity of water taken from a spring gushing out 
 of a hillside. The only possible explanation of this 
 fortitude (if that may be so termed which was a 
 sullen front offered against the further encroach- 
 ments of a loathed invader) was an abiding belief 
 that speedy death would follow any added yielding 
 of ground, and the change out of mortality was 
 invested with every horror that a disturbed fancy 
 could invent. Frightful as the sufferings became, 
 and "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has 
 it entered the heart of man to know" the measure- 
 lessness of the opium " fiend's " torture, they were 
 preferred before the ills that were shaped of the deft 
 fingers of a crazed fancy given over to despair. 
 
 Emphasis is laid upon this experience because it 
 is radically different from that of numbers of friends 
 who had the addiction in one form or another. 
 Whether they smoked to lethean depths, ate the 
 gum of the baneful poppy flower, or used the crys- 
 tal alkaloid by syringe or the mouth, in every case 
 the insatiable appetite of the habit monster was 
 sought to be appeased by steadily increasing quan- 
 tities. Like the horse-leech the incessant cry of 
 the opium slave is for "more" of the drug that en- 
 ticed him to his doom. 'TKe addictions of some of 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 37 
 
 these miserables reached astounding proportions. 
 One added day by day to his potion until he swal- 
 lowed 7,680 drops, one fluid-pint, or sixteen ounces, 
 of laudanum daily ; this being equal to 738 grains 
 of opium (dry), or iio grains of morphine. De 
 Quincey drank 8,000 drops of laudanum daily, but 
 his tincture was much weaker than that made by 
 the United States formula, his daily potion being 
 equal to but 320 grains of opium. Yet the author 
 of the "Confessions" rated himself facile princeps 
 among opium habitues. A gentleman living in 
 Southern Illinois took 80 grains of morphine 
 hypodermically every day, this being equal to 160 
 grains by the mouth; which stands for 1,072 grains 
 of opium, or one and one-half pints of laudanum 
 (U. S. formula). This extraordinary enslavement 
 was surpassed by a resident of Northern Illinois, 
 who swallowed 250 grains of morphine daily; 
 which is equal to 1,685 grains of opium, or 17,524 
 drops, upwards of a quart of .laudanum. The two 
 last referred to had the cocaine addiction as well, 
 each using a large quantity of this baleful drug 
 every day. Still another acquaintance actually took 
 350 grains of morphine daily, this being equal to 
 2,345 grains of opium, or more than seven times 
 that taken by De Quincey. Hundreds of instances 
 might be given from personal knowledge of indi- 
 viduals (whose diurnal addiction ranged from the 
 equivalent of 20 grains of morphine to 190 grains of 
 that salt), attesting the increasing tendencies of 
 the habit. Opium iwn saltat — opium does not leap, 
 
 M 
 
38 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 but, like Nature in all her works, is steady and pro- 
 gressive in the development. of the habitude, malgrd 
 the resistance of the writhing victim. 
 
 My own daily addiction was equal to 68 + 
 grains of opium, or lo-)- grains of morphine; but 
 comparison of symptoms and sufferings with man)- 
 others would indicate that it is not so much a mat- 
 ter of quantity as temperament and resisting power 
 of the habitue. It does not by any means follow 
 that those who take most endure greatest pains, and 
 it is certain that in the treatment for cure, many 
 whose addictions were the largest yielded to reme- 
 dial agencies with least show of suffering. What 
 has been said of the quantity is also true as to the 
 duration of the habit ; some who had been saturated 
 as long as twenty-five years coming out from under 
 the yoke with as little effort as those who had been 
 enslaved but for three or five years. The crowning 
 fact of all, in every case, is that whether the quan- 
 tity taken was greater or less, or for a longer or 
 shorter period, in every instance the restoration was 
 complete. Of opium, as of no other enslaving 
 drug, it may be truly said, cessaitte causa, cessat 
 . effectus — the effect ceases with the cause ; perfect 
 health crowning the healed man with rejoicing. 
 
 In this connection it may be suggested that opium 
 (where not otherwise indicated in this book this 
 word will be used in a generic sense, comprehending 
 all the forms — ^the gum and powdered, laudanum 
 and paregoric, as well as morphine) is one of the 
 most eccentric drugs known to materia medica. As 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 39 
 
 Virgil said of Polyphemus, it is " monstrum, horren- 
 dum, i7ifomie, i?ige7is " — a monster, misshapen, hor- 
 rid, huge, to the mental vision of every habitue ; 
 yet it is more subtle than the serpent of Eden and 
 more seductive than the sirens of the rocks. A 
 learned student in the school of opium once said to 
 the writer: "Opium has a personality, as it were, , 
 and^.displays extraordinary cunning in dealing with 
 its captives. Much as we may loathe the drug, it is 
 undeniable that it destroys the germs of seven- 
 tenths of the diseases of mankind. Yet, such is its 
 subtlety, that after a disease is cured by it the 
 symptoms of that malady are simulated by the drug, 
 in order to persuade the habitue of the necessity of 
 continuing its use." While by no means inclined to 
 indorse this poetic sentiment, it is most true that 
 my physical pains which antedated the habit con- 
 tinued, or seemed to, throughout the entire servi- 
 tude, and it is equally certain that the last vestige of 
 them disappeared with the opium. Since restora- 
 tion my health is perfect and every faculty of the 
 brain alert. Opium would seem to hold in prison 
 many of the bodily and mental functions, only to 
 release them unharmed when the drug itself is 
 banished. The incarceration, however protracted, 
 does not in anywise interfere with the potency of 
 parts affected. 
 
 Since the burden of this book is a condemnation 
 of the poppy devil, it may be permitted me to say 
 one word more concerning the virtue that may be 
 found in the arch-enemy. The gentleman above 
 
40 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 quoted, who is a most skilful physician, employed 
 this strong language in a conversation had with me 
 a short time ago : " You know what just cause I 
 have to reprobate opium ; yet it is but fair to say 
 that, if I were limited by law to the use of a single 
 drug in m}' practice and were accorded the privilege 
 of making a choice, I should not hesitate to name 
 that toxic remedy. There are special diseases that 
 can be reached b}' no other known agencies. I 
 speak, of course, for a cautious and intelligent use 
 of the highly dangerous drug." While offering 
 this high testimony to the beneficent uses of opium, 
 there flashes the reflection, considering the incalcu- 
 lable harm which has been and is being done through 
 its agenc}^ does the good compensate for the 
 evil? When the nine drear and despairing years 
 of my addiction are considered, there will come the 
 conviction that all the benefits it has conferred upon 
 humanity will not atone for the sin it is guilty of 
 towards a single individual who is its helpless 
 slave. 
 
 Contention has been made that in the hands of 
 physicians there is safety in its use. This is con- 
 trary to the evidence of numbers of former habitues, 
 all of whom,^ save two, had the habit fastened upon 
 them by their family doctors. Confirmation of the 
 danger that comes from medical carelessness is had 
 in a trustworthy record of more than twelve hun- 
 dred cases, upward of seventy per centum of whom 
 owed their serfdom to the same agent. It should 
 be explained that many of those personally known 
 
THE MASTER'S IRON RULE. 41 
 
 are themselves physicians, who prescribed the drug 
 that fastened the habit upon their souls ; yet this 
 in no wise weakens the force of my insistence. This 
 much is unqualifiedl}^ true ; the opiate should never 
 be given for a longer period than a week, at the 
 most, and the patient should be kept in absolute 
 ignorance of the nature of the prescription. It is 
 absurd to insist that the phj^sician can shut off 
 the use of it merely by refusing to give it any 
 longer. What does the sick one care for the 
 doctor's interdict, when he can buy enough at the 
 nearest drug store to fix the habit upon a score of 
 persons? 
 
 The one safety lies in keeping away from opium. 
 Whatever the remedial virtues of the powerful 
 nerve agent, " its lure is woe and its sting is death.!!- 
 Is " wine a mocker? is strong drink raging?" By 
 how much more is opium a fretting storm of wind 
 and wave, the fury of whose lashings will never 
 cease until the poor wretch is wrecked on the illim- 
 itable shore of infernal despair. Now safely 
 moored in the harbor of deliverance and every 
 peril over, still there come out of the past the 
 horrid din of the contending elements, the flare of 
 the lightning, the angry roll of the thunder, the 
 dull, heavy rush of the white-capped waves ; the 
 frightful memory will never fade so long as that 
 faculty remains to the brain. Safe from the dan- 
 gers of Sc3-lla and Charybdis, from the lashed fury 
 of the whirling and eddying waters, thought sug- 
 gests the thousands and the millions that are yet in 
 
42 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 the rage and fury of the sea, their frail barks helm- 
 less and pilotless, and fast hurrying upon the rocks 
 of eternity. Out of the everlasting calm my voice 
 sounds a clarion shout of warning to those not yet 
 engulfed to avoid the course marked by the opium 
 ships down in the troughs of the waves. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 
 
 Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat, 
 
 Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate. — Butler. 
 
 A FACT that cannot be confuted is a growing 
 tolerance for the drug in the habitue, as has been 
 already clearly set forth. Were this tendency not 
 present in all cases, then evils of the narcotic 
 would be effaced, and opium, instead of being -a 
 prime curse of civilization, might be an unqualified 
 blessing. Just as the desire for larger quantities 
 grows, so the bodily and mental disturbances swell 
 until the final flood of the habit. There is not pres- 
 ent, however, that gradual, day-by-day accretion, the 
 here a little and there a little, as an ancient deserted 
 Asiatic city accumulated the dust of ages. Opium 
 makes no vaulting, although what it does, it does 
 quickly; that is to say, the tyrant loses no time in 
 fettering the human soul, but all of the sequential 
 effects are by no means apparent or cognizable until 
 after accumulating attacks aggravate their symp- 
 toms. There are certain organic disturbances that 
 are kept smouldering like the pent-up fires of a 
 Vesuvius ; being finally released in a lava-flow that 
 threatens the engulfment of life. Nevertheless 
 
 43 
 
44 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 these troubles had their beginning in the mewling 
 time of the habit. Properly appreciating the fact 
 that, whatever the physiological or psychological 
 effects, they were synchronous with the matin period 
 of the habitude, there will be no difficulty in follow- 
 ing the story to its conclusion. The evils that 
 existed in the ninth were also present in the first 
 year. The opium inquisitor brings out the rack and 
 stretches the victim upon it without delay; but, like 
 Grimalkin, which plays with the mouse before de- 
 stro^'ing it, the stretching and pulling are applied 
 slowl}' and torturously and continue as long as 
 there is life. 
 
 There would be little trouble in calling up in 
 their order from the graves of the opium past every 
 spirit of evil and show it in its deformity. So pow- 
 erful is memory that the task would be inconsequen- 
 tial to make a daily record of impressions, dreams, 
 vagaries, incidents and events for the entire period 
 of the addiction. Such a memorandum would, how- 
 ever, be wearisome, as the environment of Sunday 
 was as that of Monday, and so on through the 
 week and every week of the habit. Let it be un- 
 derstood that opium is distinctively std generis 
 among drugs, and that there were no new creations 
 as the months and years rolled by. 
 
 Another word of explanation that would seem to 
 be imperative is one of regret that much of the evi- 
 dence communicated to me has been received in 
 confidence that must be sacred as the whispered 
 sentence in the ear of the priest of God. Whatever 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 45 
 
 their value might be to science, the spirits that are 
 glad in their release shall not again be made sor- 
 rowful by any act of mine in bringing their person- 
 ality to the public gaze. Because this is so, many 
 of the utterances contained in this volume may ap- 
 pear dogmatic and unproved. The hope is earnestly 
 held, however, that the world will be ready to be- 
 lieve that one who has nerved himself to tear open 
 afresh his own frightful wounds and bare them to 
 universal gaze for the cause of the truth could 
 scarcely afford to utter any statement for which he 
 has not confirmatory evidence in his own life, or in 
 that of other credible witnesses. A single explana- 
 tion more : every person to whom reference has 
 been or will be made was once a slave of the drug- 
 king, but is now perfectly restored to the liberty of 
 health and released from the bondage of that 
 master. 
 
 It is not an easy matter to enter the shadows of 
 the opium night and pursue each spirit separately, 
 for the reason that one frequently merged into an- 
 other, or many confusedly massed together. That 
 is to say, no single effect was completely isolated ; 
 one would enter or be dependent upon another at 
 times, and there were occasions when a whirlwind 
 of woes, mental and physical, overwhelmed the 
 man. There is not the slightest difficulty in deter- 
 mining the first marked characteristic of the habit. 
 Scarcely had there come a realizing sense of the 
 subjection, when there was present a purpose to 
 take no one into confidence. The physician was 
 
46 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 urged to secrecy ; the wife who should have been 
 informed was studiously kept in ignorance of the 
 fact. Concealment of the practice became a su- 
 preme object in life and so remained throughout the 
 habit. This necessarily led to deceit and with it 
 lying, for the two are sisters. It is to be doubted 
 if any inward degradation is lower than that which 
 comes of wilful deceit. The man who has lost 
 confidence in himself, who knows, or who thinks he 
 knows, that he is not what the world esteems him, 
 is a despicable wretch in his own eyes. It is not 
 possible to find language to portray the feelings of 
 one, who, reared from infancy to be frank and hon- 
 est with himself, knew that he was constantly play- 
 ing a part. In every step of the habit, through 
 every day of every year, there was an ever abiding 
 horror of detection and an ever present purpose to 
 conceal the detestable appetite at any cost. Had 
 life itself depended upon the confession, even that 
 must have been surrendered before the dread and 
 awful secret that burned in the lacerated breast. 
 Whether upon the street, in the study, or at home, 
 anywhere and ever3-where, was the abiding fear, 
 "Be sure your sin will find you out." Did one, 
 though an entire stranger, direct his gaze for an in- 
 stant in my direction, there would come a failing of 
 the heart, and, wretched miserable sinner, the form- 
 ing of a sweeping denial would go quickly on in the 
 perturbed brain, ready to be cast forth the instant 
 an imputation of the truth was made. The fear 
 of detection was ever present, an overpowering, 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 47 
 
 gloomy terror, that threatened to come like an un- 
 announced seismic outburst and bring utter ruin with 
 it ; yet, after all, this fear was insignificant, as time 
 passed, in comparison with the punishment that 
 came of the continuous, despicable feeling of moral 
 degradation — the pollution of the soul through de- 
 ceit. Here was needed no judge to condemn ; the 
 conscience flaj-ed with live scorpions. Worst of all 
 came the final thought : "You cannot forever con-y 
 ceal ; the exposure must and will come some day — 
 at your death, if not earlier. Then will your friends 
 and acquaintances know you for a vile dissembler, a 
 Cagliostro without his jugglery, a malingering sol- 
 dier who has failed in his every duty." 
 
 One day, in the fifth year of the addiction, after 
 passing on the street an acquaintance who was a 
 Frenchman, I distinctly heard these words : " Cest 
 un trompeur" — he is a deceitful man. To be sure 
 the irian never uttered them, this being one of the 
 delusions known as "hearing voices;" but they 
 were genuine enough at the, time and followed me 
 for weeks and months afterward, bringing a flush of 
 shame to the cheeks every time they were recalled. 
 Explanation of this overweening fear of detection is 
 found in the fact that the habitue knows the world 
 has no charity cloak to throw about him ; he real- 
 izes fully that he is not understood ; he is an enigma 
 that has been given up as past solution. The 
 drunkard displays pleasurable emotions at times ; 
 his neighbors find excuse for him in his goodfellow- 
 ship; but the opium "fiend" is silent, gloomy, and 
 
48 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 repressive. He makes no noise or shout, is not 
 confined to his bed after a debauch, gives no evi- 
 dence of special disorder, and, in consequence, his 
 friends pronounce him a depraved wretch, to whom 
 mercy would come as a curse. Because he knows 
 this, he cowers lest the world should know and vote 
 the ostracism of utter shame and banishment. The 
 feeling, too, is one that this judgment is not unjust. 
 He reflects upon what he might have been and what 
 he is ; what lights once flashed out and brightened 
 the road ahead ; how now all the lamps have gone 
 out and no oil is left to fill them. He knows him- 
 self to be aimless, purposeless, and despairing; 
 accomplishing nothing, expecting nothing, and he 
 sentences himself with far less show of mercy than 
 the world would execute against him. 
 
 The habit is a sneaking one. The leopard may 
 be tamed but it cannot be taught to get rid of the 
 deceit that was so necessary a part of its life in the 
 wild state. The eye of the creature reveals the 
 craft it employed in creeping upon old world 
 monkeys in their native forests, and nothing will 
 ever rid the beast of that look. So opium is a 
 deceitful, sneaking wretch, who communicates of 
 his spirit to those he has enthralled. Just as the 
 drug is a narcotic, precisely as it leads one into 
 false worlds of phantasmal absurdities and pleasing 
 illusions, only that it may afterwards damn the soul 
 with horrors, so it leads the spirit into self-decep- 
 tion and to desperate attempts at deception of 
 Others, The word. self-deception is used, because. 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 49 
 
 while oftentimes neighbors and friends may not be 
 aware one is in the opium habit, they realize be3^ond 
 any peradventure that he is in the toils of some 
 inexorable tj'rant. 
 
 The next step in the habit is approached with 
 greatest reluctance ; thought of the confession 
 causes the cheeks to tingle with shame. Reared in 
 a community where mendacity is classed with cow- 
 ardice and thiever}', it is most painful to admit that 
 for a period of nine years one was un menteur a 
 triple ^tage — an egregious liar. In Scandinavian 
 literature occurs these lines : 
 
 " The very first thought to which Loki gave birth, 
 It was a lie, and he bade it descend 
 In a woman's shape to the men of earth." 
 
 For "Loki" let "opium" be substituted and in 
 place of "woman" read "habitue" and the tale is 
 complete. 
 
 One is likely to hear in quarters where more reli- 
 able information ought to exist that an opium 
 "fiend" will only lie about matters connected with 
 his habit. Is it possible for one to show the case 
 of one man, in the possession of all his faculties in 
 health, who is entitled to credence in all matters 
 save one ? Liars with such discriminating tenden- 
 cies have no existence. If a man in a normal con- 
 dition cannot do this thing, why should it be 
 thought that one can so divide truth from falsehood 
 who is at no time in a state of moral responsibility ? 
 How can such an one lie like a Cretan about his 
 habit and be veracious in all. things else ? There is 
 4 
 
JO DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 no line that divides his habit from his general life. 
 Again and again will he deceive in some matter 
 having no relation to opium, merel}' because he fears 
 the subject may lead up to the addiction. Decep- 
 tion and lying are just as positive effects of the 
 opium habit as contraction of the muscles, or dis- 
 order of the vision. Opium eating involves loss of 
 self respect along certain lines, and the man who is 
 deficient in shame cannot be truthful. The cozen- 
 age of evasion inter-connects with everything said 
 and done by the habitue, who is as powerless to 
 resist such a temper as he is to sever the knot that 
 holds him to the tyranny. There was never one who 
 would hesitate to employ subreption in obtaining a 
 supply of the drug ; oftentimes, when this shufiiiing 
 was altogether unnecessary. 
 
 When a man is drunk he will lie ; yet he may be 
 a perfectly truthful person when he is sober. In- 
 ebriates will go without drink for a week, a month, 
 or a year, even, and in all this time of sobriety have 
 jealous regard for what is manl}-, upright, and truth- 
 ful. When the fury of drink overcomes them once 
 more, they will lie and be unmanly. So it is with 
 the opium habitue, except that the latter never has 
 any period of sobriety ; he is forever drunk of the 
 drug, just as is the chloral, cocaine, and hasheesh 
 "fiend." The poppy never suffers a man to get out 
 of its spell for a single moment. To be suddenly 
 snatched away from it is to meet certain death or 
 insanit}-. He is always under the hellish influence ; 
 it enters into ever)- thought, purpose, and plan of 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 51 
 
 life ; becomes, in fact, his life and his all. How 
 foolish, then, to accord to so helpless a person so 
 fine a discriminating sense that he will adore truth 
 in every presentation except that which personifies 
 opium. Here is an axiom that is applicable to 
 every class of people upon the face of the earth : 
 He who will lie about one thing, will lie about any 
 thing. Any man who has been cured of the habit 
 will defend the correctness of this position; those 
 who are in it are scarcely competent witnesses. It 
 is not denied, to be sure, that an opium habitue may 
 tell the truth at times, or that he is anxious to tell 
 it at all times ; the writer maintains that the habit is 
 a disease, and one symptom of this disease is that 
 when the victim would tell the truth, he is unable to 
 do it. Because this is so, he is oftentimes indiffer- 
 ent to the charms of truth ; being at some pains to 
 get out of her way. An habitue who may read 
 what is said in this connection cannot fail to be 
 profoundly impressed with its correctness, yet, at 
 the same time, be irresistibly driven to declare to 
 others that the writer is of all men the most men- 
 dacious. 
 
 Perhaps there is no effect of the habit that is so 
 galling, take it all in all, as this prestidigitation of 
 truth, if it is permitted to coin this term. In all my 
 extended intercourse with habitues (it has been inti- 
 mate, because they court intelligent sympathy from 
 a fellow sufferer, or one who has passed under the 
 yoke and is now free) there is no sin they so 
 bitterly repudiate as this ; they will not adniit they 
 
52 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 have so much as touched the hem of the garment 
 of Brummagem. With violent insistence they will 
 deny that there is suggestio falsi aut supprcssio veri in 
 their evidence. This all penetrating sensitiveness 
 is born, as has been stated, of the never-lost desire 
 to be continued in the self-respect of their neigh- 
 bors. A charge of Punic faith, an imputation of a 
 chouse of words, is like a knife in the heart. 
 When the mists break away and they see clearly in 
 the sunlight of manhood, this delusion passes ; they 
 then see themselves as they were seen, and as they 
 were. Because of the pain such a charge gives to 
 the suffering, it would seem proper to make cer- 
 tain qualifications and explanations concerning the 
 matter. It is due the habitue to say that he has no 
 purpose to injure another when he masquerades 
 with truth ; it is only his own protection he is after. 
 If that definition of a lie be accepted which declares 
 it to be a wilful attempt to deceive with a view to 
 injuring another in person or property, then the 
 habitue should be forgiven much that has been said 
 concerning this phase of the slavery. Wounded 
 daily in the thought of his soul's humiliation, feeling 
 hourly the bondage of his judgment and will, yet 
 all the time aspiring to maintain his respectability 
 and sustain his merit before men, he deludes himself 
 that he passes among them as stable and reliable. 
 Conscious of his weakness but most unwilling to 
 give over to it he will not confess to himself, even, 
 that he is mendacious ; although, strange paradox, 
 he knows it to be so. It must always be borne in 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 53 
 
 mind that the poor slave constantly fights to hold 
 his position in society, and the confidence and 
 affection of his friends. Owing to the ravages of 
 the opium distemper this contention may grow 
 weak ; yet it is ever present, and the effort is as 
 potent as the strength will permit. He accepts the 
 universal estimate of the liar and despises him as 
 much as the most pure and untainted soul that 
 lives. Admission that he is such a despicable crea- 
 ture is a soul pollution against which he revolts in 
 unutterable loathing. When he yields to the sin, it 
 is to an irresistible impulse, one that sickens his 
 heart and causes groans of anguish to reverberate 
 in the chambers of his conscience. In all the 
 lengths of the habit he never halts for a moment at 
 a point where he can forgive himself for Jesuitry ; in 
 this one sin he may not harden his heart or stiffen 
 his neck. Poor fellow 1 he often finds solace in 
 indignant denial of it to himself and friends. He 
 seeks to deceive that he may protect himself from 
 the shame and reproach of men ; he juggles with 
 truth that he may appear before others as his heart 
 desires he actually should be. This is a psycho- 
 logical condition very difficult to portray, and more 
 difficult to be understood by those who have not felt 
 the chastening rod of opium. Lying is a sin the 
 world has properly placed among the greater trans- 
 gressions ; yet in judging sinners, sentence should 
 fall, O, so lightly, upon those who are guilty when 
 they most would be innocent; who are dragged 
 into the horrible pit by the iron hand of an inexor- 
 
54 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 able master they cannot successfully resist. A 
 potent evidence of this feature of the habit is shown 
 in the infinite loathing of deception and sincere love 
 of truth evidenced by those who have been deliv- 
 ered from its slavery. The memory of the weak- 
 ness and shame of the habit serves as a constant 
 monitor to urge to closer walks in the paths of rec- 
 titude. The binding of the soul ceases with the 
 escape of the body and mind ; the taint of corruptible 
 things is as completely eliminated as though such 
 defilement had never been a part of the eventful 
 life. 
 
 The experience is uniform that opium habitues 
 do not descend to low practices of any kind ; they 
 are not dishonest; they aim to deport themselves 
 well ; they do not harm any save themselves ; they 
 do not fight, or brawl, or commit murder. The de- 
 ceptions they practice are chiefly such as are 
 4, designed to strengthen their own weakness ; still, 
 
 the fact remains, notwithstanding these mitigating 
 circumstances, that mendacity is a marked feature 
 of the opium habit. What a degrading confession. 
 Think of the record — nine years of effort at self 
 deception ; nine years of deceiving others ; nine 
 years a play actor in a degrading part, ashamed to 
 look any man in the face; all the time conscious 
 that the Ananias sin merited the Ananias punish- 
 ment. Again and again did the reflection come 
 during the slavery that Milton or Dante, in their 
 description of hell, might have found greater plagues 
 for sinners than any they described, by depicting 
 
LINKS OF LYING AND DECEIT. 55 
 
 the self-confessed liar of quickened conscience, 
 doomed to pass eternity in repeating lies against 
 which his soul constantly revolted. In this feature 
 of the habit, as in everything else, the thrall is help- 
 less and hopeless. He merits the ministration of 
 the dear angel of compassion, yet he receives the 
 cuts of the cruel whips of scorn and contempt. One 
 must needs believe in God and an after world of 
 recompense for human misery such as this. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 
 
 And the touched needle trembles to the pole. 
 
 Pope — Temple of Fame. 
 
 Greater prominence is given to the psycholog- 
 ical effects of the drug, because herein is the mortal 
 agony of the wretched slave. No habitue is free 
 from bodil3' ills, while in nearly every case there is 
 intense physical suffering, that, in advanced stages, 
 opium but serves to intensify ; yet these pains and 
 penalties are insignificant in comparison with the 
 cankering sores that infest the soul and mind. 
 Closel)- allied to the weaknesses already described 
 is another distressing result, that for want of a more 
 comprehensive word may be termed sensitiveness, 
 which applies not only to the addiction itself but to 
 the entire man — his habits, thoughts, feelings, and 
 associations. Sending out grateful perfume from 
 graceful and delicate pink-and-white fringed flowers, 
 the mimosa, a favorite among the trees of the South- 
 land, is the most sensitive and modest of all the 
 plants that grow in that region. As the shadows 
 come in from the west and begin to settle about 
 . her, she closes her leaves as if in dread of the even- 
 tide zephyr, and with the coming of the cooler night 
 
 56 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 57 
 
 air they shrink painfully within themselves. Not 
 less sensitive is the opium habitue, who constantly 
 shrinks and seeks to conceal himself from the imag- 
 inary breaths of reproach and contumely. In evi- 
 dence of the insanity of this symptom it may not 
 be amiss to enter somewhat fully into particulars 
 touching this phase of the disorder. Subterfuges of 
 every imaginable kind are resorted to in order to 
 cast off suspicion. During seven years of the 
 addiction a single drug store supplied the greater 
 portion of the laudanum that I consumed. It now 
 appears most ridiculous indeed, that, although visits 
 were made there thrice weekly, I should have 
 deemed it prudential to assure the proprietor, over 
 and over again, that the toxic was to be used exter- 
 nally, adding a minute description of the symptoms 
 of the suppositious malady. In the eagerness to 
 convince the apothecary that such was the use to 
 which the drug was to be applied, I would inveigh 
 vigorously against poor fools who suffered them- 
 selves to get into the opium habit, vowing that no 
 possible temptation could ever induce me to taste 
 the dangerous narcotic. Oft repeating made most 
 familiar this fiction, which must have been also just 
 as well learned by the druggist, whose interests, as 
 well as courtesy, did not permit him by word or 
 manner to cast a doubt upon its absolute veracious- 
 ness. A state law demanded that a "caution" label 
 should be pasted upon all packages and parcels of 
 opium ; but he readily agreed to dispense with this 
 requirement, when told that no other hands could 
 
58 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 possibly reach the bottle, save his who then re- 
 ceived it. The label was rejected because one or 
 two of the bottles had fallen into the hands of a 
 wife whose solicitude would not accept inane pal- 
 terings for reliable explanations, although her con- 
 siderate affection might lead her to bear in silence 
 the weight of grief the knowledge brought. The 
 purpose was that if the bottles, filled or empty, 
 again fell into her hands, there might be insistence 
 that the contents were some harmless medicine or 
 other. This foolish precaution was taken at a time 
 when, through the offense, the good woman had 
 learned the odor of the vile stuff and could not pos- 
 sibly be deceived. Yet again and again afterward, 
 when, going home in an opium debauch utterly 
 unconscious, the vial would be found containing a 
 greater or less quantity of the poison, there would 
 be given the most vehement denial on the following 
 morning, after the stupor had passed off. There is 
 no eye so acute as that which sees in the light of 
 love. She had observed the evidences in the pupil- 
 less eyes, swollen hands and feet, semi-paretic 
 speech, will-less life, and other outward signs that 
 completed the tale of slavery. 
 
 The most extreme precautions were observed 
 when the drug was taken. Carefully locking the 
 door of the room, the shades were lowered, search 
 was made beneath and behind the various articles of 
 furniture, and sometimes the eye was applied to the 
 keyhole ; all being done that was possible to deter- 
 mine that no profane eyes could be in evidence. 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 59 
 
 against the act about to be performed. Neverthe- 
 less the body trembled with apprehension, lest some 
 person might be peering through an unknown crevice 
 or the keyhole. 
 
 After the imbibition there would be the most 
 careful avoidance of closer contact with persons, 
 lest the fumes of the drug should reach their nos- 
 trils. Never at any time during the habit was the 
 drug taken in the presence of any person, exception 
 being made as to the physician who fastened the 
 addiction, and the few days next preceding treat- 
 ment for cure, when confession was made to my 
 wife, who then assumed charge of the administra- 
 tion of it. To no human being until this last-named 
 confession was the admission made that the habit 
 existed ; although sometimes I was charged with 
 having it by intimate friends. In the latter case 
 there would follow solemn and tearful denials, that 
 would have been sworn to if requested. 
 
 Without any reason suspicion was excited against 
 the druggist. It became an irresistible impression 
 that he was betraying the secret to everyone ; yet it 
 is doubtful if he knew one of my acquaintances or 
 friends. It was resolved to transfer patronage else- 
 where ; very carefully and with great circumspection 
 was this task undertaken. One store after another 
 in the various parts of the great city was visited ; 
 but more than a hundred failed, for one reason or 
 another, to meet the requirements of the case. 
 Here a bright-eyed youth repelled, because his 
 sunny smile seemed to mock the calamity of the 
 
6o DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 poor wretch who suffered ; there the proprietor was 
 lacking in proper courtesy. This place was too 
 liberally patronized, and that one appeared to have 
 no customers. After two weeks of fretful, disquiet- 
 ing effort a store was selected, which remained the 
 base of supplies until the end. It was several miles 
 from home and very inconveniently located, but 
 seemed to meet the requirements of privacy and 
 discretion. The salesman who served the drug 
 appeared to be simple and incapable of suspicion. 
 He listened with great patience to a lengthy expla- 
 nation concerning the need and use of the drug, 
 affecting to believe that it was really designed to be 
 used outwardly. 
 
 This sensitiveness was ever present and extended 
 beyond the habit itself, leading sometimes to 
 extremes in resentment. In the fourth year of the 
 addiction a big fellow applied a most offensive epi- 
 thet to me ; yet, such is the cowardice which the 
 drug inspires, it was passed unresented. A moment 
 later, however, when he hissed the taunt, "opium 
 fiend," he received a knock-down blow and was not 
 permitted to proceed on his way until he had 
 received a sound pummeling. 
 
 The fear was ever present that some one might 
 introduce the subject of opium and lead it up to the 
 wretched defilement. When the word was named 
 in the most innocent manner, without any possible 
 personal application, excessive nervous agitation 
 would result, and excuse was quickly made for leav- 
 ing the presence of the speaker. Upon such occa- 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 6i 
 
 sions perspiration would start from every pore, the 
 heart would palpitate violently, and the hands trem- 
 ble with excitement. 
 
 Suspicion is an inevitable accompaniment of 
 over-sensitiveness and the latter may lead to the 
 most silly resentment. An innocent look from a 
 friend sometimes resulted in his conversion into 
 an enemy. More than once I sprang in wrath 
 from a fast-moving cable car under the delusion 
 that the conductor had found out the sin and was 
 about to denounce it to his passengers. A police- 
 man was nearly shocked into arresting me for shak- 
 ing my fist in his face, because he, mistaking me for 
 an acquaintance, had nodded pleasantly in passing. 
 
 A good-natured and honest Greek fruit-seller will 
 never know that he lost a good customer who made 
 purchases almost daily for three years, merely 
 because he seemed one evening to be smiling at the 
 rueful visage of the buyer; Acquaintances of years 
 were dropped because it was decided they had de- 
 tected evidences of the habit; certain office buildings 
 were carefullj^ avoided, for the reason that the ele- 
 vator boys seemed to stare the knowledge from their 
 inquisitive eyes. 
 
 A thoughtless, carelessly spoken and meaning- 
 less word sometimes caused pain for a month after- 
 ward. The magnet is not quicker in response to 
 the presence of iron than was the wretched habitue 
 to putative slights of any kind ; while a word of 
 censure, however delicately expressed, set the brain 
 literally on fire with wrath. 
 
62 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 The opium habitue may well adopt for his motto 
 the words, noli me tangere — do not touch me. He 
 is in a state of incessant fidgets, a sort of moral St. 
 Vitus' dance, which shows itself in an intolerance of 
 restraint, restlessness under all conditions, and in 
 paroxysms of resentment over fancied slights. The 
 latter, however, owing to the cowardice superin- 
 duced by the drug, rarely finds vent in outward acts. 
 
 This sensitiveness extended to everything. A 
 friendly suggestion from a superior in the editorial 
 rooms would be magnified into a downright insult ; 
 advice was regarded as impertinent ; correction 
 made in " copy " was an offense which could not be 
 forgiven. It may be explained that in newspaper 
 offices there are assistants to the editor whose dut}- 
 requires them to carefully revise all manuscript, 
 most of which is necessarily written in great haste ; 
 to alter, amend, and correct the same to meet the 
 standard. Such work is a kindness to the writers 
 and sensible ones always so accept it ; but the opium 
 habitue, carried away by the frenzy of his imagin- 
 ings, not only refused to recognize the necessity in 
 his case, but upon more than one occasion took his 
 protest to the head of the journal, with the insist- 
 ence that such corrections were an imputation on 
 his literary- reputation. 
 
 Not content with magnifj-ing every mole-hill of 
 a grievance into a mountain of insult, the poor fool 
 coerced his addled brain into making these moun- 
 tains rise where no mole-hills stood in the way. A 
 most persistent cause of offense was the illusion 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 63 
 
 that men were thinking evil or designing injury 
 against me, and this impression was active even 
 when the imaginary offenders were distant. When, 
 at the club, some member would look in my direc- 
 tion, I would become very nervous, move restlessly 
 about, and, if the glance was repeated, rise suddenly 
 and leave the room in a white heat of anger. One 
 June da}', during the eighth year of the addiction, 
 the impression became so strong that a very dear 
 friend was hatching mischief, that a journey of ten 
 miles was made to find him and make inquiry as to 
 the cause of his dislike. His honest denial of any 
 evil thought or purpose did not serve in the slightest 
 to allay the disagreeable impression, which remained 
 until some more potent influence of evil over- 
 shadowed it. 
 
 The opium habitue is a hotch-potch of vagaries 
 and contradictions and a very Janus in purpose. A 
 striking feature, which prevails universally, is that 
 of boasting, with its opposite, humility; both some- 
 times present in pitiful and ostentatious contrast. 
 There is present a conceit that one is, or should 
 be, superior to those with whom he is conversing, 
 and any narrative which recites heroic exploits is 
 sure to be followed by a similar venture of the 
 "fiend," in which he is hero in degree excelling 
 the virtue extolled. Whatever the theme under 
 discussion, he always professes intimate knowledge 
 and superior intelligence ; often to a degree that 
 excites ridicule, if not downright contempt. Yet, 
 strange paradox, if defects or transgressions of any 
 
J . 
 
 64 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 kind be the theme of conversation, the protean 
 " opium fiend " eclipses all in his affectation of 
 iniquitous practices. Alas! after his swaggering 
 stultiloquy he retires, to enter the deepest shadows 
 of the valley of humiliation because of his inept 
 conduct. 
 
 "Thoughts" were "variable as the winds and 
 as uncertain " at times. At one moment there was 
 unutterable grief because all friends had become 
 lost, and in a trice there was sure conviction that 
 not an enemy existed in all the world. The most 
 inveterate dislike of a stranger would be succeeded 
 by a warm attachment for him. Unfortunately 
 there was a fickleness which could not be corrected 
 by mere caprice ; as when, for no reason in the 
 world, an excellent position would be flung aside 
 ruthlessly, to be tearfully mourned an hour later. 
 An ocean of tears could not restore what was lost 
 in this case. No less than six times during the 
 addiction did the mad folly occur ; while in no in- 
 stance did the shadow of an excuse exist for a 
 step which threatened the comfort and needs of the 
 family. In all periods of life, before and during 
 the addiction, relations with those who employed 
 me were always pleasant ; I was never dismissed or 
 requested to resign from a position. It is true that 
 two or three times during the habit a day or two 
 was lost as a result of the effects of the drug ; but 
 this was cheerfully overlooked, because a quickened 
 conscience enfprced renewed exertions as compen- 
 sation for lost time. It did not matter that the 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 65 
 
 place was congenial and suited in every way to 
 capabilities and endowments ; when the fatuous 
 spell came, prudence was asleep and providence was 
 wool-gathering. Business depression might hang 
 like a pall over everything, and the greatest doubt 
 exist as to securing another place that at the best 
 must be inferior to the one surrendered; the whim- 
 wham brain urged the step and it was taken. 
 
 It should be understood that the opium habitue 
 is not always in a state of nervous excitement or 
 irritability ; that is to say, not to the outward eye ; 
 this being one of the striking contradictions of his 
 nature, that, like the great French clown, he may 
 wear smiles upon his face while his heart is torn 
 with anguish. There were times when talking with 
 the greatest abandon of the pleasures of this life, 
 there was unutterable woe in the breast because 
 death did not suddenly come and put an end to the 
 scene. So perfectly was the part played that there 
 were many friends who had no suspicion that any- 
 thing was wrong and their surprise was great when 
 they learned the facts. In explanation, however, it 
 should be said, that these persons did not come in 
 touch with me during the last two years of the 
 habit, when the hand of opium was heaviest felt. 
 In all stages of the addiction it was possible to 
 simulate ; it is a part of the disease, that one seeks 
 to conceal his actual condition. As has been stated 
 elsewhere, the operations of the drug were controlled 
 certainly to a limited extent by the will, and the 
 greatest possible efforts were made to hold things 
 
 S 
 
66 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 level when friends and acquaintances were encoun- 
 tered. This frequently was accomplished only b}- 
 the most extraordinary struggles, which were paid 
 for in after depression and pain. The Gethsemane 
 Garden was solitude. The roar of the thunder 
 never reached the ears of others ; the lightning 
 flashes were for the eyes of the habitue alone. 
 
 Many of these moods were inexplicable, as they 
 were uncontrollable. Nothing could equal the 
 earnestness with which I would precipitate an acri- 
 monious religious discussion, when no theme could 
 possibly be more disagreeable. Phj-sical exercise 
 was a painful proceeding; 3-et an impulse would 
 urge the feet to the most protracted exertions, in 
 walking, until exhausting fatigue compelled a rest. 
 The street car was an abomination ; yet the demon 
 would compel extended excursions upon one line of 
 road after another, many hours being spent contin- 
 uously in this mode of locomotion ; yet in every 
 moment of the time there was a spirit of resistance 
 which, though strong, was unable to overcome the 
 other. Sometimes these escapades were projected 
 into the night ; in fact, until the cars ceased to run. 
 Now and then this was most inconvenient, as the 
 latter event was just as likely to happen at the end 
 of the line most remote from home, compelling the 
 seeking of lodgment in a strange place, or aimless 
 wandering about until morning. As with all men of 
 letters, there is present in me strong preferences for 
 certain authors, with just as decided indifference, at 
 least for others ; yet the demon of contradiction 
 
WHIMSIES RULE THE SLAVE. 67 
 
 would so coerce the will that those books which 
 were despised became a necessit}- ; although the 
 consciousness of their disagreeableness existed 
 throughout the reading. With equal perversit}-, a 
 rage would come to write upon offensively unpleas- 
 ant topics ; especially those that had been assidu- 
 ously avoided in the past. 
 
 This cross purpose would extend itself in every 
 direction. When a restaurant was entered, this 
 spirit would suggest the ordering of food that was 
 most disliked and that could not possibh' be eaten 
 after it had been served. If there were two ways of 
 reaching, a given point, the devil drug would be 
 sure to lead to it by the more devious and undesir- 
 able journey. For months the ride from the city to 
 the suburban home was made by the slowest of 
 several routes ; although there was present, in all 
 cases, a consciousness of its folly, with a desire to 
 take the most expeditious line. 
 
 It became necessary to leave all money at home, 
 because any that was available would be expended 
 for worthless and undesirable objects ; even while a 
 persistent mental protest was entered against such 
 extravagance. > A determined purpose to go directly 
 from the ofiSce to the home would be checked by a 
 blind escapade through the streets for many hours ; 
 each minute of which would be filled with vain 
 regrets over the tyranny that throttled the will. 
 Thus it was the master, Beelzebub opium, led his 
 imp a devil dance constantly. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 
 
 Membra reformidant mollem quoque saucia tactum 
 
 Vanaque soUicitas incutit umbra metum. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Introspection of the life under the dread thrall 
 reveals an army of spectres, whose seeming serves 
 to distress the soul that is long freed from their 
 ravages. One of the oppressive shadows of that 
 dark night was the ever abiding consciousness that 
 self-mastery was utterly lost. Again and again, O, 
 so often, in the valleys of that land of tristful shades, 
 rang with terrible force the words of St. Paul : " But 
 I see another law in my members, warring against 
 the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
 to the law of sin which is in my members. O, 
 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death?" Unlike the great 
 apostle I could find no deliverer ; in the infinite 
 shame of the weakness and the degradation it en- 
 tailed, the soul in its travail could only repeat in 
 mournful accents the simple refrain, " Mea ctdpa, mea 
 culpa, pcccavi." 
 
 How often when bowed under the dispensation 
 there came the earnest exhortation, "To thyself be 
 true," while scalding tears would follow in the reflec- 
 
 68 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 69 
 
 tion that in all the evermore these words would haunt 
 me as chiding skeletons of ironic fate. Flesh-eating 
 animals I'evel in blood-thirstiness without venom, 
 because they are not conscious of their evil doing. 
 The habitual criminal has never felt the sting of a 
 quickened conscience ; the only offense he recog- 
 nizes being that of detection. But the slave of the 
 drug never for a moment loses the sense of his 
 accountability or fails to measure the extent of his 
 shortcomings. He is ever eager to accomplish 
 something that will atone in part, at least, for his 
 many peccancies ; hence, he plans and plans again; 
 but, alas, he never executes. 
 
 " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," was 
 the gauge of Reuben's character by the patriarch 
 Jacob. That sentence might righteously rest upon 
 every weary serf of the opium czar. The purpose 
 of to-day was the forgotten scheme of the morrow ; ' 
 the surest promise never attained fruition. A wide 
 acquaintance among business men arid a fair knowl- 
 edge of business methods, with a tact and shrewd- 
 ness in devising speculative adventures, made me a 
 desirable associate in certain lines, and during the 
 fifth and sixth years of the habit I made several 
 thousand dollars in this way. The investments were 
 profitable in every case and the prestige thus won 
 should have been followed up, as the operations did 
 not interfere in any way with professional work. > 
 Indeed the profit might have been increased ten- 
 fold, if only the most ordinary exertions had been 
 put forth ; but instability made burdensome any 
 
70 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 task, and what was finally accomplished came of the 
 efforts of others, as I withdrew altogether when 
 chances were best for greatest profit. Schemes and 
 plans were constantly being devised, however ; at a 
 time, even, when those in hand were renounced ; yet 
 these went no further than bare mention to those 
 who might easily have been persuaded into execut- 
 ing them to successful issue. As De Quincey truly 
 says, in speaking of poor Coleridge, " Opium 
 
 ■ eaters never complete any work," a sad example of 
 which is afforded in his own brilliant but erratic 
 life. 
 
 Equal indecision was shown in literary work. 
 Love of reading and study continued unabated 
 throughout the habit ; indeed, the tendency to iso- 
 lation of self led to increase of desire for books, 
 although many were begun that were never com- 
 pleted. Still the number of the latter was not so 
 great because of a marvelous faculty for quick grasp 
 
 • of the contents of any volume. Nor was the relish 
 for writing greatly abated ; there were periods when 
 amazing amounts of " copy " were turned out, as 
 associates will testify ; especially during the fifth 
 and sixth years of the addiction. The evil lay in 
 the utter inability to pursue extended and connected 
 labor. The spur of conscience drove to rapid work 
 and a great variety of it ; yet no article contained 
 
 . more than three thousand or four thousand words ; 
 in most cases much less. Previous to the habit 
 several tasks had been, performed, the least of them 
 extending to eiqrhtv thousand words, while one 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 71 
 
 reached to one hundred and thirty thousand words; 
 during the myth days of opium the most extended 
 single labor was but seven thousand words. The 
 unrestful mind could not fix itself for long upon any 
 one object, but constantly sought diversion and 
 variety. 
 
 At no period in life, however, was there greater 
 activity in planning literary enterprises ; now a plot 
 would be suggested for a stirring romance ; then 
 the idea of a great universal history. Here would 
 be begun work upon a statistical gazetteer of the 
 world ; there a scientific book, that was designed to 
 overthrow the accepted theories of the tides, aurora 
 borealis, natural selection, and gravity. Extended 
 critiques upon men and measures absorbed the 
 mind for a day ; . a life of Christ was pursued nearly 
 a week and a history of the Jews exercised the 
 brain at intervals for a month. One after another 
 these projects became pale members of the hosts of 
 the dead that were not. 
 
 " Unstable as water." Such was the sentence of 
 friends ; yet, silly fool, the devious paths were fol- 
 lowed in the delusion that some day there should 
 be discovered a prize that would bring imperishable 
 renown to the finder, so as to make atonement for 
 the doom of the enslavement. " The evil that men 
 do lives after them " is strongly exemplified in the 
 cases of De Quincey and Coleridge, whose enviable 
 distinction in the world of letters has deterred 
 thousands from seeking to throw off the chains. 
 Errant sufferers and blind, not to know that these 
 
72 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 \ men were illustrious, not through the habit but 
 despite that hinderance. In the depths of opium 
 despair the voice of hope came up out of the night 
 and whispered that as these two had acquired dis- 
 tinction while in the habit, so was it possible for 
 others to achieve immortality. The opium wretch 
 never loses his respect for the opinion of others; he 
 burns to do what will efface the shame of the habit 
 from neighbors and friends. Alas, and alas! the 
 days came and the nights pushed them into the 
 resurrectionless pit of the past, while my spirit fit- 
 fully did nothing, its variableness and shadow of 
 turning being as rapid as the jerky vibrations of a 
 weather vane on a gusty March day. 
 
 The fickleness was strongly and painfully appar- 
 ent in friendships. People who had been known 
 and esteemed for years grew into indifferent crea- 
 tures, to be carefully avoided. All correspondence 
 by mail was broken off early in the habit ; after the 
 second year no power could persuade me to break 
 the seal of any letter, however important might be 
 its contents or urgent the action it demanded. The 
 solitariness of the habit discouraged companion- 
 ship ; and when the society of others became an 
 imputed necessity, new faces were sought rather 
 than the old ones ; yet these new ones soon became 
 unpleasant fancies, passing with others into the 
 night and abode of shadows. 
 
 It must not be understood that the affections or 
 friendships of a lifetime were broken or discarded. 
 On the contrary there were times when the soul 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 73 
 
 yearned for sympathy, as the thirsty hart after the 
 limpid waters of the running brook. As far as the 
 disturbed and perverted mentality would permit 
 they were esteemed and cherished, save as suspicion 
 or other hateful spectres entered the soul to taint it. 
 Still they were avoided, doubtless for the same rea- 
 son as that which prompted the keeping away from 
 church, the theatre, and public gatherings of all 
 kinds ; the principal cause being conscious guilt 
 with fear of detection. Degrading confession ! 
 Such is the motive that impels the criminal to 
 dodge the light of day and the places frequented by 
 honest men. The moods were always uncertain ; 
 there were occasions when the feeling was strong 
 that one had need to wish like Job to be delivered 
 from his friends. Conjugal and paternal affection 
 remained fixed ; yet the wretched habit caused self- 
 ish and sometimes cruel neglect of duty towards 
 those who had a right to demand deepest solicitude 
 and most earnest support in all conditions and 
 trials. 
 
 Verily the mastery of opium is complete ; the 
 semi-moribund slave is made coward of all cowards. 
 The eater of the poppy gum is afraid of his fellow- 
 man. He dare not meet him face to face and assert 
 his rights. In his periods of mental disorder he 
 will suffer himself to be robbed of money and prop- 
 erty by designing knaves and afterward dare not 
 demand restitution. Confessions of this kind are 
 doubly painful in that before the coming of the cure, 
 those who did the wrong had passed beyond reach of 
 
74 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 a restored healthy brain and vigorous body. Suffer- 
 ing in the sixth year from most iniquitous injustice 
 at the hands of unscrupulous men and smarting 
 keenly under the wrong, an effort was made again 
 and again to go before the sinners to compel an 
 adjustment of the matter. As many as a score of 
 times the door of the place of business was reached; 
 but in every instance the faint and trembling heart 
 there failed ; finally, the opportunity for redress was 
 lost forever. 
 
 ^ The fear of death was a waking nightmare, hid- 
 eous as the dreams that come in the sleep of opium. 
 It was indeed "a horrible shape," as Milton terms 
 it. The physical agony of the transition brought 
 no terrors, because all that man " can know, or feel, 
 or fear" of that torture had been undergone so 
 often that no bodily pain could daunt or terrify ; 
 but it was the thought of the unfathomableness of 
 that infinite sea of eternity, which has no shores ; 
 the incomprehensible change from mortal to immor- 
 tal ; the loss of that entity whereby one knows and 
 is known, and the putting on of that which is the 
 mystery of all mysteries to humanity. The awful- 
 ness of futurity beyond time was above power of 
 expression ; while with it was the conviction that 
 the opium taint must be and abide forever ; that 
 father, mother, brothers, sister, and children in the 
 illimitable realm would see and recognize the curse 
 blot, which there as here would hold me in corrupt- 
 ing fold. This fear sometimes came as a mighty 
 rush of waters, roaring in the ears, blurring and 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 75 
 
 blinding the vision ; then, blessedly, for a few mo- 
 ments at least, deadening the senses. 
 
 y The suicidal impulse is very strong, at times 
 
 almost irresistible, notwithstanding the fear of 
 death ; so mutable is the fancy and the passion of 
 the slave. A friend in Southern Missouri had the 
 madness, nearly at stated times (the only instance 
 of its kind that has come to my notice), in all cases 
 within an hour of taking an increased quantity of 
 morphine. His safety was in his ignorance. The 
 daily allotment of the drug was so enormous that 
 its power to take life had passed with him. Not 
 knowing this he would supplement his increased 
 dose with three or four times what had been 
 already swallowed ; then with a mental farewell to 
 the world he would lie down upon his couch. He 
 confessed to infinite surprise when he awoke upon 
 earth ; but, as the mania had passed for the time, 
 he did not worry over the matter. His earnestness 
 of purpose, he declared, was fixed in each of the 
 dozen or more attempts he made ; yet such was his 
 delusion, it never occurred to him to resort to 
 other means. Or, if he thought at all of previous 
 failures, he ascribed them to lack of strength in the 
 drug he was then using, or mistake as to the quan- 
 tity swallowed. 
 
 A personal experience (the only instance in 
 which the desire really approached consummation) 
 in the eighth year of the addiction was a peculiar 
 one, whose impression remained most vivid 
 throughout the remainder of the habit. Overcome 
 
76 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of burdens and sorrows ; made desperate by finan- 
 cial straits, a resolve came to defy death. With 
 this object in view a quantity of str3'chnine was 
 purchased and placed in a vest pocket, where it 
 remained three days ; during which time sleep was 
 banished and mental distress was violent. Infinite 
 agony finall}' placed selfishness above every other 
 consideration ; family and religious obligations were 
 put out of sight and the shadows of the hereafter 
 began to gather. It was the evening of the third 
 day and I was walking along State street between 
 Madison and Monroe, in Chicago. A half hour 
 before the usual dose of laudanum had been 
 swallowed ; but in the then disturbed mental condi- 
 tion had produced no effect. With the set purpose 
 came a numbness, an insensibility to suffering, 
 and an absolute indifferentism to everything. 
 
 A knowledge of the effects of strychnine led to 
 the consciousness that physical pain would attend 
 the act, but this was a mere passing thought. 
 Utter weariness of life and complete hopelessness 
 of recovery made the step seem imperative ; so that 
 the little parcel was taken out with a measurably 
 firm hand. Just then an acquaintance came along 
 and it really seemed he read the criminal purpose 
 in the distracted face before him. He stopped for 
 a moment, appearing to wish to find out what was 
 concealed in the closed hand. Directly he passed 
 the paper was hastily torn and the toxic drug was 
 half-way to the lips, when the arm was arrested by 
 some unseen but irresistible force ; while at the same 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 77 
 
 time there appeared in life-like realism the form of 
 my sainted mother, who looked pityingly, yet with 
 reproachful eyes. Startled by this apparition 
 (which was awful in its realism, the appearance 
 being as in the flesh and as she was but a year or 
 so before her death) I cried aloud in affright, 
 threw the powder upon the pavement, the contents 
 scattering far and wide, and then ran madly down 
 the street, to the astonishment of passers by ; pro- 
 tracting the exercise until physical exhaustion 
 enforced a halt, two miles away. The vision was 
 doubtless one of the many hallucinations which 
 opium presented in those days, but its realism 
 remains fresh to this hour. 
 
 What a spirit was this that burdened the slave ; 
 afraid of life and afraid of death ! Danger lurked 
 upon the street ; fear suggested burglars in every 
 noise of the night. The pestilence that stalks at 
 noonday and the dangers that infest the sick room 
 were monsters of horrid mien. There was fear of 
 the brilliant aurora borealis ; of the tailed comet. 
 The flashing meteor in the summer night suggested 
 the judgment of the last day ; every dark cloud por- 
 tended a death-dealing tornado. A rumor of an 
 earthquake anywhere in the world brought to the 
 quaking soul thoughts of a cataclysm more deadly 
 than that which once befell Lisbon. Thus pusillan- 
 imity coined signs in the sun, moon, and stars and 
 filled all nature with evidences of impending deso- 
 lation. 
 
 In these hours of fear and indecision it some- 
 
78 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 times seemed that the devils of craven fear would 
 have disappeared if there had been a David at hand 
 to exorcise the malign spirits by the divine touch 
 of his harp, as he banished the fiend of melancholy 
 from the breast of Saul. Alas ! though, music had 
 lost its power to charm ; there came, so often, the 
 thought that like Judah by the waters of Babylon, 
 the songs could not be sung in a strange land. 
 Previous to the addiction, music was a divine, loved 
 art; when the habit came, the voice of richest 
 cadence became as the dissonance of rumbling 
 wheels, the sweetest tones of a grand cathedral organ 
 as the unmelodious cry of an angry peacock. All 
 opium habitues do not manifest a repugnance or 
 indifference to music, but irregular contraction of 
 the vocal cords is inseparable from the addiction ; 
 this, with inevitable huskiness of the throat, playing 
 serious tricks with the voice of him who would sing. 
 Musical sounds were distasteful and usually offen- 
 sive in the highest degree; the soul brooded in 
 measureless, profound silence, cowering in the 
 shadows and hiding from what was not and could 
 not be. 
 
 What sorrow overwhelmed me because the 
 trouble might not be confided to some one ; what 
 starvation was there of the soul for a morsel of 
 sympath)\ Unlike most habitues, there was no 
 disposition to confess the sin to a fellow-mortal in 
 the shackles. Knowing the utter inability of such 
 an afflicted one to be sincere, there could have been 
 no credence given to what he might say and no solace 
 
FEARS ENCOMPASS HIM. 79 
 
 in burdening him with troubles of another, when he 
 already had more of his own than he could bear. 
 Religious doubts had long disappeared, but the 
 gates of heaven refused to open to the piteous en- 
 treaties of him who had sold his soul to the opium 
 devil. The coward, faltering and undecided, was alone 
 in the mighty crowd and the mightier universe ; shut 
 off by his frightful habit from every sentient being, 
 — the living and the dead. It was a desolation so 
 complete that it turned day into night, and the night 
 into blackness of gloom and despair. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOQUACITY AND OBSTRUCTED MEMORY. 
 
 Fie, fie, how frantically I square my talk ! 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 That Harpocrates never tasted opium is 
 certain ; else had he lost his distinction as " god of 
 silence." An intelligent physician, who lives in 
 Iowa, after his release from the spell, said: "The 
 drug ought to be introduced in deaf-and-dumb 
 asylums ; for in a week's time it would have every 
 inmate talking as glibly as a two-year old child." 
 
 Cocaine, whisky, and hasheesh each have a ten- 
 dency to lubricate the hinges of the tongue, but all 
 of them are "outclassed," as the sporting characters 
 would express it, by the King of Loquacit}'. This 
 effect is never lost, even in the last stages of the 
 addiction, although the brightness and sparkle of 
 the first days gradually go into eclipse and the 
 speech at the latter end is nearly as meaningless as 
 the chatter of a magpie. This characteristic is dis- 
 tinctly recalled from out the fevered period of the 
 first months of the servitude, and many friends are 
 able to testify to the truth that it remained as long 
 as the habit endured. It should be explained that 
 in all stages the measure of the talkativeness is the 
 
 80 
 
LOQUACITY AND OBSTRUCTED iMEMORY. 8i 
 
 time of the taking of the drug ; being greatest just 
 after and least immediately before that period. 
 
 This unfortunate trait is only controlled bv isola- 
 tion, or absorption in reading or contemplation. 
 Given a companion and the flood-gates are instantly 
 opened, the stream pouring forth steadily in such 
 volume that there is suggestion of Niagara, the 
 damming of which might be as easy a task as that 
 of checking the verbal torrent. 
 
 There has been great exaggeration concerning 
 the brilliancy of ideas and the copiousness and beauty 
 of language engendered by the drug. Writers upon 
 this aspect of the case are accustomed to cite De 
 Quincey in evidence ; this is anything but fair, 
 because he was a superb genius and a genius is not 
 bounded by any wall. It would be as absurd to seek 
 to hold Patti to defined principles in vocalization as 
 to circumscribe the great master of language or to 
 make him dependent upon any extraneous influence 
 for his sublime style. He thought great ideas and 
 wrote ineffable English, not because he took opium 
 but despite the baneful influence of the drug. De 
 Quincey gave strength to this error because of his 
 extravagant praise of the narcotic. In one of his 
 bursts of enthusiasm he declares, "Whereas wine 
 disorders the mental faculties, opium on the con- 
 trary (if taken in a proper manner) introduces the 
 most exquisite order, legislation, and harmony. 
 Wine robs a man of his self-possession ; opium sus- 
 tains and reinforces it." How utterly he misappre- 
 hended the office of the drug is shown in the fact, 
 6 
 
82 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 emphasized elsewhere, that though in some sense a 
 stimulant, it is a narcotic, a stupefier, and not an 
 excitant to intelligent, nervous energ}-. 
 
 Evidences of m}- literary work through the vari- 
 ous stages of the habit lie before me as I write, and 
 it is earnestly declared that not one of these printed 
 articles contains any proof of drug inspiration. 
 Not a single one is above the average product of 
 the mind, while many of them are rubbish. These 
 articles comprehend the entire period of the habit, 
 every year of it ; those in the first year are as those 
 in the last ; some reasonably good and many unrea- 
 sonably bad. Did opium " introduce order, legisla- 
 tion, and harmony," they should be manifest in 
 excelling measure in the first months, at least, of the 
 habit ; but such is not the case. There should be 
 one production that suggests special inspiration 
 from the muse of opium. In sober truth it may be 
 said of the drug, as of magpies, parrots, and many 
 public speakers, "sound and sound only." It 
 assuredly does release the tongue and set free a tire- 
 less and tiresome flow of words that run along down 
 unfettered into the sea of oblivion. 
 
 Looking backward, amazement is the only word 
 that will convey any idea of the feelings in contem- 
 plation of the patience and forbearance shown by 
 friends and acquaintances during the long addiction. 
 Their consideration transcends bounds, else had 
 they banished forever from their presence one who 
 was in such a frame that he mistook empty nothings 
 for utterances of wisdom. Strange, indeed, would 
 
LOQUACITY AND OBSTRUCTED MEMORY. 83 
 
 it be if there were not, occasionally accidental bursts 
 of agreeable inanitions — a now-and-then meteor 
 flash out of the night's sk}- ; but was there ever a 
 crank or an insane person, who failed now and then 
 to void himself of a vigorous sentiment or a new 
 idea ? Life, however, is not long enough to suffer 
 a man to squander hours upon a rush of gibberish, 
 merely for the chance of seizing at long intervals a 
 stray thought that is worth remembering. 
 
 Pains is taken to dwell upon this feature of the 
 opium habit and to emphasize what is said, for the 
 reason that the error is a common one. Nearly 
 every person who has attempted to write upon the 
 effects of a single dose or two is fairly sure to des- 
 cant upon the sublime thoughts that were born in 
 his brain and the sizsa Tzzepdsvra — winged words, that 
 floated in cadenced sweetness from his inspired lips 
 while under the subtle influence. Can reason permit 
 such shallow stuff to pass as truth ? Opium is a 
 narcotic that has a tendency to befog the brain ; it 
 does not specially stimulate, but its physiological 
 effect in single doses as in the habit is to subdue the 
 activity of the functions of the brain as well as of 
 all the bodily parts. There is a word, not so much 
 now in use as in former years, that aptly expresses 
 the condition of the mind under the opium spell, 
 and that is "obfuscation." Besides subduing the 
 ordinary operations it tends to disorder ; reason inter- 
 fered with there are ebullient, contradictory, evanes- 
 cent, unreliable, and illogical thoughts, which find 
 expression in ,an irrepressible outflow of words 
 
84 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 which, perhaps, are mistaken for brilliancy because 
 of their seeming spontaneity. No agent should be 
 pronounced a creator of effusive ideas and classic 
 English that sends out thought in words that tumble 
 over one another in their mad chase for outer air. 
 Directing the memory backward, with instructions 
 to carefully search every chamber, closet, and hall 
 of the opium temple, she returns empty-handed with 
 the positive message that in them all she failed to 
 discover one idea, the giving out of which to the 
 world would make it any the brighter or better for 
 the knowledge. The inquiry has been made of 
 scores of habitues now cured and the unvarying 
 answer was a direct contradiction of the great writer 
 who has been quoted. They all had effusiveness 
 but never effectiveness. 
 
 A bright newspaper man long associated with 
 the writer often deprecated the fact that truth was 
 an essential to the record he made of current hap- 
 penings : " Ah! " he said regretfully one day in a 
 burst of confidence, "what sublime work I could 
 do, what magnificent climaxes I would reach, were 
 it not for that matter-of-fact, plain-faced old lady, 
 who is constantly poking in her nose and spoiling 
 a good story, by her insistence that things shall be 
 told just as they transpired." 
 
 Now the opium habitue is not handicapped in 
 this way, because the fecundity of thought and 
 rapidity of expression afford no time for reflection 
 upon the reliability of his utterances. Still, of all 
 the opium "fiends" that now live, of all those 
 
LOQUACITY AND OBSTRUCTED MEMORY. 85 
 
 who have lived, what record have they made of the 
 perfervidly luminous thoughts they have fulmin- 
 ated? If garrulity were brilliancy and a jumble of 
 words were eloquence, then all habitues would be 
 orators and rhetoricians of matchless fame. 
 
 The " uninterrupted flow " of words and " re- 
 pose of thought" may be most seriously interfered 
 with, as an unhappy personal recollection vividly 
 suggests ; the occasion being the last in which I 
 appeared as a public speaker during the remaining 
 period of the addiction. Previous to the habit there 
 had been a long and wide experience as an off-hand 
 talker, as well as lecturer ; hence the rostrum was 
 mounted with confidence, a fair quantity of the 
 drug having been swallowed previous to entering 
 the hall. This was in the sixth month of the 
 addiction. The subject was music as an educator. 
 The words flowed easily and gracefully, and, as the 
 audience knew little or nothing about the theme, I 
 was getting along nicely enough until suddenly I 
 found myself hesitating for a word. This shocked 
 me greatly, because it was an entirely novel 
 experience. In youth I had read and heartily en- 
 dorsed the sentiment of Jean Paul Richter, " The 
 poet who hesitates whether he will say, yes or no, 
 to the devil with him." I had never as a speaker 
 or a writer faltered for the appreciable part of a 
 second over a thought or a word, whatever its merit 
 might be. The suggestions of caution, prudence, 
 reserve, etc., often make sad havoc with the energy 
 of a sentence ; exquisitely thought-out sentiments 
 
86 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 have been made most commonplace through the 
 same fear of saying too much. Mr. Beecher de- 
 clared that he gave over revising his sermons after 
 their delivery, because he discovered that what he 
 chained in elegance he more than lost in force. With 
 this experience and faith I was not only at a loss 
 to understand why my vocabulary should sud- 
 denly give out, but also inexpressibly shocked to 
 find that there should be any deficiency in the 
 memory faculty. My face flushed, but rallying 
 quickly I substituted another word for the one lost. 
 The pause was awkward and the word ridiculous, as 
 I saw by the puzzled, quizzical look upon the faces 
 of several of the more intelligent members of the 
 audience. Hastening forward in the theme I had 
 carried all my hearers beyond all recollection of 
 the break, when, in the middle of a complex sen- 
 tence, I came to an irremediable halt. Had life 
 depended upon it I could not have recalled what I 
 proposed to say. All that could be done was to 
 leave it unsaid and proceed to another thought 
 and to the conclusion of the address, being all 
 the time in terror lest there should occur another 
 break. 
 
 After that experience nothing could have in- 
 duced me to again appear before an audience. 
 Throughout the remainder of the habit the inabilit}- 
 to recall words, even the most familiar ones, was a 
 marked feature of literary work ; sometimes I would 
 spend several minutes in effort to bring one to 
 
LOQUACITY AND OBSTRUCTED MEMORY. 87 
 
 recollection. I would be utterly' unable at times to 
 remember the names of intimate friends, those even 
 of a lifetime. This was carried so far on some 
 occasions that I could not recall the name of wife or 
 children. This embarrassed me greatly in conver- 
 sation, for while I talked glibly enough, the needed 
 word would often be wanting ; the hesitation con- 
 fused me and annoyed the hearer. Worse punish- 
 ment was this, that knowing the failing I was most 
 reluctant to talk, but the demon drug would inex- 
 orably demand it and I durst not disobey. Some- 
 times it demanded the utmost politeness on the part 
 of those compelled to listen to refrain from smiling 
 at the words I was. constrained to use ; there were 
 times when I was so overwhelmed that I would 
 walk suddenly away without offering any excuse 
 for the rudeness. 
 
 This is all the more remarkable for the reason 
 that memory was extraordinary in its development 
 in childhood, just as it now is ; the power of recall- 
 ing any fact, incident, word, or sentiment — any- 
 thing read, seen, or heard, has always been instanta- 
 neous in its action, except of course, during the 
 continuance of the opium habit. Here is positive 
 evidence of the immediate and direct effect of the 
 drug upon this faculty, since it was completely 
 restored just as soon as the poison was eliminated 
 from the brain cells. There never was beautiful 
 maiden who was not conscious of her charms ; so 
 there was never man possessed of some mental 
 
88 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 attribute excelling that of his associates, who did 
 not feel elevated somewhat in consequence, even 
 though that quality be no more than the simple one 
 of memory. Pride went utterly out as I realized 
 that all knowledge availed nothing, since it was not 
 subject to order or control. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY. 
 
 Like a dull actor, 
 I have forgot my part, and I am out. 
 Even to a full disgrace. 
 
 Shakespeare — Coriolanus. 
 
 Martin Farquhar Tupper sang well upon the 
 theme, mefis mihi regnum est, and were a poet's 
 genius mine, the Muse would be invoked to sound 
 the praises of the brain, that wonderful organ which 
 bears all things, endures all things, and suffers all 
 things ; then in forgiveness effectually blots out the 
 offenses that have been committed against its 
 majesty. " Behold I am fearfully and wonderfully 
 made," said the Psalmist, and the laudation pertains 
 chiefly to this chamber of thought. The higher 
 animals closely resemble man in bodily structure, 
 while in brain development there is a difference so 
 wide that no bridge of theories can ever span the 
 two creations. The gorilla, first among the brutes, 
 is irremediably lower than the Australian, himself 
 probably the most degraded of all humanity. 
 Whatever may have been God's plan in the creation 
 of brutes, when He had ended that work. He said 
 in the words of the inspired writer, " Let us make 
 man in our image," after our likeness ; and let them 
 
go DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
 over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
 and over all the earth, and over every creep- 
 ing thing that creepeth upon the earth. So, God 
 created man in his own image, in the image of God 
 created he him; male and female created he them." 
 This dominion, this power, and this strength lie in the 
 dome of thought which inspires to aim and deed. 
 
 Intricate as its workmanship, and infinitely as its 
 fibre and its proportional size raises its owner above 
 all the other creatures, these qualities are surpassed 
 by its powers of endurance. During a period of 
 nine years my brain was clogged with opium ; the 
 effete matter was not thrown off, but remained to 
 dull the activity of the cells and cloud the sky of 
 reason ; 3'et, despite all this perversion and abuse, 
 day after day, in the first months of the restoration, 
 I was filled with unutterable amazement at the Pan- 
 dora gifts that came out of this marvelous store- 
 house. Valuables of whose presence there was no 
 cognizance, facts, events, incidents, scenes, thoughts, 
 plans, faces, anything and everything, were brought 
 out in all the brightness of novelty, and God's 
 name was blessed that it was so. The days of 
 earliest childhood, the most minute details of mature 
 years, the life of young and mature manhood — all 
 the things of life were brought up by memory and 
 paraded as the triumph march of a conquering king 
 upon his return from battle. It was as though dear, 
 precious Memory had said : " Though you have 
 despised my gifts and sought- to compass my 
 
IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY. 91 
 
 destruction ; though 3-00 have introduced an enemy 
 who has fought for my dethronement, still I remain 
 intact, secure in m}- dominion and forgiving towards 
 your transgressions." 
 
 Ah ! generous and great and beauteous Memory, 
 while supposed to be absent, or dead, or sleeping, 
 just as busily as ever were the deft fingers pushing 
 the stylus and recording all possible impressions 
 throughout the entire period of the habit; so that 
 in the day following the night of opium there 
 might easily be read the record of all things that 
 transpired in the time of cloud and thick darkness. 
 Not only were the hazy and indistinct happenings 
 of the foggy period made clear, but also those 
 events that chanced in the times of stupefaction, 
 when there was seeming utter oblivion. Thus it is 
 possible to call up almost in the order of their hap- 
 pening all the dramas and tragedies of the slavery 
 days and compare them in the light of a perfect 
 restoration. 
 
 Oftentimes the forgotten and unknown were 
 resurrected in the flash -of an eye; again they 
 unfolded gradually with the passage of time, until 
 within six months of the cure the mental man was 
 complete in every part and exulted in the knowl- 
 edge. No effort whatsoever was required ; there 
 was no special meditation upon them ; but, on the 
 contrary, it was as though Memor}' forced herself 
 to the front for recognition and would not suffer 
 any thwarting of her purpose to resume a sway that 
 had been marvelousl}- potential until opium 
 
92 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 wrested power from her hands. On the crowded 
 street, in the cars, at home, she brought up out of 
 her treasure house the inestimable riches and laid 
 them at my feet, and I trembled with a joy that 
 thrilled in the consciousness of possession. On 
 and on they came, one after the other, as a steady 
 flowing crystal stream, until the whole soul was 
 satiate and the strong man was ready to cry, "It is 
 enough." 
 
 In order to a proper comprehension of this 
 miraculous restoration of memory, it is fit that 
 some reference be made with circumstantiality of 
 detail to certain features of the habit not previously 
 noted ; or, at best, but hinted at. Without enter- 
 ing into the metaphysical aspects of the case or dis- 
 cussing the physiological theory of brain impressions 
 it may be said that under no condition does the brain 
 lose its power of holding such facts, truths, or ideas 
 as are transmitted to it by the proper channels — 
 ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and touch ; or such as may 
 be created within itself by reason of the knowledge 
 that is thus conveyed. The latter property may be 
 dormant during the periods of mental unconscious- 
 ness; but the former may go right along, whether 
 the Ego is in a state of partial unconsciousness, or 
 the world is to him a blank and he walks in 
 shadows which he does not see. 
 
 The memory is constantly assailed in the opium 
 slavery. Love of reading and study was not lost, 
 but there was inability to continue for any length 
 of time in a proper frame to follow any author, 
 
IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY. 93 
 
 however agreeable his style or precious his facts. 
 What operated against persistence was the abiding 
 impression that what was read was valueless, be- 
 cause the mind could not retain it. As in every- 
 thing else, there seemed to be a great sea of oblivion 
 in the brain, into which everj^thing was plunged to 
 be never again brought to the surface by the angry 
 waves that beat tempestuously against the resisting 
 walls. The names of books and authors would soon 
 get into confusion, the facts would jumble together, 
 and then all pass out of life and being. This was 
 equally true of human faces, human forms, and 
 human names ; equally true of what was heard and 
 seen and felt and known. True, there were excep- 
 tions, some of the impressions being more persistent 
 than others, presenting themselves after many days ; 
 yet, as a general proposition, they existed like the 
 ephemera but for an hour or a day and then passed 
 out into the everlasting shades. 
 
 One of the gloomiest thoughts connected with 
 the earlier days following the cure was that the 
 throne of memory could never be restored. During 
 the first sixty days that followed the breaking of 
 the bonds there was more or less confusion of 
 ideas ; what came out of the past was dim and ill- 
 defined, while the capacity to give out strength and 
 vigor of thought was greatly abridged. Soon, 
 however, in fact, with the taking on of bodily 
 strength, light grew brighter and more far-reaching, 
 until it stretched back in one unbroken stream to 
 the earliest periods of existence, showing not a 
 
94 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 single break in the continuity. Strange and passing 
 strange that power of the drug in the habit, and equally 
 so the complete surrender when manhood conquers 
 and reason returns. 
 
 All persons who have been cured of the opium 
 habit do not refer with equal enthusiasm to the 
 potencv of memory's return after the slavery. Ex- 
 planation of this may be found in the varying 
 power of this faculty in individuals. In the writer 
 it is remarkably developed and has been potentially 
 exercised throughout life. Nothing that has once 
 come under observation is forgotten, while the 
 power to recall is instantaneous. The text-books 
 of the school room, the romances and solid reading 
 of childhood and youth, and, in fact, anything and 
 ever3'thing that has excited attention or been given 
 an opportunity to find its way to the brain, remains 
 there indelibly. Men who are not thus endowed 
 are scarcely liable to be so profoundly impressed 
 with a full return of memory after long repression. 
 When it is not a marked characteristic, there would 
 be less, of course, to recall, and, naturally, less value 
 would be attached to the acquisition. Still, the 
 fact remains that opium plays havoc with the mem- 
 ory; just as truly, it leaves that faculty absolutely 
 unimpaired, once its yoke is cast off and its former 
 victim is free. 
 
 It must be. understood that this testimony is sub- 
 ject to the qualification that where brain lesions 
 exist as a result of the habit, there may be vestiges, 
 greater or less, of impairment of this faculty, as 
 
IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY. 95 
 
 there may be of other properties of the brain. Else- 
 where attention is invited to the disturbing effects 
 of other drugs in connection with opium, and when 
 the habitue uses cocaine in excess with his narcotic 
 he is especially likely to show mental impairment. 
 The object of this writing is to encourage those in 
 the various habits to look for redemption ; it would, 
 therefore, be improper to suggest what might tend 
 to obscure hope. Still, it is necessary to the cause 
 of truth and a proper understanding of this most 
 important subject to state that the effects herein 
 described have reference to a single habit — that of 
 opium. If their portrayal varies from the expe- 
 rience of others, it will be found upon investigation 
 that extraneous influences cause differentiations. 
 Since more than one-half of the opium habitues of 
 the United States have at least one added addiction, 
 and sometimes two or more, it is highly important 
 that where any experience of theirs may appear to 
 differ from this record, inquiry should be made as 
 to the resultant action of the other drug or drugs. 
 Thus, cocaine's action is directly upon the brain ; it 
 is an excitant, while opium is sedative. Three 
 months' excessive use of it, either with or without 
 opium, would inevitably result in brain lesions that 
 would be likely to be permanent after a cure, and 
 as likely to be revealed in impairment of memory 
 as of any other faculty. 
 
 Stress is laid upon this point because of the in- 
 finite pleasure afforded in the return of recollection 
 after so long a disturbance of memory — an expe- 
 
96 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 rience that is positive and radical in its completeness. 
 Where it fails to be striking the fault lies, as stated, 
 in a natural deficiency in this quality or in perma- 
 nent injury to the brain b}^ some other agent. 
 Excessive use of opium often begets insanity that is 
 incurable ; it might produce in some subjects a per- 
 manent impairment of the memory after restoration. 
 The latter instances, however, would be very rare ; 
 the man now in bondage can confidently look for- 
 ward to perfect restoration of mind and body, if he 
 resolves upon a cure of his habit. 
 
 Perfect health brings to one so long in bondage 
 to disease strength and confidence that are inspir- 
 ing, indeed, as well as a satisfaction of spirit that 
 nearly leads to contentment ; yet far greater is the 
 gratification that arises in the contemplation of the 
 mind, supreme in its realm and the memory, capa- 
 ble of doing and daring all things, precisely as in 
 the former days of elastic and impressionable 
 youth. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. 
 
 In this fool's paradise he drank delight. 
 
 Crabbe — The Borough Payers. 
 
 Eskimos have a general belief that the life-giv- 
 ing sun is the most beautiful creature in all the 
 universe, when seen from the front ; but that a rear 
 view shows it to be a" hideous, naked skeleton, well 
 calculated to inspire disgust and horror. Opium is 
 a divinity of most ravishing attractions when first 
 
 V' approached, but in the frigid night of the habit is 
 the most deformed and frightful object in all the 
 world. First doses of the drug afford most pleas- 
 
 y urable sensations, the subject gradually entering 
 into a beatific world in which care has no place. 
 The higher senses are blurred, and consecutive, 
 unified thought is impossible ; but an irresistible 
 impulse leads to loquacity ; in many instances the 
 speech is very pretty, although lacking in coher- 
 ency. This state yields, sometimes gradually, but 
 oftentimes quickly, to sleep that is usually so pro- 
 found as to simulate death. When the subject 
 awakes he is somewhat irritable, yet still rather 
 pleasurably exalted for a brief season ; but this 
 state is succeeded b}' inevitable depression. This 
 7 97 
 
g8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 last stage is one that makes so perilous the giving 
 of the enchanting drug. Now it is that the will is 
 enthralled and free license is given to desire. If 
 the ph^-sician be not at hand to restrain, the dose is 
 likely to be repeated. Alas! each yielding is but 
 another link in the frightful chain of habit. 
 
 Usuall}', in a manlEree from pain, the first stage 
 of wakeful excitation continues from ten to thirty 
 minutes ; the sleep which follows endures from four 
 to ten hours; the third stage, of active, nervous 
 exaltation, governed somewhat by the period of 
 sleep, may endure from thirty minutes to four 
 hours ; while in the last frame, that of depression, 
 the suffering may extend over twenty-four hours ; 
 but with decreasing tendencies. So liiuch depends 
 upon the physical and mental condition, the ex- 
 ternal surroundings, the quantity and quality of the 
 drug, and the resistance or tolerance of the individ- 
 ual that it is scarcely possible to give accurate 
 data in these particulars. Invariably the drug 
 operates more reliably by night than by day, and 
 noises or distraction of any kind mitigate its opera- 
 tions. 
 
 In general terms, it may be said a fair average 
 dose of, morphine, hypodermically, is one-eighth of 
 a grain, while double that quantity is given in pow- 
 der by the mouth ; two grains of opium and twenty 
 drops of laudanum, represent, respectively, average 
 prescriptions of these forms of the drug. Ph3'^si- 
 cians, however, know that under great pain or 
 intense excitement the quantities named may be 
 
PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. gg 
 
 more than doubled without danger. Reference has 
 been made to the fact that some individuals have 
 exceptional resistant powers ; instances of this kind 
 having come under personal notice that would seem 
 to positively demand great credulit}^ to accept as 
 trustworthy. In ninety-nine cases in one hundred 
 two grains of morphine taken ait one time b}' one 
 unaccustomed to the drug would result in death ; 
 yet a man in Chicago took six grains without any 
 inconvenience, although he had never before taken 
 an opiate to his knowledge. Two teaspoonfuls of 
 laudanum have proved fatal in numbers of cases ; 
 but an acquaintance swallowed two ounces, six- 
 teen teaspoonfuls, without experiencing any hurtful 
 effects whatsoever. In each instance suicide was 
 the object, and mental disorder may have served to 
 neutralize the effects of the master poison. 
 
 The exceptions do not affect the rule. The 
 usual doses of the various forms of the drug are as 
 stated ; when thus taken, unless there is great 
 physical suffering, or unconsciousness, the effects 
 are in all cases pleasurable ; not a single exception 
 having been noted in all the examples that have 
 come under observation. The agreeable and beau- 
 tiful phase continues oftentimes for months when 
 the habit is forming, but in decreasing potency. 
 So the universal consensus is that the tendency is 
 to steadily increase the quantity and that once the 
 excitation passes, the spell of the enchanter is 
 broken forever. As the Norse " huldre," the ex- 
 quisite loveliness has given way to utter repulsive- 
 
100 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ness. The night comes and grey never again 
 streaks the sky as harbinger of a coming da}-. 
 
 Because of the peculiar conditions surrounding 
 my case, which have been faithfully given elsewhere, 
 it is necessary, in order to present some phases of 
 the pleasures of the habit, to draw upon the experi- 
 ences of other credible witnesses. There were, it is 
 true, some periods in the shadowy and murky land 
 of dreams and mental straits of the early days of 
 the habit, in which there appeared forms and faces 
 of opium creation that were not unpleasurable, but 
 they were, after all, like the fancies and illusions 
 that come to the fever-tossed patient. They are 
 floating, uncertain creatures, tossed about here and 
 there upon the waves, bobbing like so many corks, 
 crossing and intermixing, gradually fading from 
 sight only to show up in another place. 
 
 A phj-sician whose practice was large, so over- 
 worked himself during an epidemic of fever in a 
 malarial district in Missouri that he suffered terri- 
 bly from insomnia. In order to relieve it he had 
 recourse to the hypodermic syringe, injecting one- 
 fifth of a grain of morphine into his arm. The 
 effect of this being barely perceptible, after about 
 twenty minutes he took another; injecting this time 
 about one-third of a grain. The influence was 
 almost instantaneous and he passed at once into a 
 restful and delightful frame of mind, followed by 
 ecstatic visions. 
 
 " I found myself," said he, " suddenly relieved 
 from the oppression and heaviness that had 
 
PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. loi 
 
 been upon me for many days and nights ; a very 
 quieting influence crept over me. The blood 
 quickened in the veins ; the pulse beat faster. The 
 skin of the body grew dry and this seemed to ex- 
 tend to the hair, which gave out the impression of 
 crackling, like dry twigs when stepped upon. These 
 changes were followed by a rather agreeable buz- 
 zing in the ears, a quickening of the vision, and a 
 sense of extreme lightness of body. I seemed to 
 have cast off every ounce of superfluous flesh and 
 could float or fly in the air, if I desired. A kind of 
 flickering of light rays went on before the eyes and 
 the joints of the tongue were loosed wonderfully. 
 I talked to my wife, who had entered the room just 
 after the second injection, as if for a wager, until 
 she became alarmed at my animated manner; when 
 I reassured her by telling her what I had done and 
 requested her to leave, that I might sleep. 
 
 "When alone the speech mania passed and I 
 went into a delirium of intoxication, every detail 
 of which is fresh in my mind, although my head 
 was swimming and thoughts came and went with 
 lightning rapidity. All these impressions were 
 agreeable, delightfully so ; yet there was a fitfulness 
 about them, suggestive of the aberrances of a fever. 
 I wandered through palaces of marble, where stately 
 dames danced minuets and lovely girls flitted about 
 hilariously to sensuous music that thrilled my very 
 soul. Then I was transferred to gardens and parks 
 filled with all manner of incensed flowers, fountains 
 and statues ; where birds sang as if inspired and 
 
102 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 beasts roamed about at pleasure, indifferent to my 
 presence. I visited a thousand places of which I 
 had heard or read ; as, the Louvre, the Vatican, St. 
 Peter's, the cathedrals of Milan and Cologne ; I 
 whirled along in cabs across the continent of Europe 
 and sailed over oceans ; at all times accompanied 
 by agreeable companions, who talked delightiuUy 
 on the most entertaining subjects. Finally, a state 
 of silent, ineffable bliss ensued, in which the soul 
 seemed to be absorbed in meditation upon chaos. 
 There were the merest suggestions of delightful 
 mists, that dissolved just as they were about to 
 assume agreeable shapes ; I heard sounds that were' 
 not exactly music, yet most pleasant withal. I 
 could scarcely be said to be thinking or feeling, yet 
 the state was one of cognition — a dreamy, heavenly 
 state, in which indifferentism united with musing 
 upon what is unknowable. 
 
 " One can form no idea of time in such a frame as 
 this. I was wide awake ; there was consciousness, for 
 the crowing of a Cochin China cock in the yard and 
 the barking of a neighbor's dog told of living things. 
 I was serenely at peace. No thought was given to 
 the many patients, whose varying disorders had so 
 disturbed me ; I gave no heed to the weather, the 
 extreme heat of which had caused me no little an- 
 noyance. Not a single wave of trouble beat against 
 my anchored spirit. Whether it was day or night, 
 or warm or cold, whether at home or abroad, on 
 land or sea, gave me no concern. I was of the 
 world, for I knew where I was and what I had done; 
 
PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. 103 
 
 but I was not of the world, because there was no 
 thought or care concerning anything upon earth. 
 The various objects in the chamber were plainly 
 seen ; but they were, in a sense, etherealized ; taking 
 on more artistic shape, delicacy of structure, and 
 richness of material. At the same time I felt my- 
 self translated into another realm, in which figures 
 not unfamiliar appeared ; yet I was unable to clearly 
 identify them ; it seemed I might do so if I put 
 forth an}' effort, but effort of an}' kind was alto- 
 gether out of the question, because I was peacefully 
 contented. 
 
 " Presently I grew somewhat restless and the 
 buzzing in the ears increased to a mild roar, while 
 mists danced before the ej'es ; then I passed into 
 sleep and dreams. I say dreams, because there was 
 one after another, and one chased into the other ; 
 then they would get mixed up in a queer fashion, 
 but they were all delightful and bewitching. Now, 
 I was in the midst of flowers whose fragrance fairly 
 intoxicated me; then among airy-like structures, 
 whose towers and minarets pierced the crimson and 
 purple cloud islands that floated high in a sky of 
 deepest blue. Forms of enchanting loveliness passed 
 in and out, while music from unseen voices was as 
 the songs of angels. The scene changed rapidly 
 without shock to my highly sensitized nerves ; the 
 impossible and unusual became substantial and 
 natural. I stood on an island of emerald green, 
 looking out upon an opalescent sea of sublime tran- 
 quillity, upon which men of statelj' mien walked as 
 
I04 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 upon dry land ; then I was suddenly transferred to 
 a mountain peak, where I saw all the kingdoms of 
 the world, with their pleasures and riches, without a 
 suggestion of the sorrows and afflictions that beset 
 humanit3-. I saw the faces of loved ones lit up 
 with ineffable happiness as they pleasantly conversed 
 with me ; it did not occur to me until after the 
 waking that these were the forms of those who had 
 been called hence during my childhood, youth, and 
 younger manhood. They were living and real ; yet 
 their manner and speech were not those of the liv- 
 ing. These and a thousand other visions floated 
 before the dream eyes of the quickened but dis- 
 ordered brain; but the sensations were in the high- 
 est degree pleasurable and the delirium was one of 
 ever-changing joy. The awaking was terrible. My 
 mouth was parched, the lips dry, my head ached 
 violently, and I cursed morphine as the very devil 
 among all drugs. Yet, think of the folly and the 
 weakness of man ! Within two months I was bound 
 hand and foot by the demon and he held me fast 
 for fourteen years." 
 
 An acquaintance in Michigan, who is a reticent 
 man and slow of speech, was lifted in nubibus on the 
 wings of opium and ridded himself of an Utopian 
 address of great length to a delighted audience of 
 ethereal spirits, the forms of which were agreeable, 
 but whose semblance he had never seen in mortal 
 shape. It may be explained in his case, that while 
 a taciturn man he is reflective and poetic. Insist- 
 ence is made that opium is never creative, but 
 
PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. 105 
 
 merely repeats thoughts and impressions that had 
 previous place in the brain. On the other hand, its 
 loquacity is boundless and the gentleman from 
 Michigan found that, not only during the first 
 months of the habit, but to the very end, he was 
 garrulous during the period of greatest effect after 
 each dose. In evidence of the contradictoriness 
 and provokingness of opium, he found himself more 
 or less garrulous in all his dreams as well. The 
 pleasurable emotions and rhapsodical dreams dis- 
 appeared in his case, never to return, after the 
 fourth month. 
 
 A Chicago friend declares that he enjoyed wak- 
 ing periods of verve and dreams of bliss during the 
 first ten months of his habit, but that their declin- 
 ing energy was cognizable at the time. A pecul- 
 iarity in his case was that his dreams in that epoch 
 almost invariably led him into luxurious surround- 
 ings and showed him possessor of great riches. In 
 his hours of somnolence he strolled upon the banks 
 of golden Pactolus, entered the realms of El Dorado, 
 and carried the purse of Fortunatus. Time that was 
 became the present ; the dead were resurrected and 
 he became the companion and friend of Dives, 
 Midas, Croesus, Lucullus, Louis le Grand, and Philip 
 of Spain. The Rothschilds, Hirschs, Vanderbilts, 
 and Astors of this generation courted his favor and 
 he bestowed largesses with generous hand. His 
 was the reward not only to see but also to acquire 
 the world's riches ; his opulence made him the 
 observed of all nations. These dreams, to be sure, 
 
y 
 
 io6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 took on different forms and scenes ; yet in the vari- 
 ous extravaganzas his role was that of a king among 
 the rich ; for his treasures were unlimited. 
 
 Among the many experiences that have been 
 gathered, that of a gentleman in Virginia offers the 
 most extravagant and fertile presentations. His 
 first day disorders were literally dreams and visions 
 of unalloyed amcemtates, in which he lay upon 
 couches of roses ; while his companions were men 
 who had been sanctified through their virtues, or 
 spirits of good that had passed through death unto 
 life. In one of his dreams, he was an angel of 
 mercy, sent to bear tidings of redemption to souls 
 that had sinned; he was thrilled with the infinite 
 joy that was communicated from those he brought 
 out of darkness into light. In his fumes of fancy 
 he would go in and out of the gates of the Celestial 
 City and he held converse with patriarchs and 
 prophets, saints and martyrs of the ages. Often- 
 times, these ecstasies would come upon him before 
 his feet reached slumberland; indeed, he can 
 scarcely divide the sleeping from the waking illu- 
 sions in many of the hours of the happy period of 
 opium delectation. Alas ! with him as all other 
 habitues, he was hurled like Lucifer headlong from 
 the empyrean, and spent many weary years among 
 the spirits of the lost and damned forever. 
 
 The opium neophyte is never, like the victim of 
 hasheesh, led into Phryne worship. Among all the 
 varying moods of rhapsody and the infinite delirium 
 of dreams no houri forms appear. Abominabl}- 
 
PLEASURES OF SLAVERY. 107 
 
 monstrous and cruel though he be, craft}', devilish, 
 fanciful, and diabolic, opium has only scorn for the 
 lustful. 
 
 It is necessary to emphasize the fact that in the 
 time when opium offers enchantment in its extended 
 right hand, with its left it thrusts pang and darts of 
 conscious worthlessness. The Jack-o'-lantern sprites 
 are succeeded by devils of querimoniousness, who 
 suggest ills that opium only can heal ; each paean of 
 rhapsody is followed by a heart-touching threnody. 
 The day of sunshine and blue sky finally ended 
 with one and all ; the shadows fell, the storm burst, 
 and fear compassed them about. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 
 
 'Gainst which a ship of succor desolate, 
 Doth suffer wreck both of himself and goods. 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 Reflecting upon the incalculable harm that has 
 been done by the tergiversations, contradictions, 
 and illusive fascinations that abound in the "Con- 
 fessions of an English Opium Eater," it seems 
 obligatory to point out with emphasis such of the 
 leading errors contained in that work as are not 
 indicated elsewhere in this volume. The master of 
 exquisite English is thus approached with trepi- 
 dant spirit, because the judgment of man has made 
 merit of his offenses through the vicarious atone- 
 ment of his ineffable diction. The world at large 
 has accepted his utterances as the pronouncement 
 of one who spoke with authority and not as the 
 time-serving Scribes ; it may not therefore regard 
 with favor any attempt to break in pieces this idol 
 of general worship. I yield to no one in admira- 
 tion of the superb genius of a man, who, despite 
 the befogging clouds and thick darkness of opium 
 thraldom, could yet see the infinite glories of mind 
 and matter, portraying them in beauty of coloring 
 and glow of imager}'^ such as it has been permitted 
 
 io8 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 109 
 
 few to equal and none to excel. Of him it may 
 almost be said that he wrote as never man wrote 
 before. Herein, however, lies the danger of his 
 distinguishing work, which Coleridge declares was 
 written "with morbid vanity," and, he truthfully 
 adds, was the "occasion of seducing others into the 
 withering vice through wantonness." The beaute- 
 ous charm of his words is almost as seductive as 
 the baleful drug itself. There is no pleasure in 
 attempting the work of an iconoclast, but the same 
 invincible hand that has thus far led me on will not 
 permit any obstacle to obstruct the path of inexor- 
 able dut}^ 
 
 Had De Quincey rested with the first two 
 chapters of the "Confessions," which appeared in 
 the autumn of 1821 ; when, as he boastfully said, he 
 had "untwisted, almost to its final links, the 
 accursed chain which fettered" him, then had there 
 been little to criticise ; for, although the insuHerable 
 vanity of the genius pervades every page and the 
 vaunting ambition to excel, even in weakness and 
 cunning, led him into gross exaggerations, still the 
 elaborate tale of his youth, supplemented with the 
 all-too-brief account of the pleasures and evils of 
 the drug, did serve to point a moral which he who 
 runs might read and learn to his profit and warning. 
 However, as all do know, the master of English 
 was a persistent slave of opium ; the untwisted links 
 soon became twisted again. He boasted as one 
 who had not tested his strength ; for in August of 
 the next year, 1822, followed his third chaptei- 
 
no DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 which was supposed to be final, declaratory of his 
 complete subjection to the Satan drug. Confessedly 
 unable to conquer, here he begins his apology for 
 the monster ; seeking to persuade men that his shape 
 is not nearly so hideous as he had been led to sup- 
 pose, when he thought he saw a way of escape 
 from his dominion and power. This was bad 
 enough, sad enough, pitiful to weeping, that the 
 strong should display such weakness and the sinner 
 should so unctuously urge to sinning; yet thirty-four 
 years after, in 1856, when he had passed the limit 
 of life named by David, at a time when age should 
 have brought him penitence and contrite sorrow for 
 the evil he had done in persuading others to take 
 the road whose end is the very gate of hell — in 
 this period of reflection and supposed good judg- 
 ment he set about to revise his book, and gave to 
 the world a complete and full denial of the horrors 
 of opium as recited in the original narrative in 
 1821. Here is what he says in 1856: 
 
 "What, then, is my final report upon its good 
 and evil results?" Remember this is the ultimate 
 legislation of his mind; these statutes repeal all 
 previous enactments that come in conflict with them. 
 With all the emphasis he can command, De Quin- 
 cey declares : 
 
 ( 1 ) That in the habit there is not a tendency to 
 increased quantities of the drug. 
 
 (2) That the power and efficiency of the narcotic 
 do not decline with use. 
 
 (3) That the nervous depression, dire forebod- 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. iii 
 
 ings, and hideous dreams, so graphically described 
 by him in 1821, were not the result of opium but of 
 "sedentariness." 
 
 (4) That he decreased his daily quantity from 
 8,000 to 300 drops of laudanum, and later to less 
 than 150 drops (5 to 6 grains of opium, or less than 
 I grain of morphine), maintaining the latter quantity, 
 without increase, for many years and until his record 
 was made. 
 
 (5) That he should have been dead thirty-five 
 years before but for the "beneficent" drug. 
 
 Readers of this book will observe that the 
 author's experience is positively contrary in every 
 particular to this summary of De Quincey's conclu- 
 sions. There is not an opium habitue in this or any 
 other Christian country, not one anywhere, but that 
 will in his own sad servitude confute the author of 
 the "Confessions." In the various interpolations 
 that are found in the revised edition of 1856 charity 
 may see vanity and senility ; while justice proclaims 
 them downright falsehood and deceit. The illus- 
 trious writer of these amendments confuted himself 
 by his own words at the time he promulgated them. 
 In his Prefatory Notice to the New and Enlarged 
 Edition, he says: "A nervous malady of a very 
 peculiar character, that has attacked me intermit- 
 tingly for the last eleven years, came in on May last, 
 almost concurrently with the commencement of this 
 revision; and so obstinately has the malady pre- 
 served its noiseless and what I may call subterranean 
 siege, since none of the symptoms are externally 
 
112 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 manifested, that, although pretty nearly dedicating 
 myself to this one solitary labor, and not intermit- 
 ting or relaxing for a single day, I have yet spent, 
 within a very few daj's, six calendar months upon 
 the recast of this one small volume." 
 
 This confession of nervous undoing scarcely 
 comports with another of his dogmatical assevera- 
 tions, that "nervous irritation is the secret desolator 
 of human life; and for this there is probabl}- no 
 adequate controlling power but that of opium, taken 
 dail}' under steady regulation." According to his 
 own positive boast he had taken this drug daily 
 "under steady regulation" through all the "last 
 eleven 3'ears," and yet, although the "power and effi- 
 ciency of the drug never decline," he had been 
 afflicted in these years with "a nervous malady of a 
 very peculiar character," which so interfered with 
 literary work that it actually demanded half a year 
 to revise a book that is not so large as this volume. 
 De Quincey might have added what the sober judg- 
 ment of his best friends and sincerest admirers have 
 since declared, "that this nervous malady or some 
 other cause conspired to make less alert his brain 
 and less limpid the flow of thought ; for by common 
 consent the literary merit of the Revision falls 
 infinitely short of the original work. 
 
 Replying to the five allegations in the above 
 synopsis it may be said : 
 
 ( I ) The universal consensus points to increased 
 quantities in the addiction. The physiological rea- 
 sons for it are given in Chapter XV, of this book, 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 113 
 
 and there is not an intelligent ph3rsician anywhere 
 but that will ridicule the assumption of the "Eng- 
 lish Confessor." 
 
 (2) If the first proposition were true, the second 
 would be axiomatic ; but cell tolerance is an uni- 
 versally admitted law in the scientific world. If 
 this were not true, largely increased doses of any 
 toxic drug would be succeeded b}- death, sure and 
 certain. The author of the " Count of Monte 
 Cristo " was well informed in this matter, because 
 he saves the members of a household from the devil- 
 ish machinations of a poisoner by habituating her 
 would-be victims to use of a drug employed by her 
 in the execution of her murderous designs. A 
 friend of mine who had the morphine and cocaine 
 habit to excess was likewise a strychnine " fiend," 
 having carried his daily addiction of the latter 
 poison to five grains before his restoration. Were 
 De Quince3-'s allegation true, this gentleman would 
 have been estopped forever when he reached his 
 first grain of the alkaloid of nux vomica. Study of 
 enslaving drugs has shown me that the bodily cells 
 are the most accommodating substances to be found 
 upon the face of the earth. They may protest, nay, 
 they do usually protest strongly ; but they finally 
 adjust themselves to every vagary of their owner 
 and cheerfully proceed to fit themselves to man's 
 perversity. They despise gluttony in drugs as in 
 nutritious food ; yet whether in food or in toxics, it 
 is unfailingly the same final tolerance. Unless 
 shocked out of life by a sudden and overwhelming 
 8 
 
114 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 dose, they speedily guard against surprises by 
 adjusting themselves to possible future furious 
 assaults. 
 
 (3) The fact that opium makes liars of all its 
 slaves is fully demonstrated by De Quincey in this 
 subterfuge. Confessing in 1821 to certain disturb- 
 ances that were by no means exactly truthful, his 
 master would give him no rest for thirty-five years 
 until he made a sweeping denial of all. As else- 
 where positively afifirmed, the direct and invariable 
 effects of opium are such as he ascribes to " seden- 
 tariness," and De Quincey is the only man dead or 
 living who experienced them from that cause, 
 "sedentariness." The coincidence of his being in 
 the habit and frightfully so, too, at the time of the 
 dreams, phantoms, and visions, he does not regard ; 
 the modest "retirement" of his life accounting to 
 his full satisfaction for the burdens and terrors that 
 made him wish to escape from life by day and to 
 take wings and fly by night. 
 
 (4) If De Quincey did what he claims, then 
 does he deserve highest place among the eunuchs of 
 the palace of the opium sultan. Instances are of 
 record where men by exercise of the most terrible 
 exertions have maintained for years a stated daily 
 addiction, but no case has come under observation 
 in which that quantity was less than the highest 
 point reached in the habit. Had De Quincey in- 
 sisted that for thirty-five years he had not exceeded 
 eight thousand drops in any single day, his testi- 
 mony might be accepted, since others have accom- 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 115 
 
 plished the same feat and it is a desperate feat at 
 that, demanding constant exercise of all the strength 
 and purpose that remain in the man ; but it is tax- 
 ing credulity beyond bounds to accept as true a 
 claim that cell tolerance can be nearly but not quite 
 effaced. Several times during the habit I succeeded 
 for a short time in reducing the quantity lower than 
 the lowest point named by De Quincey ; but the 
 clamoring cells would not be quieted until the usual 
 supply was furnished them. There is no possible 
 adjustment of the cells — it is physiologically im- 
 possible to fit them to conditions thus named by the 
 great opium eater. 
 
 (5) This position so strenuously maintained by 
 De Quincey for the last forty years of his life has 
 been considered elsewhere ; it is passed here with 
 the simple statement that a drug which suspends 
 the powers of life and so utterly disorganizes the 
 secretions can scarcely be said to promote longevity 
 in a consumptive, or anybody else. 
 
 Delirious with the riot of his own rich fancy and 
 insanely jealous of men's approval, De Quincey, in- 
 stigated of the Satan drug of prevarication, seems to 
 have been divided between sanctifying opium slavish- 
 ness and apotheosizing his own virtues. The simple, 
 unvarnished truth is that the great author knew the 
 weakness and the sin of the habit ; for in his thirty- 
 sixth year he made a strenuous fight to overcome it. 
 His " Confessions" were first written in the exuber- 
 ance of supposed release ; he was then willing to 
 portray the enchantment and diabolism of the 
 
 J 
 
^i 
 
 ii6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 t3Tant, because it enabled him to pose as a hero. 
 Doubtless he made subsequent efforts to escape, but 
 the fight of 1 82 1 was the supreme struggle ; those 
 that followed were weakling imitations of a titanic 
 encounter. When he asserts that he renounced the 
 habit altogether upon four separate periods, remain- 
 ing out of the thrall at one time for six months, only 
 to return to it again as the dog to his vomit, he 
 draws highly upon his fancy for his facts. There is no 
 opium " fiend " upon the face of the earth, who, if 
 he had the strength to break the shackles by his 
 own will, could be induced to return to it, so long 
 as memory held a place in the chamber of his mind. 
 Recollection of the horrors of the slavery would 
 make suicide most easy, if choice had to be made 
 between the latter and the former. 
 
 Nothing that is said here or elsewhere in criti- 
 cism of De Quincey should be interpreted into cen- 
 sure of the essayist. He had a disease which was 
 incurable in his day, a leading effect of which is mis- 
 representation, that he could no more control than 
 the fever-tossed patient can regulate the wild words 
 of delirium that pass his lips. There is profound 
 regret that the disease should have led him into dis- 
 torted utterances which have lured the simple to 
 woe ; but there is sympathy and deep distress for 
 the illustrious author who was enchained morally, 
 physically, and mentally, for upwards of half a cen- 
 tury, sometimes it would' seem, without being con- 
 scious of the fact. 
 
 The "Opium Eater," as he termed himself, 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 117 
 
 declared that in his fourth deliverance he discov- 
 ered what he regarded a wonderful truth, namely, 
 that increasing doses are by no means necessary 
 to the comfort of the habitue and that the potency 
 of the drug is not diminished. The absurdity 
 of this discovery is only equaled by the added 
 one stumbled upon at the same time, that the 
 solid gum had a growing tendency to demand 
 extending time for the expansion of its effects, 
 "oftentimes not less than four hours;" so that he 
 adhered to laudanum, whose action was always quiet 
 and certain. A tyro in physiology would laugh at 
 this claim, knowing that the only possible difference 
 between the two is that one is gum opium and the 
 other gum opium suspended in alcohol. Naturally 
 the latter, laudanum, would reach the circulation 
 quicker than the former, because the spirit serves as 
 a rapid vehicle of communication ; but any cause 
 that would operate to protract the period of diffu- 
 sion in one would have a similar effect upon the 
 "expansion" of the other. It is the universal 
 experience of opium habitues that throughout the 
 habit, though it endure for very many years, and 
 whatever the form in which the opium is taken, there 
 is no appreciable increase in the time required for 
 diffusion of the morphinal particles throughout the 
 bodily cells. Doubtless there is some delay in 
 effects in consequence of the impediments thrown 
 in the way by effete matter, but this added time is 
 not appreciable to the habitue, because it is so 
 slight. If the "Opium Eater" had been a student 
 
ii8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of physiology or had had any scientific knowledge 
 of the circulation and the nutrition of the body, he 
 would have withheld this statement. 
 
 Equally unfortunate is his allegation that "the 
 opium eater in a normal state of health feels that 
 the diviner part of his nature is paramount — that 
 is, the moral affections are in a state of cloudless 
 serenity." As well might he have averred that the 
 man with smallpox, who is free of that disease, is 
 in no danger of being pitted. No opium eater is, 
 or was, or ever will be in a normal state of health. 
 The organs cannot perform their several functions 
 properly under the binding offices of the drug, and 
 this is positively true, that the "moral affections" 
 of the habitue are in such a state of chaotic befog- 
 ment that their owner could no better analyze their 
 condition than he could determine the constituents 
 of the atmosphere of a star beyond the visible 
 universe. 
 
 De Quincey finds oblectation in the thought that 
 opium does not produce drunkenness and in the same 
 breath calls up a witness, a surgeon, to prove that 
 this condition may exist. Now drunkenness is not 
 always easily defined ; yet, while it is certain that 
 the opium eater is free from the noisy exhilaration, 
 passionate outbursts, and crazy performances that 
 mark certain stages and individuals in inebriety, it 
 is none the less true that other conditions are com- 
 mon to both, such as stupidity, mental aberration, 
 nervous excitation, etc. There are differences, and 
 marked ones, too, to the credit of the habitue ; but 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 119 
 
 they do not warrant the exultant outbursts of De 
 Quincey, — the Pharisaic sentiment of gratitude 
 that one is not as the other fellow, while both are 
 slaves. 
 
 Nothing is more emphatic than his negation 
 that depression follows the exaltation of opium, 
 alleging that during the first ten 3ears of his 
 addiction the day following his "debauch" was 
 invariably one of "unusually good spirits." It is 
 unnecessary to call up the immense army of 
 habitues to confute this statement ; nature disproves 
 him everywhere. There is a law of compensation 
 infinitely more immutable than the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians or a ukase of the Czar. As 
 well declare that "a night of it" by drunkards 
 inspires to good spirits in the period that pertains 
 to headache and a general break-up. Every tax 
 and strain upon the system must be paid for in 
 suffering; the greater the shock the more violent 
 the after molecular activity of the cells. 
 
 The uniqueness of his experience is further set 
 forth in his averment that he would indulge in a 
 debauch precisely at intervals of three weeks, leav- 
 ing the drug alone in the intervening space, and 
 that in 18 12, after eight years of the habit, he took 
 it but once a week — on Saturday night. After such 
 an extraordinary and absolutely solitary experience, 
 an experience that is positively opposed to that of 
 every other human being who has had the habit, 
 he adds that in these years he had taken it in such 
 quantities that he "might well have bathed and 
 
120 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 swam in it." These alleged stated periods of im- 
 bibition were those in which he had his extraor- 
 dinary "debauches," visited picture galleries, 
 attended the opera and the market, accounts of 
 which have become familiar from their frequent 
 republication by magazines and other periodicals. 
 He was essentially fortunate in retaining a love for 
 music and the crowds, these being features that are 
 absent in other habitues ; but he manifestly lost 
 sight of the toxic properties of laudanum, when he 
 would have the public accept his testimony as to 
 long abstinence from the drug and then filling his 
 body with prodigious quantities of it. "Tolerance" 
 comes of persistent use and persistent use only. 
 The man who pursues the "reduction process" for 
 some time is very cautious about giving himself a 
 "shock" upon yielding up the fight; for he returns 
 by successive stages to his former quantity, just as 
 he left it, except that, as a matter of course, the 
 insistence of the craving causes him to drive to it 
 somewhat faster than he left it. Three weeks of 
 total abstinence, if such a thing were possible, in an 
 habitue, would make most perilous to life the 
 imbibition of any considerable quantity of lauda- 
 num. Still, De Quincey maintains this was his 
 practice, and, what is equally extraordinary, 
 declares that in 1812, after the eight years of 
 pounding of his system, he was in perfect health. 
 Attacked with illness in this year, he waited until 
 the next, 181 3, to become a regular, daily "soaker." 
 Here he asks his readers to believe that after hold- 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. i2! 
 
 ing the drug down for eight years, first to a once- 
 in-three-weeks and then to a once-in-one-week 
 addiction, he should suddenly plunge into irremedi- 
 able and colossal quotidian use of the narcotic. 
 The man who could convince himself that he could 
 persuade the public to credit such allegations is 
 probably not to be reprobated for bursting into that 
 oft-quoted rhapsody of the drug, closing with the 
 words, "thou hast the keys of Paradise, O just, 
 subtle, and mighty opium." 
 
 Following a very ancient practice De Quincey 
 makes excuse for his transgression. He might 
 very properly have adopted the precise language of 
 the first person in sin, "The serpent beguiled me, 
 and I did eat." He chooses rather, to ascribe his 
 introduction to the arch tempter to a "rheumatic 
 toothache" and his addiction proper to a "dis- 
 ordered stomach," the result of "misery caused by 
 youthful distresses in London." It is regretful 
 that some wise friend was not at hand to inform 
 him that opium invariably disturbs the stomach 
 and that this was the last remedy he should have 
 thought of applying to for relief from that 
 "misery." 
 
 The "Confessions of an Opium Eater" is 
 destined to retain its place in English literature, 
 because of the purity of its diction and the magnifi- 
 / cent metaphors with which it is literally crowded; 
 yet, it is far from logical and is most incomplete and 
 unsatisfactory in arrangement, thereby proving the 
 claim that the opium eater is incapable of sus- 
 
122 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 tained labor or of completing any undertaking. 
 More than one-half of the work is devoted to 
 petty details of the uneventful life of a callow yet 
 precocious youth of morbid temperament, sadly in 
 need of a father's strong directing hand. This 
 portion of the book has no connection whatsoever 
 with the "Confessions of an Opium Eater," not- 
 withstanding his very strained attempt to prove the 
 logical arrangement by asserting that the privations 
 of his youth led to the necessity for the drug in the 
 man. The remainder of the work, scarcely one 
 hundred pages, stands to-day full of exaggerated 
 statements that are flatly contradicted by their 
 author in the very work which contains them. 
 Admittedly genius is not bounded by ordinary 
 rules, and De Quincey is a genius or he is nothing. 
 His book is a masterpiece despite the defects noted 
 and will have enthusiastic readers as long as there 
 are men who delight in magnificent rhetoric and 
 splendid figures of speech. What is complained of 
 and what is mourned is that the master of English 
 has, in the wantonness of his fancy, led the unwary 
 to ruin. As a contribution to science it is mislead- 
 ing, untrustworthy, and absolutely valueless. That 
 some of the statements are true need not be 
 admitted, because that goes without saying. Yet it 
 is a safe maxim of law, "discredited in one thing, 
 discredited in all." The task would be a herculean 
 one to sift out from the mass of contradictions, 
 exaggerations, and downright falsehoods what 
 might be presented as simple, unvarnished truth. 
 
THE ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. 123 
 
 Opium is a fiend that deserves no apologist ; it is 
 altogether infamous and yields no good to any 
 creature who may get within its merciless clutches. 
 De Quincej^'s defense of it is absolutely indefensi- 
 ble, and, also, illogical and dishonest. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. 
 
 Vice, which always leads. 
 However fair at first, to wilds of woe. 
 
 Thomson — Agamemnon. 
 
 Extreme care is taken to divide the vice of 
 opium smoking from the disease of opium, because 
 the two bear no relation to each other in morals ; 
 although the physiological effects are ultimately 
 the same, and that which began and continues as a 
 vice finally develops into a disease. The user of 
 the pipe has been purposely excluded from other 
 habitues of the drug, and the reasons for such a 
 course it is proper to clearly set forth, in order that 
 the reader may intelligently discern between them. 
 
 It must be repeated that the morphine, lauda- 
 num, gum and powdered opium users, who take the 
 drug into the circulation by the stomach or by 
 injection, never form the habit by deliberate pur- 
 pose ; they are tied hand arid foot by the physician, 
 or they are led into it by racking physical pain, at 
 a time when they are not morally responsible for 
 their conduct. The smoker of opium becomes such 
 through wantonness of desire. He is not in 
 delirium of fever or made helpless by suffering ; but 
 is in full possession of all the faculties that remain 
 
 124 
 
THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. 125 
 
 to a morall}- depraved nature that is able to brook 
 the suggestion of such a hideously loathsome 
 appetite. This distinction alone, the fact of inde- 
 pendent action on the one hand, and irresponsible 
 subjection on the other, must forever divide the 
 smokers from the eaters of the drug. One habit is 
 superinduced by physical infirmity ; the other insti- 
 gated by moral depravity. The smoker is abso- 
 lutely without excuse and is positively without 
 shame. He is a creature given over to his own 
 lusts walking after the flesh, and has no desire to 
 get out of a slavery that brings him no sense of 
 degradation. 
 
 Smoking is an Asiatic vice and one which can 
 never gain favor among reputable people in this 
 country. So far as observation and experience 
 extend, Americans who acquire the addiction have 
 first become, in great measure, physically emas- 
 culated through excesses, mentally weak, and 
 morally degraded. Habitues of the "opium joints" 
 I have visited for the purposes of study of the 
 habit were, besides Chinamen, young men, both 
 whites and negroes, from the lowest stratum of 
 social life, and the most abandoned female outcasts 
 of the streets. Now and then a male subject, 
 never a female, is supplied from the higher walks 
 of life ; but, from the nature of the case, as will be 
 presently seen, he is one whose pride and self- 
 respect were cast aside before resorting to the 
 stupefying pipe of the Oriental. 
 
 Dark races, as the African and Asiatic, are not 
 
126 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 SO easily affected by the pipe as the white peoples. 
 While it is impossible for one of the latter to leave 
 off smoking, once the habit is formed, it is by no 
 means uncommon for members of the former class 
 to quit of their own volition, several instances of 
 this kind having come under my observation. 
 Opium smoking is rooted and grounded in the Chi- 
 nese character and he accepts the Arabian concep- 
 tion of the drug — good god or good devil, as it 
 may or may not get ascendency over the will ; but, 
 for the most part, it is esteemed a beneficent deity, 
 gracious in its gifts to mankind. As to negroes, 
 like the whites, it is only the corrupt and degraded 
 who come under its infamous influence. The num- 
 ber of Chinese in this country is limited, and if mis- 
 sionary effort be undertaken to stamp out the vice, 
 Asia is the best place to inaugurate the movement. 
 Concerning the best of the whites who consort with 
 the thieves, trulls, and other wretches who form the 
 sum of the aggregation of the opium dens, it may 
 be said their way leads rapidly to destruction. 
 
 Opium smokers of all kinds and classes yield 
 much more readil}' to scientific treatment for cure 
 than those who take the drug by the mouth or 
 hypodermically. The serious question is, does it 
 pay to cure such creatures ? Absolutely devoid 
 of moral sense they have no strength of purpose 
 and no thought of disgrace, and consequently are 
 as ready for a recurrence of the habit as they were 
 originall}' for its formation. Or, if they remain 
 healed of the desire for the narcotic, their vices. 
 
THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. 127 
 
 unrestrained by the subduing influences of the drug, 
 are liable to break forth in passion of venal practices 
 to the injury of society. 
 
 God forbid that one who has so much need of 
 mercy should be wanting in charit}- towards any 
 miserable creatures of the earth. Truth, however, 
 is paramount and it is well the world should know 
 that while the other forms are the result of profes- 
 sional recklessness or physical suffering, the opium 
 smoking habit is entered into consciously, with the 
 open purpose of finding forbidden delights. Char- 
 ity suggests that ignorance may be the scape-goat 
 for many of this class ; still, he who transgresses has 
 before his eyes the wasted forms, lack-luster eyes, 
 pallid faces, and paralyzed energies of the other habi- 
 tues. Ever and anon spasmodic bursts of virtue 
 project well-meaning people before the public as 
 defenders of innocence and punishers of sin, who 
 direct raids against opium dens and insist they shall 
 be closed forever. These good people shut their 
 eyes to the infinitely greater army of habitues, com- 
 posed of worthy and good people, who have ac- 
 quired the habit through no sin of their own. 
 Those who drink laudanum, swallow gum or pow- 
 dered opium, or are users of morphine, are com- 
 posed, for the most part, of intelligent and respect- 
 able members of society. These procure their sup- 
 plies from the drug stores, which sell the poison as 
 indifferently as they sell toilet soap. Wherein is 
 the offense of the apothecary less than that of the 
 yellow Chinaman, who rents a pipe and sells a mass 
 
 \y 
 
128 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of the drug to his customers ? There is infinite cant 
 in many places, and there is nothing so ill-judged 
 as a movement that is made against the opium joint, 
 vet ignores the drug store. Sympathy belongs to 
 those who deserve it, rather than to such as would 
 doubtless make use of their release from opium to 
 increased practice of vice. 
 
 The specific effects of opium smoking as a habit 
 are identical with those that accompany the tak- 
 ing of the drug in other forms, except that 
 Americans appear to kill themselves off rapidly 
 when they resort to the pipe. This may be largely 
 due to the facts stated, that the greater number of 
 such habitues are physical and moral wrecks before 
 acquiring the habit. Reliable police observation, 
 made in the large cities of this country, shows that 
 the average duration of life of white male opium 
 smokers, after the formation of the habit, is about 
 two years; while that of the female is probably six 
 months less. Chinese are, as a rule, temperate in 
 their smoking, and, accounts of travelers in China 
 to the contrary notwithstanding, it does not appear 
 that their lives are appreciably shortened by the 
 habit. Unquestionably, though, the general effects 
 are present in all habitues; only that in the Chinese 
 they are not so virulent. The average American 
 smokes to sottishness and insensibility, emerging 
 out of the latter state only to smoke and smoke 
 again. The effects of smoking in the "fiend" 
 endure for about eight hours; he has no need to 
 resort to his pipe more than thrice daily; but many 
 
THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. 129 
 
 will smoke hour after hour, absorbing many times 
 over more opium than is necessary to allay nervous 
 depression, and they finally reach a stage where the 
 sum of all living is contained in a simple word, 
 opium. 
 
 Men are wont to speak of opium smoking as a 
 social habit. Elsewhere this has been stated to be 
 untrue; it is a fact that the habit is solitary and 
 sneaking. This will prove a deterrent to the spread of 
 smoking among respectable people; but the depraved 
 man or woman has no sense of shame and is indiffer- 
 ent to public opinion. A self-respecting citizen is 
 never likelj' to put himself where a glaring weakness 
 or sin will be found out. The morphine habit is 
 very general among the Messalinas of the cities, who 
 do not scruple to vaunt their addiction, speaking of 
 it as indifferently as of their sins in general. 
 Respectable people who use the drug can never be 
 persuaded to confess it. Now, as the odor of 
 opium smoke is pungent and penetrating, one can 
 not pursue the habit without the fact becoming 
 known to friends and acquaintances. Opium smok- 
 ers make no effort to conceal their sin, and hence 
 have no objection to being thrown together; but it 
 can easily be seen that if respectable members of 
 society formed the habit, they would demand isola- 
 tion. Opium in any form brings a sense of degra- 
 dation and shame of face, if the victim have in him 
 the consciousness of wrong-doing, and it is impos- 
 sible that he be so indifferent as to mingle freely 
 among other offenders of the same class to vaunt 
 9 
 
I30 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 his sin. For the reasons given and others that 
 might be cited opium smoking will remain forever 
 restricted to the outcasts and the unworthy. 
 
 Investigation does not bear out the oft-repeated 
 allegation that opium joints are employed as 
 lures for innocent girlhood. There is not an inno- 
 cent female of twelve and upwards in all the 
 United States that could be entrapped into one of 
 the vile and filthy dens, which reek with the horri- 
 ble smell of opium smoke and effluvia from the 
 filthy bodies of the inmates. Women are found in 
 these resorts, but they are creatures over whose sins 
 before coming thither angels might well have wept. 
 The corruptions of the opium dive are many, but 
 lust does not pertain to them. There is nothing 
 in one of them to attract, please, or allure. The 
 men and women who frequent them go there of 
 their own volition and the act of smoking is their 
 own. They take to it to gratify an appetite. Their 
 eyes are open ; and if they were not morally 
 depraved, they could not remain long enough to 
 smoke a single pipe. Only the facile pencil of the 
 imaginative newspaper reporter could give fascina- 
 tion and air of sensuousness to the opium joints of 
 the United States, which are, without exception, 
 dark, gloomy, vile places that can only excite 
 disgust and loathing. Stories that are told of 
 elegantly dressed women and refined men frequent- 
 ing such resorts are airy webs of cerebral weaving. 
 
 The interior of one den is as another ; a large, 
 darkened apartment, with little booths on either 
 
THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. 131 
 
 side of the room, in each of which is a raised stage 
 or platform, usually covered with a mat or matting. 
 There is no furniture, no adornment of an}' kind , 
 nothing to attract the eye or please the sense. 
 Upon these little platforms, lie, for opium smokers 
 recline when indulging in the habit, three or four 
 men and women, perhaps ; there being no distinc- 
 tion of sex in these places and usually no con- 
 sciousness of it, and no respect of age, or race, or 
 previous condition — black, white, and Mongol, 
 young and old, male and female. Thus the ill- 
 assorted and incongruous mass of fishy-eyed, dry- 
 skinned, emaciated wretches are found, indiffer- 
 ent to everything save the one object of preparing 
 the opium for the pipe and then sucking it into their 
 lungs. Opium smokers do not like the light ; their 
 quarters are always dim ; in many of the booths, 
 or petty dens, the only light being that which 
 comes from the little lamp that fires the opium. 
 In certain stages of the smoking the wretches are 
 talkative and may be mirthful, even; but the 
 laughter is artificial and hollow, and the conversa- 
 tion is a babel of gibberish. The wan faces of the 
 slaves take on a sicklier hue in the feeble flicker of 
 the tiny lamp flames and their lusterless eyes give 
 out seeming of dying, as they -suck their pipes in 
 languid indolence. Now and then one falls away 
 into a stupor that has all the appearance of death. 
 The master of the prison-like place is a jaundiced 
 Chinaman or an American mummy ; in either case, 
 dried out, fleshless, wan, and worn. The vile fumes 
 
132 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of the smoke enter the nostrils and nauseate the 
 spectator, who hastens from the spot with utter 
 loathing as he asks himself, can the creatures he 
 has seen be human? 
 
 Let there be full understanding of the matter ; 
 the opium smoking habit comes of association with 
 unholy persons and is entered into with delibera- 
 tion. The surroundings are always repulsive and 
 the inmates of these resorts are criminals or petty 
 offenders against police regulations. They are 
 ignorant, illiterate, vulgar, brutal, and wicked. An 
 insistence that a virtuous and good person could be 
 led thither by any sort of influence and retain 
 integrity is a suggestion of absurdity. Good 
 people never frequent such places except in the 
 interest of others, and then they deplore the neces- 
 sity that compels their presence. 
 
 It is contended that while spending their hours 
 upon the bits of matting the wretches are, at least, 
 harming none but themselves. This, however, is 
 an error ; for the dens are made the hatching places 
 for all sorts of sneak-thief operations. Detectives 
 know that success often 'attends their search of 
 female frequenters, who have previously sallied 
 forth and robbed the unwary upon the streets. 
 The vile creatures are encouraged in crime, 
 because, in the opium sottishness that follows each 
 act the keepers of the dens can rob them in turn. 
 
 Too much attention has already been bestowed 
 upon these creatures. It is here repeated that 
 nothing said in these pages relating to the opium 
 
THE SLAVE OF THE PIPE. I33 
 
 habit includes this class of slaves, who were slaves 
 before they began the habit. The fact is empha- 
 sized, because the world in its ignorance confounds 
 the latter with respectable people, who have been 
 led into the other forms of indulgence through 
 ignorance of the effects of the drug, or by physi- 
 cians who did not consult their wishes in the 
 premises. 
 
 Pity for all the miserables of earth ! Tears for 
 those, even, who do not think they need them ! 
 Still, until the grace of God shall reach out and 
 transform the moral natures of the opium smokers 
 of the great cities of America, little is to be hoped 
 or expected in the direction of their deliverance. 
 These offenders do not suffer as those of quickened 
 conscience. Absurd as the poetic averment that 
 the trodden beetle endures pain as great as a dying 
 giant is the position that all men are framed in the 
 same mould, with equal capacities for mortal agony. 
 He suffers most who knows best the right and falls 
 short of doing it. Opium smokers are bestialized 
 by birth environment, or, by evil practices before 
 the opium stage is reached. What little sense of 
 conscience is left disappears with the stupefaction 
 of the drug. Their power to suffer lies chiefly, if 
 not altogether, in the withdrawal of the gum. 
 Given all the opium they wish and they desire no 
 pity; indeed, need none; except as righteous men 
 may mourn that creatures made in the divine image 
 can descend so low. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 
 
 Break the vile bondage ; cry 
 I 'm free, I 'm free. Alas, you cannot. 
 
 CONINGTON. 
 
 When a man has other addictions in addition to 
 opium it is customary to refer to him as an opium 
 or morphine "fiend," without considering the influ- 
 ences and effects of the remaining enslavements. 
 Since upwards of one-half of all the opium thralls 
 of the country are subject to some one, or more, 
 additional addiction, and since where there is the 
 double or multiple habit there are effects that vary 
 in greater or less degree from the single addiction, 
 it is proper that information be afforded upon these 
 various manifestations. The leading drugs that 
 enslave are alcohol, chloral, and cocaine, and, within 
 very recent years, hasheesh has been growing in 
 favor among certain classes of people. The effects 
 of alcohol are too well known to require any de- 
 tailed account here ; those of the other drugs are so 
 little known that it seems imperative some extended 
 facts should be given concerning them. While I 
 never took a single dose of any one of these, my 
 opportunities for study of the habits in individuals 
 have been widely extended, and what is said may 
 
 134 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. i35 
 
 be regarded as authentic and trustworthy evidence 
 to the minutest particular. 
 
 Physicians insisted for years that a "habit" was 
 impossible for the chloral use, and there are some 
 who still persist in the claim that one' may take the 
 drug indefinitely without harmful results ; in the 
 face of indisputable testimony that the countr}' is 
 full of chloral habitues. There is not one town or 
 city in the United States that is free from slaves of 
 the somnific, "colorless, bitterish, caustic crystal." 
 Searching for victims of the drug one will look in 
 vain for them in the crowded tenement houses or 
 in the cottages of the toiling masses ; for it is an in- 
 tellectual and aristocratic potency, offering solace 
 only to brain workers and those who have pushed 
 fashionable dissipation to its extreme limit. Chloral 
 cannot assuage pain ; it is a soporific, pure and sim- 
 ple, utterly valueless for any other purpose than to 
 relieve insomnia. Intelligent physicians are reject- 
 ing it and the world will be the brighter and better 
 for its total disappearance from materia medica. 
 
 The effects of chloral upon the nervous system 
 are especially severe, and are manifested in excruci- 
 ating pains all over the body, but especially in the 
 neighborhood of, not in, the joints ; there is also 
 simulation of rheumatic pains. There are pains in 
 the legs and arms, face, chest, eyes, and in the re- 
 gion of the heart. The ears flush, as also the face, 
 the eyes are congested and bloodshot, nervous chills 
 assail the body, and there is numbness in one of the 
 legs or arms, suggestive of paralysis. One of the 
 
136 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 most disagreeable of the afflictions is the sensation 
 as of loathsome insects crawling over every part of 
 the skin of the trunk, and no effort of the will can 
 remove the realism of the impression. All of these 
 symptoms are not invariably present in the habitue, 
 but in general terms they may be said to mark the 
 habit. Sometimes there is paralysis of the legs, and 
 the slave always awakes out of sleep with intense 
 thirst, nausea, and headache, with great, irritability. 
 
 Insanity is a common result of the addiction, 
 taking on the form of semi-idiocy, melancholia, or 
 acute mania. Throughout the habit until dementia 
 intervenes there is persistent melancholy with sug- 
 gestions of suicide ; the tendency to the latter being 
 much stronger than in the opium habit. An ever 
 present danger is that of death. The regular and 
 supposedly safe dose is 15 grains, yet 20 grains 
 have proved fatal ; while 320 grains have been taken 
 with suicidal intent and no harm followed. In this 
 uncertainty as to results lies the danger of its use. 
 
 Untruthfulness, deceit, and cunning in the plan- 
 ning of plausible excuses for obtaining the drug are 
 marked characteristics of the pernicious habit. As 
 in the cocaine and hasheesh addictions dilation of 
 the pupil brings on distorted visions and a state like 
 mania a potii- conjured monsters terrify, while the 
 peaceful sleep of the beginning of the habit gives 
 way to frightful dreams. 
 
 As Jupiter was among the mythological gods, so 
 is cocaine to the other drugs that enslave mankind. 
 Hasheesh )nelds ravishment, but its bliss is mere- 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 137 
 
 tricious, while the alkaloid of coca may bring oblec- 
 tation without defilement. But this king among 
 drugs is a Machiavel of more than vulpine cunning, 
 for it raises to Elysium only that it may hurl into 
 Tartarus. In all the world there is no ecstasy so 
 complete as that produced by cocaine in the first 
 stages of the habit, and in all the world there is no 
 torture greater than that inflicted by the salt of 
 erythroxylon coca before its final release of the vic- 
 tim in death. 
 
 The fascinations of the drug have allured thous- 
 ands and hundreds of thousands to death. The 
 educated eye discovers the cocaine " fiend " in all 
 the upper walks of life and in all the stages of 
 the disease. In 1894 there was imported into the 
 United States ;?3,ooo,000 worth of the material from 
 which the alkaloid is made, and this sum represents 
 much less than one-fourth what is paid out annually 
 by habitues on their addiction, in this country alone. 
 Proprietary medicines and various semi-ofificinal 
 compounds are charged with cocaine or the leaf of 
 the coca, many of the catarrh snuffs being most 
 dangerous in consequence. A certain preparation 
 of wine reeks with it and many alleged nerve reme- 
 dies owe their popularity to the presence of the 
 seducing medicament. Unlike chloral, which is 
 altogether bad and worthless as a remedial agent, 
 cocaine has many virtues when in the hands of the 
 intelligent and cautious physician, although as ex- 
 cellent an authority as Dr. D. R. Brower of Chicago 
 says, " It is as powerful for evil as for good." 
 
138 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 There is attractiveness in the study of the 
 remedy, because it is yet in an experimental stage, 
 the doctors being by no means a unit touching its mer- 
 its ; while there are extremists who deny that there 
 is any evil to be found in its use. Before entering 
 upon a consideration of its good and bad qualities 
 it may be well to tell what cocaine is and what its 
 origin. The plant from which the alkaloid is ex- 
 tracted bears the name of erythroxylo7i coca, and is 
 a shrub which attains a height of from four to six 
 feet, the leaves of which possess peculiar properties 
 of excitation ; cocaine being extracted from this 
 portion of the coca. It is indigenous to the moun- 
 tains of Peru and Bolivia and is cultivated in those 
 countries at an altitude of from five thousand to six 
 thousand feet. Coca is found, also, in some parts 
 of Brazil, Colombia, and Argentine Republic, but the 
 Bolivian leaf, which is smaller than the others, 
 ranks highest and is chiefly used, or should be, 
 rather, in the preparation of cocaine. Some is 
 grown in Java and India, but this is of decidedly 
 inferior quality, although, doubtless, more or less of 
 it reaches this country, to meet competitive demand 
 for cheapened products. Gaedeke in 1855 isolated 
 a crystalline alkaloid from the leaf, which he termed 
 erythrox}'line ; but the present name was given to 
 it ten years later, when the process of extracting 
 the active principle underwent some modifications. 
 
 The stimulating effects of coca were known to 
 the aborigines of South America long before the 
 advent of the Spaniards into that territory. The 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 139 
 
 Indians esteemed it a divine gift of rarest virtues, 
 emplo3'ing it in their ceremonial and sacrificial wor- 
 ship, declaring it to be a "heavenly plant which 
 satisfies the hunger, strengthens the weak, and 
 makes men forget their misfortunes." The Spanish 
 Catholic clergy early saw the baneful effects of the 
 leaf and absolutely forbade its use; but masters of 
 the poor slaves, indifferent to the lives of the 
 natives, and realizing that the coca gave temporary 
 strength for the endurance of greater burdens, 
 winked at, if they did not openly encourage, the 
 habit. It is not to be doubted that in the climbing 
 of mountains and for persons residing at great alti- 
 tudes there are temporary benefits from the leaf. 
 The manner of using it among the South American 
 natives is to first chew the leaf and then form it 
 into a small ball, which they encase in lime or ashes; 
 the globule then being placed in the mouth, where 
 it remains, perhaps an hour before the strength 
 is exhausted, the excitant meanwhile causing a 
 copious flow of saliva. The stimulant excites the 
 respiration and circulation, and prevents hemor- 
 rhages, in elevated places; hence it has been deemed 
 of priceless value by the Alpine climbers of the 
 countries above named. But the ultimate effects 
 upon this people are most disastrous, for, as Dr. 
 Brower very truthfully declares, they are " puny, 
 sallow, emaciated, and with intellectual capacity 
 very little above that of the brute creation." 
 
 The primary effects of a hypodermic injection of 
 cocaine may be said to be almost instantaneous. 
 
140 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 The spirit is at once calm, reposeful, and benignant. 
 The earthly tabernacle with its trammels and en- 
 vironments dissolves, and the Ego is etherealized. 
 A profound peace settles upon the liberated spirit, 
 which might adopt, with slight paraphrase, the sub- 
 lime utterance of St. Paul, " I have seen through a 
 glass darkly, but now I behold all things visible 
 and invisible, face to face." There are no hills, or 
 mountains, or valleys, or any other evidences of 
 past upheavals in all the visual landscape. In this 
 paradise there are no beasts of prey, but lions and 
 lambs lie down together and a little child may lead 
 them. The hawk and the sparrow are in amity and 
 all the birds of field and wood are gifted with song 
 of divine melody. Forest and field are in their 
 gayest garnitures, while flowers are everywhere 
 radiant in multiform coloring, filling the air with 
 sensuous fragrance. As to the shepherds on the 
 Bethlehem plains there came on the first Christmas 
 night music of peace and good will from a heavenly 
 choir, so cocaine fills the air with divine harmonies 
 such as were never heard since the foundations of 
 the earth were laid. Eden is fully restored and 
 man is in universal brotherhood with his race. The 
 good and the beautiful only are revealed in friend 
 as well as in former foe, and the man is rejoiced that 
 he was born and glad that his e3'es do see the 
 millennial dawn of everlasting sinlessness and unself- 
 ish purpose. He indulges in no exaggerated acting 
 or grotesque posing. Pain, suffering, want, and 
 death, as well as all the former things that were 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 141 
 
 disagreeable and harrowing, have passed away, for 
 the glorious sun of eternity has banished the un- 
 mourned night of time. 
 
 Varying temperaments and environments doubt- 
 less show divergent experiences, yet the calm 
 elevation portrayed is general, in one form or 
 another. It must be borne in mind that cocaine 
 seeks intellectual victims, who have hitherto let 
 fancy create worlds for their own habitation. When 
 cocaine brings back the man to earth, as it does 
 after a few minutes, his speech is rapid and liquid 
 in its flow, although somewhat barren of brilliant 
 thought. Now and then there is a meaningless 
 word or sentence, even, but the dilated pupil and 
 glistening eye, with the glowing face, show that 
 while of the earth he is not earthy and that his 
 spell is one of delicious enchantment. The awak- 
 ing cannot but be painful, since it is a return from 
 the infinite to the finite. 
 
 A young man who formerly resided in Chicago 
 is peculiarly persecuted by the "voices" that attend 
 this as well as the opium habit. Whether alone or 
 in the company of others he is possessed of three 
 persons, all business men of that city, none of 
 whom ever had a grievance against him or who 
 under any conditions or circumstances would do 
 him harm. Yet he imagines they are seeking his 
 destruction, and, while in other matters he acts 
 rationally but excitedly, in this delusion he is pos- 
 itively insane. While conversing with an acquaint- 
 ance he will frequently ask if the voices are not 
 
142 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 audible to him and beg for protection from them ; 
 or, when walking along the street, will stop and 
 address them excitedl}^ in a loud voice, demanding 
 to know why thej- persist in persecuting him. Once 
 he sought to escape them by travel and went to the 
 remotest parts of the earth to escape their persecu- 
 tions. 
 
 "Somehow," he declared, "I could not get rid 
 of them. When I was crossing the Atlantic in a 
 Cunarder, I spent an entire day in searching the 
 hold of a ship and paid the steward to help me. 
 They had evidently come on board under assumed 
 names, for they were not on the passenger lists. I 
 did succeed in dodging them on the streets of Lon- 
 don late one night, but they turned up four days 
 later on the top of Eiffel Tower, while I was doing 
 the Paris Exposition. I hoped in my several trips 
 across the sea a big storm might wash them over- 
 board, but they only talked louder and seemed 
 more earnest when the winds blew. While at Cairo 
 I made ready to go to the Soudan country, but I 
 gave it up through fear that my drug supply might 
 fail before I got back. If I could have got these 
 fellows into the wilderness of Africa they would 
 never have found their way out." 
 
 This man admits it is strange that he never sees 
 the forms of his putative persecutors,, but says that 
 while Paul, then Saul of Tarsus, was on his way to 
 Damascus breathing threatenings against the Chris- 
 tians, he, too, "heard a voice but saw no man." 
 
 Without presuming to discuss the medicinal vir- 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. i43 
 
 tues or properties of the drug it is proper to state 
 that its merits have been grossly exaggerated. Its 
 value in certain kinds of surgery is frankly con- 
 ceded ; but the fact is patent that it is absolute!}' 
 dangerous in the hands of ignorance, and the skilful 
 physician and surgeon have need to use it with 
 greatest caution. 
 
 The cocaine habitue loses his appetite and suffers 
 from diminished activity of assimilation ; he has 
 deadly pallor of face except when he takes alcohol, 
 experiences great emaciation with dryness of skin, 
 and suffers decay of all his vital forces. He is one 
 of the most nervous of men, there being no anodyne, 
 sedative, or narcotic property in the drug. His 
 melancholy is profound and certain death awaits 
 him, often sudden, unexpected, and awful. Cocaine 
 has direct effect upon the arteries, inflaming their 
 walls, and finally bursting them, this being particu- 
 larly true of the brain. The habitue has a brief stay 
 in paradise ; then comes the edict of banishment and 
 hell opens its mouth to receive him. He forsakes 
 his friends and makes his bed with aliens. His gar- 
 rulity is little removed from the maunderings of the 
 imbecile. He walks in dark shadows and finally falls 
 headlong over a precipice. From such a fate let all 
 pray for deliverance, for a milder death is that from 
 the scourge, the fire, the pestilence, or the sword. 
 
 Emigrants bring with them all their vices, and 
 hasheesh, that Messalina among drugs, is no longer 
 a stranger in this land of infinite habits and customs. 
 The evil that is in men is not hidden, and when it is 
 
144 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 seductive its influence is usually far reaching. 
 Hence the vile product of Indian hemp has become 
 known to native as well as foreign inhabitants. 
 
 Imaginative pens have run riot in fantastic and 
 voluptuous imagery in depicting the alleged sweet 
 influences of the Indian drug and fools have read to 
 their own destruction. Greatest ignorance obtains 
 among physicians and laymen concerning the insid- 
 ious confection, and in view of its baleful encroach- 
 ments it is high time the civilized world should be 
 enlightened. It is known that hasheesh is the dried 
 leaves and stalks of caimabis Indica (Indian hemp), 
 made into a confection with preserved fruits and 
 aromatics, but the soul-polluting effects of habitual 
 use of the drug have not been sufficiently described. 
 
 Most writers upon this subject are apparently 
 unaware that hasheesh is smoked as well as eaten, 
 and, consequently, that the effects of inhalation are 
 radically different from those that arise from the 
 stomach addiction. This ignorance explains why 
 English literature affords so many opposing stories 
 concerning the mental disturbances, illusions, and 
 fancies growing out of indulgence in this pestilent 
 gift of the Orient. When taken into the lungs it 
 produces a singular muscular agitation, a great de- 
 sire for bodily activity and motion, and an entire 
 absence of fatigue. As the smoke of the hemp in- 
 cense is inhaled the spirit of Hercules enters the 
 body of the devotee and he becomes a veritable 
 Gascon in his vaporings. Unlike the valiant Cap- 
 tain Bobadil, however, he is ready to put his alleged 
 
THE SLAVE OF MAXY MASTERS. US 
 
 strength to the test by wagering to lift mighty 
 weights, uproot trees, overturn houses, and perform 
 other impossible feats. As suddenly he is animated 
 by gladiatorial influences and is^desirous of proving 
 his valor in encounters to the death by use of his 
 own strong arms alone. Flushed and jubilant he 
 is a swaggering Hector and Thrasonically overrides 
 skepticism by imperious challenges to run, walk, 
 box, and wrestle against all comers, his tongue wag- 
 ging ceaselessly in attestation of his swashbuckler 
 assumptions. Poor fool, the greater his exaltation 
 the severer his punishment, and in a few short hours 
 the yawp of a cur's whelp will fill his soul with 
 cowardly fear. The physical suggestions of rejuve- 
 nation and vigor are succeeded by utter exhaustion 
 and syncope ; hallucinations of a most disagreeable, 
 and, oftentimes, painful nature occur, and these last 
 are succeeded by a deathlike stupor. Throughout 
 the course of the hasheesh smoke habit, but ever in 
 diminishing measure and deteriorating energy, there 
 is the quickened muscular force, and, as in the 
 stomach habit presently to be described, the slave 
 finally reaches a condition of helpless, impotent im- 
 becility. 
 
 When taken by the mouth the confection fre- 
 quently produces a most agreeable mental intoxica- 
 tion, excites a copious flow of piquant ideas, and 
 incites to oft-repeated outbursts of gay laughter. 
 At other times the excitement takes on the form of 
 delirium of a most violent nature, during which the 
 wretched victim with knife in hand runs amuck. 
 
146 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 slashing all who may come in his way. The English 
 word "assassin" is derived from " haschaschin," 
 or one who does murder while in the toils of the 
 drug. It is most likely that those who are amiabl}' 
 disposed while in a normal state become more so 
 while under the spell, and that those of strong pas- 
 sion and evil temper have their natural propensities 
 increased. Taken into the stomach in large quan- 
 tities the tactile sense and sense of pain are lowered, 
 and a cataleptic state ensues in which the muscles 
 maintain for an indefinite period any position in 
 which thc}"^ may be placed. Herein is to be found 
 explanation of the seeming mystery and miracle of 
 an East Indian fakir holding out an arm or leg in a 
 horizontal position until it becomes fixedly and per- 
 manently rigid and atrophied. 
 
 Arabians give the confection the name by which 
 it is commonly known in this country. In India 
 it is termed "bhung," in Egypt it is "bust" or 
 "sheera," the Hottentots denominate it "dagga" 
 or "dacha," and the Moors cherish it as "el 
 mogen," it being widely used by the chartered lib- 
 ertines of all these countries, where the highest 
 conception of female perfection is a common trull. 
 
 Hasheesh taking is on the increase in the United 
 States, but the habit can only become general 
 where there is absolute anarchy of love — reinless and 
 unbridled passion. Opium subdues the flame of 
 desire, but hasheesh feeds it fast and furious until 
 all the fuel is exhausted and the very coals are con- 
 sumed. The habit is disgusting, filthily so, and 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. U7 
 
 the veil should be torn aside that the painting may 
 be seen in all its wanton impudicit^^ Man may 
 pity the opium habitue, because his thoughts and 
 acts are free from lechery ; but the hasheesh eater 
 can only excite loathing and contempt ; for, as long 
 as it is possible to him his waking moments are 
 pervaded with deeds and suggestions of Phryne 
 worship, while vile trollops are the companions of 
 his dreams. Concupiscence is the twin sister of 
 hasheesh, whose natal couch was in the harem. 
 
 The confection produces mental and bodily 
 wreckage and there is no flotsam or jetsam to invite 
 salvage, not only the hull being dismantled and 
 beaten into minute pieces, but also the cargo. 
 Once the habit is formed, and, like all insidious 
 drugs it forms quickly, the evil effects upon the 
 habitue are rapid. There is a waste of muscles, the 
 skin becomes sallow, there is mental hebetude, fail- 
 ure of appetite, convulsive attack, loss of bodily 
 strength, and destruction of masculine vigor. India, 
 Arabia, and Morocco abound in driveling idiots, the 
 offspring of hasheesh-cursed parents, who them- 
 selves ultimately pass into imbecility of mind and 
 body. Sardanapalus must have eaten of this for- 
 bidden fruit, and Belshazzar been drunken with it 
 when he read the fatal handwriting on the wall. 
 
 Truth urges the confession that the hasheesh 
 eater lives for a season in a valley of pleasure, 
 where time has no registry and the somber form of 
 death dares not intrude. Ganymede served no such 
 delectable drink as this to the Jovian family, and 
 
148 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 Bacchus or Venus never offered such delights to their 
 worshipers as those the hemp god gives. When the 
 confection is taken in fairly moderate quantity, 
 earth recedes from the feet and the emancipated 
 body soars into the empyrean, where a new world, 
 boundless as space and free as mountain air, filled 
 with all pleasures magnified in intensity, becomes 
 its beloved habitation. For some minutes after 
 taking the dose the will becomes restive in a des- 
 perate struggle to maintain control of the senses, 
 but it finally gives way to divers vagaries, although 
 personal identity is never completely lost ; there 
 being in all the stages of mental disturbance a con- 
 sciousness of the existence of the Ego. As is the 
 normal tendency of the man, he is haughty as Neb- 
 uchadnezzar and as proud as Lucifer ; he struts 
 airily about inviting admiration and deludes him- 
 self that he is the observed of all observers, the 
 praised of all tongues ; or he is self-satisfied and 
 indifferent to others, estimating himself as superior 
 to calumny and impervious to praise. 
 
 There is dilation of the pupils of the eye 
 and consequent disorders of vision. He sees 
 dwarfs magnify themselves into giants, huts become 
 monster warehouses, trees soar far into the clouds, 
 horses are larger than mastodons, flies are great 
 hawks, and his own form is Cyclopian in its propor- 
 tions. A single stride of his takes in many cubits 
 of length and his arm stretches far out into space. 
 The horizon extends far awaj' into the infinite and 
 the perspective becomes inverted, so that distant 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. I4g 
 
 objects loom into majestic proportions in conso- 
 nance with his magnified ideals of everything. He 
 is no longer Gulliver but a native Brobdignagian 
 and he slaps the face of his gentle nurse who would 
 take him into her protecting arms. The sun's dis- 
 tance is measureless, but his dimensions are vast 
 and his light dazzling in intensity. When night is 
 on, the moon glorifies the landscape with her liquid 
 streams of light, causing the forest-like wheat fields 
 to glow in her silvery sheen. Every creature and 
 every thing are colossal in proportions, but he is in 
 no sense surprised at the miraculous enlargement. 
 The unreal is reality and he rejoices greatly that he 
 is privileged to look upon the wonders about him. 
 
 There are times when all the past of his life 
 passes in a gorgeous procession before him ; he 
 sees himself a puling babe in his mother's arms, a 
 schoolboy, a youth, and a man. He fights over 
 again his olden battles, lives over again his old 
 loves, fans former hates into vivid flame, and talks 
 with thousands of former friends who have crossed 
 the ferry with Charon. Nothing in the yesterday 
 of his time escapes his sublimated vision. The 
 very thoughts, as well as speech and acts of time 
 that has been, crowd before him, demanding atten- 
 tion and inviting praise or censure. 
 
 Finally, he passes into romanesque dreamland, 
 where the whimsies reflect the coloring and form of 
 the Fata Morgaiia of his waking thoughts. He 
 possesses the gift of Midas and what he pleases 
 only is changed into solid gold. The wealth found 
 
150 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 by Edmund Dantes in the cave of Monte Cristo is 
 a beggar's allowance compared with the heaps of 
 precious metal and great hills of diamonds, rubies, 
 and emeralds that are all his own. The city of his 
 habitation has streets of paved gold ; its walls are 
 made of jasper and onyx. Every wish is gratified 
 before it is expressed, his slaves can read his very 
 thoughts. Houris fan him and nymphs bring him 
 cooling drinks. All the delicacies of every country 
 are served at his table and kings send him gifts of 
 finest wines from their cellars. He eats and eats 
 again without gorging or repletion; he drinks 
 to excitement without descending to debauch. 
 Years come and go, centuries pass, but he is per- 
 ennially youthful and desire never palls or is ever 
 satiate. 
 
 Sorrow for the awakening! The law of com- 
 pensation, is as inexorable as the Jew in demand 
 for the full pound of flesh. The hasheesh eater 
 is peculiarly subject to this statute so plainly writ in 
 the book of nature. He awakes out of sleep as sud- 
 denly as he entered dreamland, and such a coming 
 to ! For every exaltation there shall be a depres- 
 sion and the whilom enthroned monarch is now an 
 abject, prostrate, groveling slave. There is vertigo 
 with whirling of objects fast about him, as if all 
 nature were on a rollicking spree and spinning in 
 reckless abandon, indifferent to the duty of deco- 
 rum and the demand for stability. The head fairly 
 splits with pain and the sufferer presses his hot 
 hands to it as though feeling for the separated 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 151 
 
 sutures. The brain is all afire, the blaze scorches 
 and burns the inner walls of the skull until they 
 seem to crack and crumble from intense heat. The 
 mouth is cracked and dry; the tongue clings to the 
 roof thereof. The skin of the body is parched and 
 the joints of his loins are loosed. He has fallen 
 into a deep pit, the bottom of which is filled with 
 white-heated spikes, which pierce his body to the 
 marrow of his senses. In his sore extremity he 
 curses his folly, yet in a few hours repeats it. 
 
 Let every man take heed lest he fall into the 
 snare of this hasheesh fowler, from whom escape is 
 not possible once he seizes a victim. A consuming 
 fire awaits the miserable. The beautiful apple of 
 Sodom turns to ashes. Lais, once so beautiful, be- 
 comes a hideous, desireless hag. The wife of his 
 bosom changes into a Hecuba ; his offspring are so 
 many yelping dogs of hell. His limbs become 
 atrophied, digestion fails, pains torture, senses are 
 torpid, and there is nepenthe nowhere in all the 
 world. Dull, hated, despised, he is vile as the leper 
 of the Hebrews, and, like him, driven out from 
 among men to die the death of a mangy, pariah 
 dog. 
 
 Such is the glory and the shame of the hasheesh 
 drug and truth demanded this record as it is, with- 
 out change or palliation. 
 
 In order to properly estimate the resultant effects 
 of double or multiple habits it is necessary that one 
 must understand the specific effects of each. Study 
 shows that each has certain manifestations, which 
 
152 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 correspond to those in one or more of the others ; 
 while all have specific effects that differentiate them 
 from one another. It would not be possible within 
 the limitations of this work to indicate the various 
 effects of one drug upon another, or how double or 
 multiple addictions vary in individuals. It should 
 be known that it is exceptional to find a man in the 
 chloral habit alone ; for the reason that he takes it 
 usually by night for sleep and he soon craves 
 another drug, usually opium, to help him out by 
 day, as well as to superinduce sleep when the drug 
 first named has failed in effects. Still, the chloral 
 "fiend" may prefer whisky, or cocaine, or hasheesh. 
 The cocaine "fiend," as a rule, soon adds opium to 
 his first master, because on account of the brief 
 period of the effect of his drug he finds himself un- 
 able to sleep for any length of time without assist- 
 ance of some kind. Still, he is found alone, suc- 
 ceeding by excessive use of the coca in producing a 
 stupefaction which he terms sleep. The hasheesh 
 "fiend" next to the opium "fiend" is most fre- 
 quently found alone in his one addiction. 
 
 One acquaintance, who is perfectly cured and 
 has been seen within a week of this writing, was 
 actually an abject and complete slave of opium in 
 six forms (morphine by mouth and syringe; gum 
 and powdered opium, laudanum and paragoric), 
 chloral, cocaine, cannabis Indica, stramonium, and 
 belladonna, all of which he took in large quantities, 
 and was, besides, an inveterate smoker of cigarettes 
 impregnated with opium. While under these terri- 
 
THE SLAVE OF MANY MASTERS. 153 
 
 ble addictions he once attempted my life while I 
 was endeavoring to get him to a place for treatment, 
 and he might have succeeded but for my watchful- 
 ness and superior strength. Incidentally it may be 
 remarked that cigarette smoking is one of the most 
 pernicious of habits and may well be ranked with 
 other enslaving drugs. Those having this addiction 
 resist treatment for cure longer than any other 
 habitues. In addition to the opium, stramonium, 
 belladonna, or other toxic drug with which they are 
 " flavored," there is arsenic in the paper, while the 
 sugar contained in them undergoes a chemical 
 change in the smoking that makes them specially 
 deleterious in their effects. I have observed again 
 and again in the study of persons with this addic- 
 tion unmistakeable evidences of the opium habit, 
 belladonna habit, arsenic habit, etc. The worst of 
 this crying evil is that it prevails chiefly among the 
 youth of the land, its damning effects being intensi- 
 fied in their immature bodies, stunting the moral 
 and intellectual as well as the physical growth. 
 
 The effects of a compound habit depend upon 
 the predominating addiction. Thus, if opium be 
 taken in prevailing doses, the narcotic effects are 
 manifest ; where there are nearly equal doses, indi- 
 cations of both will be shown in manner, thought, 
 and feeling. Chloral, it will be remembered, has no 
 narcotic and no anodyne effects ; but is a soporific 
 only ; cocaine is an excitant and a nerve dis- 
 turber; while hasheesh is a storm of passion and a 
 sea of corruption. Other drugs that have been 
 
154 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 referred to elsewhere might be named here, but they 
 are rarely taken alone, and nearly always in connec- 
 tion with opium, which, being the ruling addiction, 
 swallows the " symptoms " of the others. 
 
 Double and multiple addiction slaves are prone 
 to " switch off " from one to another of their drugs, 
 in the vain hope of finally banishing all from their 
 lives. Vain hope, indeed ! In the drug habit, if 
 nowhere else in the world, one can serve two mas- 
 ters, and more even, faithfully. In the seasons of 
 " switching " it is interesting to the student to 
 observe how one set of effects will gradually give 
 way to others as distinctly marked, and each set 
 demonstrating the ascendency of the master in 
 whose train they follow for the time being. 
 
 It may be added that multiple addictions do not 
 retard or prevent cures ; but it is true that chloral 
 and cocaine being more direct in their action on the 
 brain, victims of these drugs are much more likely 
 to show brain disturbance of a more or less serious 
 character than are opium habitues, unless the latter 
 take the drug hypodermically. 
 
 Finally, these facts have been gleaned by asso- 
 ciating day by day with men in these habits, gain- 
 ing their confidence, and confirming their reports by 
 comparison with the evidence of those who, once in 
 the thrall, are forever cured. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. 
 
 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that 
 same red pottage ; for I am faint. 
 
 Bible — Genesis. 
 
 Hope never leaves a drunkard so long as a par- 
 ticle of self-respect remains in his heart ; if the time 
 ever comes to him when he really believes he is 
 utterly given over to his appetite. This is not true 
 of the opium donzel, who just as soon as he realizes 
 that his livery is put on understands and accepts the 
 fact that his service is for life. It is most astonish- 
 ing with what celerity this fact impresses itself upon 
 the mind. The habit enters the very marrow of the 
 bones, becoming an integral part of the life of the 
 individual. There are no long delays, no toyings 
 or dallyings, but a firm and immutable binding of 
 the gimmal chain, one link indissolubly fastened 
 into another and the whole made fast about the 
 body of the victim. The memory is very distinct 
 upon this point, and the fact is confirmed by a num- 
 ber of friends that a realizing sense of the enslave- 
 ment came quickly and the knowledge was positive 
 that there could be no escape from it. An old 
 Greek proverb says, Avjjp aru-fcuv ao}!^s-at rats sXkktc — ■ 
 if it were not for hope the heart would break. The 
 
 155 
 
156 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 Greeks were wise, but they knew nothing of the 
 woes of the opium slave or that sentiment had not 
 been repeated. Hope died in conscious helpless- 
 ness and the memory of her voice was lost. There 
 was protest, just as the ryot might revolt against 
 his vassalage ; but the repeated and desperate ef- 
 forts to throw off the bonds were but the despairing 
 throes of a soul moved of revenge for suffering 
 endured. So potent was its sway and so intelligent 
 was its action that it seemed to have a personality, 
 and there was a disposition to treat it as an individ- 
 ual having corporeity, who might be reached and 
 made to suffer for his tyranny. 
 
 The mortiferous effects of the drug were never 
 more horrible than in the spectacle of the complete- 
 ness with which the ante damnde was held. It was 
 absolutely impossible to get away from the opiate. 
 When vows were sincerest that the voice of Aspasia 
 should never more allure, then, even while the words 
 were being uttered, she was clasped firmest by the 
 hand and her power was the most supreme. There 
 are times when the drunkard becomes so utterl}- 
 disgusted with alcohol that the smell of it is rank, 
 and he cannot if he would place it again to his lips. 
 He may be totally abstinent for a week, a month, a 
 year or more, but with a suggestion of a desire now 
 and then. He feels his liberty as a young horse 
 that is set free in a green pasture after long confine- 
 ment in a close stable. He rejoices as a strong 
 man entered for the race and vaunts himself that he 
 has come out more than conqueror through the po- 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. 157 
 
 tency of his master will. Alas ! for the opium helot, 
 the inexorable Spartan drug exacts continual ser- 
 vice. A physician of central Illinois who was cured 
 of an addiction of ten years' duration once said to 
 the writer : 
 
 " It is possible to dam Niagara, because engin- 
 eering skill stops at nothing short of the limitation 
 of the money supply, but the opium 'fiend' posi- 
 tively cannot get away from his drug. If his sup- 
 ply is cut abruptly off he will be insane or dead in 
 forty-eight hours. I should demand the most irre- 
 fragable proof to be convinced that any habitue 
 ever left off the drug through his own efforts. 
 Stories we hear concerning opium slaves who are 
 made prisoners and kept away from their supply 
 may be received with many grains of allowance. 
 However low in the scale of society the 'fiend' has 
 his friends who visit him in his confinement and 
 they can smuggle the drug into his cell. Indeed, it 
 is true that the lowest stratum of society shows 
 closer cohesion than the upper. The very necessi- 
 ties of these people beget a mutual sympathy that 
 manifests itself in a division when the occasion 
 demands. Opium 'fiends' maybe killed or made 
 mad by incarceration, but cured they are not, ever. 
 They must have their drug or they are lost forever. 
 They cannot and they dare not get away from it." 
 
 Referring to the practice of smuggling opium 
 into prisons and reformatories I may say that ex- 
 tended observation in Chicago proves the correct- 
 ness of the statement. Poor wretches whose sins 
 
IS8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 threaten arrest almost invariably carry about with 
 them a quantity of the drug to guard against the 
 dread contingency. This is ample for their needs 
 until their associates can be informed of their con- 
 dition. Should there be delay in their coming, offi- 
 cers of the prison, whose experience soon teaches 
 them the unreasonableness and troublesomeness of 
 "fiends" who suffer from abstinence, find it con- 
 venient to supply them, if they have money to pay 
 for it. Courtesans and other miserable creatures 
 thus imprisoned will be supplied by their friends 
 through an incarceration that extends ^over six or 
 twelve months, or longer, even. Where one is so 
 unhappy as to have no friends, her body is usually 
 found dangling from a bar of the cell ; if the news- 
 papers contain any account at all of the affair the 
 public is informed that the wretch took her life 
 frenzied from opium. Ah ! it was not the drug, but 
 the lack of it that destroyed. The tortured unfor- 
 tunate endured a million pangs, every one of which 
 was worse than the thirst of Tantalus, before she 
 was driven into taking that " fearful leap in the 
 dark." 
 
 The ring of Gyges or the gold of Croesus could not 
 tempt a "fiend" into getting away from his devil 
 master. The opium habitue can go a step further 
 than Louis XIV. when he said, "I had nearly 
 waited," for he never suffers himself to wait. The 
 drug is as the apple of his eye for preciousness and 
 if choice had to be made between the organ of sight 
 and the opiate, he would speedily be blind. All 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. isg 
 
 that he hath will he give for his drug. Accident 
 alone, and accident which may not be guarded 
 against by any ordinary prudence, can separate him 
 from it. He may be and most frequently is indif- 
 ferent to food ; negligent of business and callous to 
 the distress and suffering of his family ; but he is 
 keenly alive at all times to the necessity of his drug 
 supply. If he have no money he will resort to any 
 and all kinds of tricks and devices to procure it. 
 Opium does not, like whisky, make criminals, / 
 because it is a subduer of all passions and sins ; yet 
 if the "fiend" could not obtain a supply in any 
 honest way, he would beyond a doubt resort to 
 crime to reach it. A Wisconsin physician speaking 
 of the inexorable craving said, with great feeling: 
 
 " Looking back upon the sorrowful days of my 
 habit I do rejoice that my necessities were never 
 such as to lead me into an act of dishonesty. Still, 
 I was a thief at heart, for I then knew, as I now 
 know, that if I could not procure the drug fairly I 
 would have forced window or door to obtain it." 
 
 No stronger evidence of the abject slavery can 
 be afforded than this, when it is known that opium 
 is a promoter of cowardice, timidity, and self-seclu- v 
 
 sion ; and, apart from the disgrace connected with 
 presence in a court of justice to answer to a crime, 
 the notoriety of being stared at and criticised is a 
 punishment of the most serious nature. It is doubt- 
 ful if, led to commit a crime in order to procure his 
 drug, he would go farther than supplying himself 
 with opium and then only sufficient for a few days' 
 
i6o DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 necessities. The opium habitue loathes crime and 
 the criminal, and every tendency of the drug is to 
 draw him awaj- from violence and the violent. 
 
 It must be understood that the latter statement 
 does not apply to the smoker of opium, for reasons 
 that are set forth in another chapter. He may be 
 and often is a criminal ; this habit being on the in- 
 crease among trulls (who add thieving to their 
 nefarious business), pickpockets, sneak-thieves, and 
 other minor offenders against law and order. Smok- 
 ing of the drug is an Old World habit, which for 
 obvious reasons is not likely to fasten itself upon 
 the better classes of the Saxon or Germanic races, 
 at least ; whatever impression it may make upon 
 the Latin races. Opium in the form of morphine is 
 in use very generally among the nymphs of the 
 cities, whose incomes will permit the expense ; 
 but with this exception the taking of the drug 
 hypodermically or by the mouth, and the gum or 
 powdered opium, and laudanum addictions are con- 
 fined almost exclusively to what are commonly de- 
 nominated the middle and aristocratic classes of 
 society. The habit is rare among working people ; 
 chiefly because they cannot afford to employ physi- 
 cians except when they are really ill, and also be- 
 cause the habit involves a quotidian expenditure 
 that is not within the limit of wages and that 
 assuredly would not always be forthcoming. Drunk- 
 ards may be found everywhere, in palace, in mod- 
 est house, in flat, in tenement and hovel ; but opium 
 " fiends," outside of " pipe hitters," are confined 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. i6i 
 
 chiefly to the upper walks of life. These people 
 have been trained from childhood to abhor crime, 
 and as the effects of the habit are to subdue all 
 violent impulses, they keep out of mischief. 
 
 Ever}' opium habitue who reads this book must 
 confess to himself the correctness and conservative- 
 ness of these utterances, because of their confirma- 
 tion by his own experience. Each one of these 
 knows from a memory that is persistent that there 
 is no agony equal to that which comes of sudden 
 and radical deprivation of the- drug. A single 
 affliction of this kind provides sufficient warning for 
 the remainder of life, and rather than undergo a 
 second ordeal the habitue would welcome the knout, 
 the test by fire, or boiling in oil. 
 
 A medical friend in Texas, who "trod the wine- 
 press" of cure with the writer, had some most pain- 
 ful experiences which grew out of deprivation, that 
 was caused by the misdirected but well-meant zeal 
 of his devoted wife. Nearly heartbroken on account 
 of his addiction she sought, to effect his cure by 
 cutting off his supplies ; in part, at least. It may 
 be explained that, as a rule, those who use mor- 
 phine h3'podermically do not get results when they 
 take it by the mouth. There are those who have 
 the addiction in both ways, and some who resort to 
 the syringe express satisfaction with the other 
 mode when they double the usual quantity. The 
 rule, though, is as stated, and the Texan doctor 
 did not make an exception, as his good wife dis- 
 covered : thenceforward she seemed to make it 
 
 / 
 
i62 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 the supreme business of her life to destroy every 
 hypodermic syringe that could be found. Ferret 
 was never more diligent in search of rats in an old 
 rambling house than she in her quest for the abom- 
 ination that made desolate her heart. The doctor 
 lived in the country, fourteen miles from a drug- 
 store, and the loss of his syringe became a most 
 serious matter. Omitting his quaint but pleasing 
 dialect his story is as follows : 
 
 " During twelve years the only pleasure my dear 
 wife had in life was the breaking up of my syr- 
 inges, and I could not bear, being responsible for 
 her otherwise wretchedness, to put a stop to the 
 pastime by raising a storm. So it finally became a 
 game of hide and seek. I hid and, I can assure 
 you, her anxious eye found the object. I dared not 
 have the instrument in my medicine chest for a 
 single moment ; to stow it away in a pocket was to 
 entail its certain loss. Her vigilance was unremit- 
 ting by day and by night. The subject was one 
 that was never introduced during the twelve years 
 that the game was played, but each was keenly 
 alive to what was going on. She never interfered 
 with the morphine itself; a pound of it would have 
 given her no concern, because she had learned that 
 the accursed stuff afforded me no relief except as 
 taken under the skin. 
 
 " I exercised my best wits in efforts to circum- 
 vent her and, as you know, a 'fiend' is not defi- 
 cient in cunning where his habit is involved ; some- 
 times I would bury the syringe or sink it in the 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. 163 
 
 depths of the well ; 3'et all unavailingly. A good 
 woman's love is bigger than man's inventions, and 
 the destruction proceeded year in and year out. 
 Sometimes she would destroy as many as six in a 
 single month. Her persistence under discourage- 
 ment was admirable. She knew from sad experi- 
 ence that the destruction of one involved the pur- 
 chase of another — in fact, several ; yet perseveringly 
 she took a seeming delight in crushing the little 
 glass tubes into millions of atoms. Oftentimes I 
 wept in secret because I was unable to reward her 
 patient effort. 
 
 " It is scarcely possible to tell you how much 
 agony of pain that devoted little woman caused me 
 by this practice. Upon one occasion, when doubled 
 up with rheumatism, she had purloined the syringe 
 from beneath the feather bed during my sleep and 
 I actually crawled upon my belly to the stable, 
 after hours of untold suffering, with the intention of 
 mounting my horse — I am sure the task would 
 have been impossible — when, to my infinite joy, I 
 saw the instrument upon the ground. The needle 
 had been broken off and with it a portion of the 
 neck ; but I seized it with delighted satisfaction, 
 and, returning to my chamber, hastily dissolved a 
 couple of tablets ; after which I opened my knife 
 and made an incision into the living flesh of the leg, 
 inserting the uneven surface of the glass ; repeating 
 the operation until my blood was saturated with the 
 morphine solution." 
 
 Upon another occasion he strapped himself to 
 
i64 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 his horse because of physical weakness and rode at 
 the fullest speed of the animal to the distant village, 
 in one of the darkest of prairie nights, utterly in- 
 different to "chuckholes" and other inequalities, 
 pursued by the phantoms of opium and fearing lest 
 his strength should fail before he could reach his 
 goal. 
 
 A very intelligent young man in Michigan lost 
 both his legs in a railroad accident and during his 
 long stay at the hospital had the morphine habit 
 fastened upon him by his attendant physician. 
 After his return home a brother, thinking to break 
 him of his slavery by deprivation of the drug, for- 
 bade the one druggist and the physicians of the vil- 
 lage to supply him with the opiate ; a cruelty the 
 intensity of which could not be equaled by the in- 
 vention of a North American Indian. The poor 
 cripple tearfully implored a removal of the inter- 
 dict ; but he might as well have cried to the winds 
 to cease their fury. Ignorance is ever right in its 
 own judgment ; it knows no quality of mercy. 
 After enduring inexpressible torture, this poor 
 wretch actually swung himself a distance of six 
 blocks upon his hands to find the druggist and beg for 
 pity. Finding him inexorable he dragged himself 
 to the doctor's office ; from which he was ruthlessly 
 turned away. Racked by thousands of invisible 
 fiends he then, still upon his hands, made his way 
 to the depot, where, after some hours, which in his 
 mortal agony seemed ages, a train arrived, and he 
 traveled 250 miles before he found relief. Finally 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. 165 
 
 reaching the city where he found a S3'mpathetic 
 friend, he was happily in a state of semi-uncon- 
 sciousness. The remembrance of that inquisition 
 will haunt that young man forever. 
 
 Vividly recalling the pains and penalties of de- 
 privation, if I ever show want of tenderest pity for 
 creatures in such a strait, may God withhold mercy 
 from me in the day of judgment. It is and always 
 shall be a duty and pleasure to succor any one who 
 is encountered in this state of suffering ; even 
 though (as sometimes has happened) it be one 
 of those unfortunates from whom self-respecting 
 persons naturally turn away in disgust and loathing. 
 Of all the pains that are and may be, in this world 
 or the next, it seems impossible that any can equal 
 those endured when every bodily cell is in a rage 
 because it is emerging from the stupefying drunk- 
 enness of opium. It is a bodily crucifixion that 
 tongue cannot portray or pencil depict. The heart 
 that is callous to such suffering has, after all, most 
 need of pity. 
 
 It may be mentioned that the habitual users of 
 opium experience much suffering from the qualita- 
 tive differences in the drug. Gum opium varies 
 greatly in morphinal strength, the standard being 
 6.7 grains of dry opium for each grain of mor- 
 phine ; yet there is much opium that does not con- 
 tain more than one grain of morphine for each 12 
 or 13 grains of the gum. Many druggists who 
 manufacture their laudanum are ignorant of this 
 fact, or are indifferent to it, and the result is that 
 
i66 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 habitues who use opium or laudanum find them- 
 selves tortured after taking their usual quantity. If 
 test were made of, say, laudanum, bought at six 
 drug stores, no two of the samples would show cor- 
 responding strength. Physicians are interested in 
 this fact, because opium being a toxic, they must 
 exercise care in its administration ; a first dose fail- 
 ing of effect they are slow to repeat it. Govern- 
 mental interference in this direction may be a 
 necessity if the evil continues. Positively I have 
 come into possession of laudanum and gum opium 
 that did not possess more than one-half the re- 
 quired strength, demonstration of the fact being 
 made in most convincing manner. Learning the 
 truth early in the habit much unnecessary pain was 
 escaped (although it involved frequent inconven- 
 ience) through obtaining a supply regularly from 
 the same druggist, as previously stated, who • was 
 reliable and most careful to prove the merit of what 
 he sold. 
 
 As stated, however, this was inconvenient and 
 frequently necessitated somewhat extended jour- 
 neys. For a long time the base of supply was 
 distant lio miles and this space was frequently cov- 
 ered for the sole purpose of laying in a stock of the 
 drug. During the last two years of the addiction 
 professional work was prosecuted at home and 
 every possible device was resorted to to find excuse 
 for visiting the drug store. Some of these were so 
 palpably weak that they were easily punctured by 
 the good wife and others had to be substituted. 
 
THE DRUG BEFORE ANYTHING. 167 
 
 By this time the ravages of the drug had become 
 so marked and the inane wanderings and absences 
 were so frequent, that she looked with terror upon 
 a single absence, however brief ; her mental distress 
 being great as that of Hilge, "who swam in the 
 dew of sorrow." Still, opium is inexorable, and 
 rivers would have been swum and mountains 
 climbed to reach the goal of inevitable satiation. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOW THE TYRANT ENSLAVES. 
 
 Use doth breed a habit in a man ! 
 Shakespeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 
 Man is a creature of habit ; but he is a slave of 
 habits. Reliable estimates place the number of 
 victims of enslaving drugs, exclusive of alcohol, in 
 the United States at upward of two millions ; the 
 great majority of these being held in the bands of 
 opium. The question, then, is a natural one, why 
 do men yield themselves so readily to the servitude? 
 It is indisputable that no one who is under subjec- 
 tion to the tyrant would remain in his realm one 
 hour if he could escape. There are mqny drunk- 
 ards, who, like Eskimos and many Indian tribes, 
 find pleasure in dipsomania. They affect, at least, 
 to find delight in the excitation of the ebriate state, 
 which they insist is more than compensation for the 
 after headaches, depleted purse, and lowered moral 
 tone that are inseparable from the habit. A Vir- 
 ginian of superior intellectual endowments and 
 ancient family, who was as great a drunkard as 
 Grantaire in " Les Miserables," .once said to the 
 writer, " It is permitted man to seek happiness in 
 his ov/n way, and I find that the royal road to bliss 
 
 i68 
 
HOW THE TYRANT ENSLAVES. i6g 
 
 runs through the realm of King Alcohol. The chief 
 satisfaction of living is getting ecstatically drunk." 
 
 No opium " fiend " ever talked on this wise. 
 De Quincey struggled earnestly to get awa}' from 
 the beak and talons of the opium hawk and it was 
 not until old age brought on a garrulous mental 
 marasmus that he attempted unqualified de- 
 fense of the baleful man destroyer. All that the 
 habitue has he would give for freedom ; he struggles 
 daily against his appetite, even though oft-failure 
 tells him such efforts are as the web of Penelope — 
 what is gained is speedily lost. 
 
 How is it, then, that men fasten the collar about 
 their necks and become Gurths and Wambas of the 
 opium thane ? There are those who successfully 
 resist it from the outset; their ears being closely 
 shut against the voice of the charmer, though it be 
 melodious as morning song of birds in springtide. 
 These will take it under the direction of a physician 
 for weeks and then cast it aside as an old garment. 
 Others seem to. have a close affinity for it, as a man 
 and a woman may meet for the first time and be 
 mutually attracted, so that they are said to " fall in 
 love at first sight." Instances are known where 
 persons of this class have had the habit irrevocably 
 fastened in a week. As the enamored couple 
 referred to, they may be said to have become 
 enslaved at the first meeting. Why some men are 
 as indifferent to opium as they are to arsenic and 
 others fairly rush into the arms of the devil 
 enchantress, is as unknowable as the cell character 
 
170 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of the human body. It is definitely known that 
 these little parts that are fractions of the unit Ego 
 have sensibility and sentience and a decidedly dis- 
 criminating taste. They may take kindly to 
 whisky, coffee, tea, tobacco, chocolate, certain 
 foodstuffs, etc., while other stimulants, dainties, etc., 
 they as decidedly refuse. " There is no accounting 
 for tastes," having reference to love, friendship, etc., 
 will apply with equal potency to the cells of the 
 body. It is known that some individuals are so 
 constituted that a single drink of wine or whisky 
 will make them irreclaimable drunkards, while 
 others might be in contact with Bacchus daily for 
 a lifetime without becoming the votary of the reel- 
 ing little god. Some men display an extraordinary 
 tolerance for such toxic drugs as strychnine, bella- 
 donna, stramonium, etc., while very small quantities 
 of these will affect others fatally. 
 
 Scientific men charge upon heredity the respon- 
 sibility for physical tendencies, especially those 
 that do not reflect ' credit upon the race. The 
 dodge is an old one of shirking responsibility. 
 Adam found a scape-goat in Eve after the great 
 transgression ; the ancient Jews made a poor inno- 
 cent kid perform the same office for the whole people. 
 In the light of present knowledge physicists should 
 be slow to teach children to slander their parents, 
 and parents' parents after this fashion. In the mat- 
 ter of drunkenness, and the same holds good of 
 opium, it is shown that the children of inebriates 
 have measurable immunity from dipsomania through 
 
HOW THE TYRANT ENSLAVES. 171 
 
 a tolerance acquired by the cells of the sire and 
 directly transmitted to the offspring. The long im- 
 bibition of the father gives him a certain exemption 
 from the toxic effects of the alcohol and this qual- 
 ity of the cells is an inheritance. It is demonstra- 
 ble that children of drunkards are no more liable to 
 yield to the weakness of drink than are the children 
 of total abstainers. 
 
 All that can be said with confidence concerning 
 the readiness with which men yield to the enslaving 
 drug is that structural differences exist in the cells, 
 whith differences are yet to be discovered and ex- 
 plained. 
 
 Understanding, as they undoubtedly must, the 
 weakness of humanity, it is incomprehensible that 
 physicians should resort to opium with such fre- 
 quency and use it so recklessly. The fact that the 
 habit abounds is evidence that the doctors do not 
 exercise proper caution. Incidentally it may be ■ 
 said that while any candid physician will admit the 
 truth of this, it is next to impossible to find one 
 who will confess that he has such a sin for which to 
 make answer. It is by no means difficult to find a 
 doctor who will declare he knows some other physi- 
 cian who has fastened the habit upon a poor wretch; 
 but as for him, perish the idea that he should be 
 so culpable ! 
 
 Medical men would denounce as a glaring out- 
 rage upon their rights and an assassination of 
 science any legislative statutes making it a penal 
 offense to use opium in the practice ; yet society 
 
172 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 must protect itself. The law-makers of one state 
 found it necessar}^ to restrain the indiscriminate use 
 of chloroform in surgical operations. Truth de- 
 mands it should be said that many physicians use 
 the drug in their practice with great circumspection 
 and intelligent understanding of its danger ; but 
 there are thousands who dispense it as recklessly as 
 quinine or magnesia, with the most injurious results. 
 Admitting all the beneficent qualities claimed for it 
 the fact remains that there are many cogent reasons 
 why it should be banished from the pharmacopoeia. 
 Men do not fall into the opium addiction of them- 
 selves, as drunkards into their habit. Society does 
 not place the lethal poison on the side table or 
 offer it at the banquet ; friend does not invite friend 
 to take a drink of it ; attractive saloons do not in- 
 clude it in the list of their insidious decoctions. 
 Opium is known and accepted everywhere as a rank, 
 if beneficent poison. When a druggist sells it he 
 places a skull and crossbones label upon the parcel, 
 signifying its menace to life. Men, therefore, have 
 not the temptation or the inducement to fall into 
 the habit of themselves. The doctors must assume 
 the responsibility, however disagreeable it may 
 prove. If correction of the evil be not made by 
 them they must not, complain if the people through 
 their legislatures take the matter in hand. 
 
 Opium using is steadily on the increase in this 
 country. This is especially true of the Southern 
 States and of those sections of country that have 
 
HOW THE TYRANT ENSLA\'ES. 173 
 
 local option or prohibition. Druggists are close- 
 mouthed people, as a rule, but any respectable man 
 who seeks truth may discover upon inquiry of these 
 dealers that where the saloons have been shut up by 
 law the demand for the drug has increased. This 
 is easy of explanation ; the poor drunkards seek a 
 substitute for the alcohol from which they have 
 been forcibly separated, and they think they find it 
 in the extract of poppy. In the great centers of 
 active energy and dissipation, the large cities, de- 
 mand for the drug is fearfully on the increase. It 
 is now a fad among physicians to inject morphine ; 
 so that when a business or a professional man 
 awakens in the morning overcome of the excesses 
 of the previous night and finds himself incapable of 
 reaching his office, the physician who is sent for 
 knows that a morphine tablet will restore the equi- 
 librium for a little while and the syringe is put in 
 requisition. These drunkards, once they learn that 
 opium quiets the nerves after a debauch, are not 
 slow to take advantage of the fact ; indeed, it is 
 lamentably true that the knowledge tempts them 
 into repeating their drunken outbreaks at pleasure, 
 having the means at hand to patch themselves up. 
 Reference might also be made to the exactions of 
 society and the severe strain to which women are 
 subjected, the depression that follows the excite- 
 ment, and the ready needle which fires the blood 
 with ecstasy of exaltation. Without entering fur- 
 ther into the causes for increase in the number of 
 
Nl 
 
 174 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 habitues the fact is emphasized that the condition 
 exists ; moralists and physicists must inquire what 
 is to be done about it. 
 
 No man takes to opium in any form, except the 
 smoking of the drug, unless there is some diseased 
 condition ; by disease is meant abnormal condition 
 of the body. If he be in health there is revulsion, 
 positive and absolute, which may not be overcome 
 except by a might}' effort of the will. Opium is a 
 medicine, not a food, and healthy people do not 
 crave medicines. The cells of the body have their 
 likes and dislikes and when in a healthy condition 
 often know what is better for them than their owner, 
 who will be wise if he obey their injunctions. The}- 
 raise a revolt when strychnine enters their domains; 
 they protest against over-supplies of coffee and 
 breadstuffs of all kinds. 
 
 Physicians as well as laymen may confound ap- 
 parent health with diseased bodily conditions. 
 There are physical disturbances that are as difficult 
 of determination by the eye, or by diagnosis even, 
 as are certain mental aberrances. Extended ac- 
 quaintance among once opium habitues now cured 
 warrants the position assumed that the habit is 
 formed when the body is diseased ; every one of 
 whom inquiry was made declared that physical 
 degeneration antedated his addiction. De Quince}' 
 offers positive testimony to sustain this view of the 
 case. He says, "A late under-secretary of state 
 described to me the sensation which first drove him 
 to the use of opium in the very same words as the 
 
HOW THE TYRANT ENSLAVES. I75 
 
 Dean of , viz., 'that he felt as though rats 
 
 were gnawing and abrading the coats of his stom- 
 ach.' " The author of the "Confessions " declares 
 that the beginning of his addiction came of "a sud- 
 den, over-mastering impulse derived from bodily an- 
 guish ;" although Coleridge says he "had been faith- 
 fully, and with agony of zeal, warned of the gulf, 
 yet willingly sank into the current !" Coleridge was 
 driven into the habit on account of a malady which 
 medical science declared could not, be alleviated in 
 any other way. He ever mourned it and never 
 employed allurements to entice others into the 
 habit. De Quincey testifies that Coleridge was in 
 no way responsible for his habit. 
 
 This is true of all persons in the habit (whatever 
 the form of the drug, opium powdered or gum, 
 laudanum, or either addiction of morphine) ; the 
 specific effects are identical, the environment of the 
 slave being considered. This is not true of drunk- 
 ards by any means. The tendency with alcohol is 
 to exaggerate the normal temper or disposition of 
 the individual. Wide experience with hard drinkers 
 shows that whisky affects individual cases similarly; 
 that is to say, the conduct of John Doe is likely to 
 be repeated at each imbibition, and so is that of 
 Richard Roe ; but their actions will not be similar, 
 except as their dispositions and tempers are alike. 
 In general terms alcohol excites to hilarity, mirth, 
 good fellowship, and folly ; but these are only gen- 
 eral conditions and partial stages of intoxication. 
 The old Latins were very close observers of drunk- 
 
 1/ 
 
176 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ards and had magnificent opportunities for study- 
 ing the various effects of wine upon men. The sum 
 of their entire experience was, In vino Veritas. The 
 hog-like epitaph of Sardanapalus exactly portrayed 
 the beastl}- character of that monarch when drunk — 
 EaBis, TTive, aapodiaiaZs' t' aXla ds ouuev — eat, drink, be 
 lustful ("merry," as Rollin charitably puts it); 
 everything else is nothing. Drunkenness abolishes 
 prudence and the true character of the man is dis- 
 closed Not only are the characteristics of drunk- 
 ards largely controlled by their mental and moral 
 traits, but it is easy to arrange them into classes, 
 such as the "drunkard that sleeps," the "fighting" 
 drunkard, the "oblivious" drunkard, the " maudlin" 
 drunkard, the " tramp " drunkard, the " lecherous " 
 drunkard, the " mercenary " drunkard, the "fool" 
 drunkard, the " wise " drunkard, etc., all of these 
 stages or divisions being referable to a point when 
 they have passed out of a condition of moral re- 
 sponsibility for their acts. Thus when conversing 
 with an inebriate who was animated and apparently 
 profoundly interested, he would, quick as a light- 
 ning flash, pass into a state of profound somnolence. 
 So others without any apparent change of manner 
 or speech, at a given period would be utterly ob- 
 livious to what was going on about them and 
 unable afterwards to recall what took place subse- 
 quent to that given period ; it often being the case 
 that memory would end at precisely that portion of 
 a passing remark which was being made at the 
 moment of oblivion. So with the remaining classes; 
 
HOW THE TYRANT EXSLAVES. 177 
 
 as the drunkard who develops a sudden shrewdness 
 in money matters, being exceedingl}- sharp in a 
 bargain, which he does not recall afterward. Many 
 drunkards will not gamble except when they reach 
 what may be termed the " avarice " stage, when 
 they will play heavily at faro or poker, or " plunge" 
 at races, sometimes evincing a remarkable degree of 
 shrewdness or "luck," while at others they show 
 asinine stupidity. 
 
 Now these variations are in no sense peculiar to 
 the opium habitue. It will be understood, of course, 
 that an uneducated man will not see visions nor have 
 dreams of varying intensity like one whose mind is 
 stored with knowledge, as De Quincey has correctly 
 pointed out in his " Confessions." Each opium 
 habitue is likely to be hedged in by his own wall — 
 his fancies, doubts, fears, phantasms, and the million- 
 and-one figments of his brain, because opium is in 
 no sense a creator, or even a suggester of new ideas. 
 It merely exaggerates previous impressions, facts, or 
 knowledge ; distorts visual objects and jumbles fact 
 and fancy into the most incongruous shapes and 
 appearances. But the general effects of opium, 
 whatever the form -of the addiction, may be said to 
 be the same in every slave. Thus in the first stages 
 all have delightful periods of excitation, with pleas- 
 urable dreams. With all habitues these delightful 
 visions and pleasurable dreams gradually fade away. 
 All habitues suffer frightfully from depression of 
 spirits, from despondency with suicidal suggestions, 
 are cowardly, errant in thought, uncertain in action, 
 
178 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 vacillating, etc.; so that one may fully know the 
 rationale of the habit as effectually from the experi- 
 ence of one man as from that of a thousand. This 
 is said advisedlj^ because of an extended experience 
 among those who have had their long nights in 
 opium Gethsemane and walked along with me the 
 doleful road to the Golgotha of final agon}- and 
 release. Where individuals present divergent ex- 
 periences they have a double or triple addiction, as 
 the chloral or cocaine habit, or both, in connection 
 with their opium desire ; when the specific effects of 
 these, which are different from opium, will often 
 present themselves. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 
 
 But pain is perfect misery, the worst 
 Of evils, and excessive, overturns 
 All patience. 
 
 Milton — Paradise Lost. 
 
 Although it is by no means within the purpose 
 of this record to enter upon strictly scientific con- 
 sideration of the subject, it seems necessary to a 
 complete understanding of the effects of the drug 
 upon the individual that something be said con- 
 cerning the resultant action upon the body and its 
 functions. De Quincey constantly maintained with 
 an insistence worthy of a better cause that opium is 
 a positive cure for consumption, and his view is 
 endorsed modifiedly by a medical specialist of the 
 greatest eminence, who has carefully studied the 
 effects of opium in the habit upon the physical 
 man. The latter declares that the immortal essay- 
 ist is correct to the extent that the narcotic "puts 
 to sleep" the germs of the disease, so that they 
 remain in a passive state ; but he adds that with the 
 withdrawal of the drug the destroying work is 
 resumed. In short he declares that for anyone who 
 is consumptive to receive any benefit from the drug 
 he must "get the habit and continue in it; a con- 
 
 179 
 
i8o DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 dition a millionfold worse than the disease itself ; 
 for whereas the latter can only destroy the bod}-, 
 the former makes a wreck of the mind ; while in the 
 end a sad and gloomy death is certain." 
 
 No knowledge is professed on this head, because 
 it is a subject that pertains to the medical profes- 
 sion and not to a layman. The latter, however, is 
 privileged to speak, to "cry aloud and spare not" 
 in all matters pertaining to opium slavery. Having 
 felt the abrasion of the chains about the ankles, the 
 weary toil at the heav}' oars, the lash of the master 
 and partaken of the wretched fare, it is competent 
 to warn others never to do that which will brin? 
 them to the opium galley and the sea whereon it 
 moves, of storm and cloud and thick darkness. 
 Whether for consumption or any other disease, bet- 
 ter far the sullen hand of cold death than the years 
 of servitude that are filled with unutterable anguish. 
 
 De Quincey was doubtless honest in his views 
 concerning the efficacy of opium in certain diseases; 
 but he was an enthusiast whose complete devotion 
 to his master led him into the grossest error. The 
 great Englishman was so long a devotee that cus- 
 tom became second nature — 
 
 "tyj[it TzoXuxpovtrjv /jL£?.eTTjv efi/jLEvat pi?.£' xai d-q 
 TauTTjv avt'^pamoKTi TsXeurwaav tpvaiv sivaCJ' 
 
 •^ The half century of servitude made pleasing 
 
 through hardening of the mind what once he so 
 strongl}' reprobated. He sought to persuade his 
 publishers and many other friends with weak lungs 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. i8i 
 
 to have recourse to it; and, no doubt, although the 
 record is silent, his soft, persuasive voice was potent 
 to the end desired in many cases. Undeniably 
 much of his zeal came of his utter inability to wade 
 out of the infernal sludge into which he had fallen. 
 The infinite mystery, though, is how he, who accord- 
 ing to his own confession had drank to the lees the 
 cup of the world's sorrows, should have urged that 
 drink upon another. In all my extended acquaint- 
 ance but a single instance is found where a man in 
 the habit sought to fasten it upon another. This 
 was a physician living in Ohio, who, wearying of 
 the just and proper reproaches of his wife, deliber- 
 ately fixed upon her the addiction, administering the 
 drug in her tea at morning, noon, and night. This 
 was a monstrous, an infamous act, worse than mur- 
 der even ; yet this wretch suffered unutterable 
 remorse for his wickedness ; and, unable to endure 
 the agonized torture of the poor woman, nerved 
 himself to suicide. At least two cases are known 
 in which women have deliberately chosen to share 
 their husband's misery, through a mistaken idea 
 that mutual torture might mitigate the pains of those 
 they loved. Such self-abnegation in woman, God 
 bless her, is old as the world. The South Asian 
 story of the creation affords a similar instance of 
 her devotion ; the man in this account being the sole 
 transgressor, while the woman, knowing what he 
 must suffer, cheerfully declared herself guilty that 
 she might share his fate and be his comforter. But 
 of all men that are and have been among the white 
 
i82 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 races, De Quincey stands out alone as encouraging 
 the use of opium to the point of forming the habit. 
 The physician confined his evil work to his wife ; 
 the two women sinned because of their devotion 
 and the evil rested upon themselves alone ; while 
 De Quincey's work of persuasion continues nearly 
 forty years after his death and is likely to do so in- 
 definitely, because of the master magic of his persua- 
 sive eloquence and the witching charm of his ver- 
 biage. As stated before he is not a competent 
 witness, because he was an opium habitue ; those in 
 the spell of opium are not worthy of credence in 
 any matter. Opium keeps its slaves in a state of 
 cachexy ; in many cases, especially in the mor- 
 phine addiction, there is seeming atrophy, if this 
 use of the word is permissible, in every portion of 
 the bod}-, and reason declares that an azotic drug so 
 potent in its deteriorating tendencies could not be 
 helpful to those suffering from any wasting disease. 
 Anything tends to the abridgment of life which 
 interferes with the healthy current of life. That 
 which disturbs disastrously the bodily functions can 
 not be promotive of longevity. It is admitted that 
 De Quincey took the drug in large quantities for 
 upwards of fifty years ; cases of this kind are not 
 infrequent. The same is true of inebriety; yet 
 there are none so foolhardy as to claim that alcohol 
 promotes longevity. The form in which De Quincey 
 took the drug was least hurtful to the brain and 
 body ; he was a man of great resistant power in every 
 direction, notwithstanding his persistent attempts to 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 183 
 
 prove himself the putative victim of a threatened 
 fatal malady. As has been stated elsewhere, all 
 opium habitues imagine themselves afflicted with 
 one malady or many. De Quincey had potent 
 tenacity of life and held on to it despite the ravages 
 of the drug. Instances are found in every com- 
 munity almost, of drunkards who show the same y 
 vitality and recuperative energy. The great essay- ,^/ 
 ist and would-be high priest of opium worship was 
 so positive upon this point, the life-sustaining 
 potency of opium, that he did not hesitate to 
 throw about him the mantle of prophecy and de- 
 clare unctuously that life insurance companies must 
 and would recede from their position touching this 
 matter. More than one generation has passed since 
 the prediction and these companies, in the light of 
 greatly added knowledge, are more insistent than 
 ever upon the point that the opium habitue cannot 
 be a desirable subject for life insurance. There is 
 not a single one of these companies upon the face 
 of the earth which would for a moment seriously 
 consider the expediency of accepting such an appli- 
 cant. 
 
 The error of the illustrious Englishman lay in 
 his vanity, which made a supreme and only example 
 of himself in the matter of longevity and decreed 
 that since he could take opium and live, therefore 
 opium is the elixir vitcB, the taking of which assures 
 a green old age of unfailing virile powers. Cagli- 
 ostro was wiser than De Quincey confesses himself 
 to have been ; for the former used the drug to de- 
 
i84 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ceive the credulous into believing that he had the 
 waters of the fountain of perpetual youth, for which 
 Ponce de Leon and other poor fools looked so 
 vainly. The charlatan was a knave, but he never 
 made -pretence of deceiving himself ; while De 
 Quincey's entire life appears to have been devoted 
 to the absorbing thought of deluding his own mind 
 as to the alleged merits of the drug and of commu- 
 nicating this belief to a credulous people. Nothing 
 can be more sad and pitiful than the defense he 
 makes of the king of narcotics in old age, when 
 overwhelmed of infirmities, the result of his mad 
 infatuation. The dying throes of a giant are more 
 profound than those of a pigmy, and whatever else 
 may be said of the immortal essayist, a giant he 
 was. He resisted, succumbed, and resisted again, 
 until finding resistance altogether vain he made 
 virtue of necessity and became a flatterer and syco- 
 phant in the court of the king who had enslaved 
 him. 
 
 Yet, after all, many deaths are charged to opium 
 that perhaps might better be laid at the door of 
 some other disease. Oftentimes it is most difficult 
 to determine the cause of death, especially when it is 
 sudden and no external signs are offered. Physi- 
 cians as a body have in effect sanctified the practice 
 of individual physicians of ascribing these visitations 
 either to such disease as chances to be a prevailing 
 fad, or if the deceased had some degrading habit, 
 as drink, opium, chloral, etc., to his peculiar weak- 
 ness. Forty years ago it was the fashion to charge 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 185 
 
 sudden death to apoplexy ; but Bright's disease 
 pushed this aside, and this in turn gave way to 
 " heart failure," the most unreasonable reason of all. 
 The untutored la3-man has enough intelligence 
 to know that " heart failure " is coincident with 
 death from any cause, and such a decision is a 
 "trick, evasion, and subterfuge." Yet it is "the 
 latest ultimatum of ethics " and he is anathema who 
 defies its authorit}-. Equally, when the opium 
 habitue dies, his disease with superlative ipse dixit 
 pronouncement is charged to the drug. It is strange 
 that in all the years it has not occurred to the physi- 
 cian that a man who uses opium or whisky might 
 be carried off suddenly by a disease absolutely in- 
 dependent of the addiction, just as people who 
 never tasted opium. The possibility is admitted of 
 his dying of small-pox, pneumonia, congestive chills, 
 and other maladies less expeditious than apoplexy, 
 paralysis, Bright's disease, "heart failure" (what- 
 ever the latter may mean), etc.; then, why not of 
 the four last named sometimes as well? Opium is 
 bad enough in all humanity's name ; but what is 
 gained by giving to it ills that ma}' not pertain to it 
 in any wise? 
 
 As has been stated elsewhere, more than one- 
 half of the opium " fiends " in this country have, in 
 addition, the whisky, chloral, cocaine, or some other 
 habit. These multiple addictions invariably serve 
 to intensify the evils and to precipitate mental dis- 
 turbances. Laudanum drinkers and gum and pow- 
 dered opium eaters seldom become insane ; there 
 
J 
 
 i86 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 being at least four times as man}- made mad from 
 morphine bj- the mouth, and six times as many from 
 morphine hypodermically as from the opium itself. 
 On the other hand whisky, chloral, and cocaine not 
 onl}- tend greatl}- to cerebral lesions, but any one of 
 them in combination with opium or morphine will 
 have this tendency strengthened. This fact must 
 be understood in considering the physiological 
 effects of opium in its various forms. It is frankly 
 admitted that when opium is taken habitually with 
 an}' other drug (not only those named, but also 
 arsenic, strychnine, kerosene, and the fifty and one 
 other drugs that are made addiction of) , the wretched 
 slave is contaminated by that much more and his life 
 is in constant peril, the immediate imminence of 
 which is limited by the danger of the added poison. 
 This fact is indisputable ; whether with but the 
 single habit or having it in combination with another, 
 or others, there is no man but that is made million- 
 fold worse than he would be if he were out of it. 
 Candor compels the confession of certain truths ; 
 the devil may possess a virtue or two, as opium 
 also does ; yet the arch fiend himself is no worse 
 than the drug ; man had better call to the moun- 
 tains to fall upon him than get in his power who 
 knows no mercy. 
 
 Whatever its effect in consumption the consensus 
 of opinion among cured habitues is that those bodily 
 organs which were weak before the habit became 
 weaker under its malign influence. In short, the 
 man with poor digestion suffered terribly from indi- 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 187 
 
 gestion, the rheumatic ached sorely, etc. Unques- 
 tionably the drug is one of the most unconscionable 
 deceivers in all the world ; making such simulations 
 of pain at divers times as to lead the slaves into a 
 sincere belief that they have, one after the other, 
 and often many together, every disease of the 
 human family. Memory distinctly calls up out of 
 the period of servitude a protracted siege of Bright's 
 disease in an advanced stage ; an aggravated men- 
 ingitis ; well developed symptoms of locomotor 
 ataxia, and an irritating bronchial ailment. Physi- 
 cians sounded the lungs for a supposed tubercle or 
 two and carefully examined the heart for valvular 
 disturbances. There was demand for removal of a 
 vermiform appendix ; quantities of calomel and qui- 
 nine were required for relief of a disordered liver. 
 These disorders were to the wretched spirit as real 
 as though the several diseases were present in the 
 most aggravated form. Opium belongs to the 
 school of realism ; he is no buffoon and his acting 
 is never transparent. 
 
 Another fact which is of great comfort to those 
 who have passed out of the valley of sorrows (as it also 
 should be to those yet in the gloom, who may take 
 heart of hope from the general evidence) is that the 
 drug leaves a man just where it found him. When 
 the vile stuff is banished from the cells, every func- 
 tion is restored to normal condition. This is not 
 referable in all cases to dementia superinduced by 
 the habit, as there are one or two instances within 
 knowledge in which the opium appetite disease was 
 
i88 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 radically cured while paresis remained. Still, sev- 
 eral cases are recalled in which parties who were 
 rendered insane by excessive use of the drug were 
 completel}- restored in mind as well as body. Where 
 there is no brain lesion, restoration is complete ; in 
 my own case there is perfect health, a condition 
 that never existed at any time prior to the addic- 
 tion. 
 
 Literary men — authors, newspaper men, etc., do 
 not show the deteriorating results of the drug in 
 their work as men in other vocations, for the rea- 
 son that opium tends to excite a flow of words and 
 the impressions of the life antecedent to the habit 
 are not destroyed. Hence they are able to call up 
 out of the days of normal energy ideas which the 
 poppy gum clothes in words. Yet these are inca- 
 pable of sustained labors as previously stated. De 
 Quincey, infinite master of pure English as he was, 
 earned but sixteen thousand dollars in his upwards 
 of forty years of literary life — less than four hun- 
 dred dollars per year. The admission was frank 
 that he was incapable of prosecuting extended work 
 to a finish. Physicians, lawyers, and clergymen suf- 
 fer most, because confidence is necessary to success 
 in their cases and patients, clients, and parishioners 
 respectively soon lose all faith in them. Besides, 
 their muddled brains must seriously interfere with 
 proper discharge of duty. Business men, merchants, 
 manufacturers, and others lose administrative energy 
 and executive force and find themselves incapable 
 of mastering the details of direction of the opera- 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 189 
 
 tions of their assistants. With workingmen the 
 results are most disastrous, because opium enfeebles 
 the muscles ; so that the habitue is incapable of 
 performing his daily task. Woman, for physical 
 reasons, alwaj^s suffers most ; but for a' beneficent 
 dispensation of Providence which enables her to 
 endure most, she must needs die of her afflictions 
 under the inexorable demands of the opium tyrant. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago it was estimated that 
 women furnished the greater number of opium 
 habitues in this country, but in the intervening time 
 there has been a most alarming increase in the use 
 of the drug and the opposite sex now affords an 
 overwhelming majority. This is equally referable 
 to England, France, and some other countries of 
 Europe. Dr. Jules Rochard, in an article which 
 appeared recently in the "Union Medicale" of 
 Paris, declares that nearly half the total of men \J 
 having the addiction in France are members of the 
 medical profession. 
 
 While the latter statement would exaggerate the 
 conditions if applied to this country, it is unde- 
 niably true that the medical profession of the 
 United States shows more morphinal (opium) 
 habitues than all the other professions combined, 
 and a greater percentage than all other classes of 
 people in the nation. This statement is not based 
 upon conjecture, but upon information that cannot 
 be confuted and that is not susceptible of error. 
 
 Country doctors furnish the larger percentage of , 
 
 victims ; a fact that those who have been cured of 
 
igo DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 the addiction ascribe to the necessarily irregular 
 lives they lead. Long drives in inclement weather, 
 enforced vigils at various times, protracted service 
 during epidemics, and other causes superinduce 
 headache, neuralgia, or other disorders ; the doctor 
 dare not lie abed because of the demand for his 
 services, and the hypodermic syringe always being 
 available an injection of morphine is taken. Of 
 course the tired and worn man has no thought of 
 repeating his dose, but he has had no experience 
 with that woeful after depression which inexorably 
 calls for more and that refuses to be appeased until 
 appetite is satisfied. He has been taught that the 
 opium habit is a vice and not a disease, a vice that 
 only demands an effort of the will to be discarded ; 
 hence, full of resolute purpose, he mocks at the 
 spell of the enchanter. A simulation of the original 
 disorder comes to the support of the depression and 
 he yields to the combined attack. When this is 
 repeated the following day he is somewhat sur- 
 prised ; but confident that one more yielding can 
 do no harm he finds "respite and nepenthe" for 
 "just this once." Alas! each yielding is an added 
 weakening of the will ; only too soon he is an 
 abject, craven, and helpless slave. 
 
 Among doctors as well as others, intoxication, 
 or the use at least of whisky, is a fruitful cause of 
 the enslavement. Popular prejudice condemns the 
 physician whose breath reeks of the funics of alco- 
 hol, and he who finds the appetite too strong for 
 control resorts to the drug, which in his simplicity 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. igi 
 
 he thinks conceals its presence. The doctor is 
 human like ordinary mortals, is subject to the same 
 weaknesses, and has not one whit more control over 
 a growing opium appetite. A most pitiful case is 
 recalled just here of a young medical student, who 
 was one of the most attentive and interested listeners 
 in a Chicago medical college to a learned professor, 
 who warned eloquently against the indiscriminate 
 use of opium in the practice. The young man 
 spoke of the matter later to his friends, inviting 
 their attention to his copious notes and expressing 
 personal views in condemnation of the drug. Two 
 months afterward he received his diploma; within 
 the year he had substituted opium for whisky in his 
 own life and two years subsequently died a maniac 
 from the excessive use of morphine, as his attending 
 physician declared. The young man was remark- 
 ably intelligent and ambitious to excel in his pro- 
 fession. His indulgence in drink was not intemper- 
 ate, but the appetite was present, and, fearing ill 
 consequences to his practice from his breath, he 
 resorted to the drug that gives forth no smell, and 
 his ruin was swift, awful, and complete. No stronger 
 evidence can be afforded of the insinuating, per- 
 sistent, and inconquerable potency of the drug 
 than in the facts recited, — that those who have 
 studied its toxic properties and have been trained 
 to know themselves are readiest victims to its wiles. 
 Next after the doctors come clergymen, who, 
 for equally good reasons, must conceal a habit that 
 betrays moral weakness if not venal sin. Here the 
 
IQ2 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 order is reversed ; for it is city ministers who pre- 
 sent a greater proportional number of slaves than 
 their rural brethren. It is not necessary to speak of 
 the added duties that devolve upon the pastor of a 
 city church, the necessity for stimulation to the 
 effort of preparing two or more sermons each week, 
 social duties, visiting the sick, attendance upon 
 funerals, etc. The overtaxed brain cries for rest 
 and is appeased by what will ultimately bring un- 
 rest. A widely known American preacher of match- 
 less persuasiveness, whose congregation properly 
 loves him for his many estimable qualities, relies 
 upon thirty grains of morphine for the inspiration 
 that thrills his hearers every Sunday morning ; an 
 equal amount each Sunday night sets aflowing the 
 glowing stream that sparkles with brilliants. His 
 present addiction is ninety grains daily and his body 
 is fast surrendering to the forces of the relentless 
 enemy. Strange fatuity of humanity! He is most 
 fervid and eloquent when he mourns the destruction 
 that is made by alcoholic indulgence ; yet if the 
 salvation of his immortal soul were the forfeit he 
 could not raise his voice against that more deadly 
 because more insidious foe, opium. His is a case 
 j like that of De Quincey, wherein the victim deludes 
 himself that the drug is a necessity to his hold upon 
 life, and that but for it he must have died many 
 years since. 
 
 The number of women in the habit has sensibly 
 increased, yet not proportionally with the stronger 
 sex. Let this be writteft down to the immortal 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 193 
 
 honor of the sex; it rarely happens that one of 
 them falls through her own agency. She is almost 
 without exception the victim of medical ignorance, 
 or carelessness, or indifference, it boots little which 
 term be applied, the ill effects being the same what- 
 ever the motive impelling the doctor. This, of 
 course, is not referable to those females whose sin- 
 ful lives place them outside the pale of respecta- 
 bility. Among the latter the habit is widely preva- 
 lent and is, as a rule, the result of intemperance and 
 its direct accompaniments. These women drink a 
 great deal of wine and stronger potables and keep 
 late hours ; which are followed by headaches, 
 neuralgia, etc., that morphine is called upon to 
 remove. Having no moral force or self-respect the 
 deterioration of these creatures is rapid. The more 
 depraved wretches of this class resort to the pipe 
 (opium smoking) and their exit from this world is 
 along a fast road that has no way stations. 
 
 Whether doctors or preachers, literary men or 
 merchants, politicians or capitalists, men or women, 
 the results are the same, a riveting of the chains 
 and a crucifixion of the soul. Among all classes 
 the habit is increasing to an extent that should 
 occasion alarm and incite the people to drastic 
 measures for relief and release. 
 
 .The tricks played upon the appetite are many 
 and some of them exceptionally queer. Through- 
 out the habit it was impossible for me to eat any 
 food within thirty minutes of taking the drug. Re- 
 peated attempts always proved abortive. As time 
 >3 
 
ig4 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 passed the appetite grew more uncertain ; until, in 
 the last week of the addiction, the power to eat was 
 absolutely withdrawn. During the last seven years 
 the fast was never broken until noon, or later ; and 
 frequently the evening meal was the only one of 
 the da}-. This condition was rather exceptional, 
 however, as most habitues, especially those using 
 morphine, eat at least twice daily ; but none of 
 them eat heavily or enjoyably. In the latter years 
 of the slavery if anything was eaten at noon the 
 diet was fruit or sweetmeats of some kind. 
 
 Investigation among those having the morphine 
 injection habit shows a remarkable liking for candy 
 in some form. One acquaintance, living in Illinois, 
 ate it almost constantly and declared he would as 
 soon be without his syringe as a package of cara- 
 mels. Once upon reaching his room at midnight 
 he discovered he had none and he actually dressed 
 and rode a distance of three miles for a supply. 
 While showing no marked predilection for sac- 
 charine foods, I had certain idiosyncracies that may 
 be worth recording ; as, for instance, there was most 
 invincible repugnance to coffee, a distaste that has 
 remained since the restoration. It is a fact, how- 
 ever, that while the decoction is given to overcome 
 opium poison, morphine habitues generally use it 
 throughout their habit. Bread of all kinds and 
 potatoes were very distasteful ; the tobacco smoking 
 habit, which had been present for twenty-five years, 
 disappeared in the third j-ear of the habit and has 
 not since returned ; although three or four vain 
 
ASSAULTS UPON THE BODY. 19S 
 
 attempts have been made since the cure to whiff 
 a cigar. 
 
 These facts in connection with the habit are 
 given in full knowledge that the tendency of the 
 drug was to exaggerate them and that, consequently, 
 due care has to be exercised in recording them, 
 that fancy may be divided from what was real. 
 About the only thing that opium failed to exagger- 
 ate was a suggestion of pleasure. It is no imagina- 
 tion that declares the physical man was constantly 
 in pain — especially those ills which long antedated 
 the habit. There were specific disturbances of the 
 vision and hearing, which will be spoken of in 
 appropriate chapters ; the entire man was constantly 
 in what is commonly termed " a state of nerves." 
 The laudanum drinker has most unhappy recollec- 
 tion of obstinate ulcers with swellings of the hands 
 and feet; while the morphine victim by injection 
 is constantly harassed by abscesses, probably the 
 result of impure water used in the solution or neg- 
 lect in keeping clean the needle. These and many 
 more disagreeable facts might be given ; but they 
 more properly pertain to a medical work than to 
 one designed for general reading. A volume might 
 easily be written upon the physical ills and beset- 
 ments of the opium " fiend," and much would then 
 be left unsaid. 
 
 It is proper to correct an impression that opium 
 always causes a wasting away of the bodily tissues, 
 a " paling " of the skin and a hollowing of the 
 chambers of the eye. In general terms this is true 
 
Ig6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 as to the morphine slaves who have no other addic- 
 tion ; but laudanum drinkers, as a rule, lose no 
 flesh and ma}' be of rudd}' complexion. This may 
 be due to the alcohol in the tincture. Morphine 
 habitues have declared that the\- resorted to drink 
 in order to overcome their pallor or sallowness, as 
 well as to stop the bodily wastage. There is much 
 diversity as to resultant action in this direction ; but 
 it may be accepted as a fact that laudanum drinkers 
 do not give evidences of physical deterioration. In 
 the nine years of my habit there was a fairly close 
 holding to the weight of 225 pounds, with which 
 the habit was begun, and that weight is practically 
 maintained to this day. 
 
 While under the influence of the drug the skin 
 of the entire body is dry to scaliness, like the in- 
 itial presentation of leprosy. This deficiency of 
 moisture is communicated to the hair and beard; 
 and in many cases the habitue becomes bald. The 
 nails of the fingers and toes become very brittle 
 and the edges break off irregularly. The muscles 
 become contracted ; the shoulders are stooped and 
 the feet drag in walking. The iris of the eye in all 
 cases contracts greatly and in older habitues is 
 scarcely larger than the point of a pin. Thus the 
 entire physical man is in a state of invalidation and 
 deterioration. The poor wretch aggravates his mis- 
 fortunes and finds in their recapitulation ample em- 
 ployment for his spirit. 
 
 The senses of touch, taste, and smell in my case 
 were seriously impaired. The skin became indu- 
 
ASSAULTS UPOX THE BODY. 197 
 
 rated and dry and the delicacy of feeling consequent 
 upon contact with objects became blunted. There 
 were periods when no odors could be offensive 
 as none could be agreeable, because they could 
 not make any impression upon those parts whose 
 functions were to receive them. The dry and 
 parched lips and mouth became almost indifferent 
 to choice as to food, except as I was guided by pre- 
 vious preferences ; to use a common expression, 
 " all food tasted alike." Since the cure there has 
 been complete restoration of. touch and taste, but 
 what is extraordinary with the other sense, it is 
 greatly exaggerated in its potency. The restoration 
 seems to have carried it beyond the normal state, to 
 the degree that the slightest odor is magnified and 
 there is susceptibility to smells that other persons 
 may not detect. There is especial repugnance to 
 such as are disagreeable. The smoke of a cigarette 
 will drive me from an open street car and the fetid 
 air of a closed car makes impossible the going in 
 one for any distance. Individuals who appear most 
 cleanly in their habits have frequently to be avoided, 
 and cats and dogs have smells that particularly 
 offend. This. is not the result of imagination or an 
 idiosyncracy ; on the contrary, possessing a fairly 
 level head and being somewhat of a philosopher, 
 there is every disposition to pooh-pooh and repu- 
 diate it ; but the " damned spot will not out." It is 
 about the only one of the physical reminders of the 
 days of the slavery and is borne with fortitude, be- 
 cause there is the compensating blessing of intensi- 
 fied agreeable odors for those that would be escaped. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 HOW THE DRUG WORKS. 
 
 The body sins not ; 'tis the will 
 That makes the action good 'or ill. 
 
 Herrick. 
 
 It has been the studied purpose of the writer to 
 avoid purely technical discussion of the opium habit, 
 because such a view of the question pertains more 
 to the text book than to a work that is designed to 
 be within the understanding of all classes of readers. 
 However, it does seem expedient that a brief ex- 
 planation be given as to the manner in which opium 
 operates to the injury of the bodily cells and pro- 
 duces the various resulting evils of the "habit." In 
 doing this care shall be taken to speak as simply 
 and clearly as possible. 
 
 Opium and its various alkaloids are classed as 
 narcotic poisons, for the general reason that their 
 effect is to destroy sensation, motion, and conscious- 
 ness. The first effect of a dose of morphine, when 
 given as a medicine, is to destroy the consciousness 
 of pain. This effect is produced by poisoning the 
 higher nerve centers of the brain. If a sufficient 
 dose of the drug is taken to cause serious or dan- 
 gerous symptoms, all consciousness is abolished. 
 The person sinks into coma ; then the nerve centers 
 
 ig8 
 
HOW THE DRUG WORKS. igg 
 
 which control the heart's action and the respiration 
 are poisoned and these great functions of life cease 
 their action. The question that any thinking per- 
 son will ask is, how does opium act as a poison ? 
 It is not caustic, it leaves no mark upon the tissues 
 that can be discovered. It can destro}' thought, 
 sensation, volition, consciousness, and life ; yet the 
 closest microscopical research of the nerve centers 
 can find no wound, or injury, or change of any kind 
 from the natural condition. To all appearance the 
 tissues and organs are intact ; the only method of 
 verifying that death is caused by opium consists 
 in finding the drug in the stomach or other organs 
 and tissues. 
 
 In answer to this question physiologists teach 
 that the nerves — the nerve centers and all nerve 
 organs — are composed of minute cells. The whole 
 function of nerve organs, including the brain, is the 
 result of the activities or functions of these cells. 
 It is clear that opium and all other narcotic poisons 
 act upon these nerve cells. The action of the poi- 
 son is by chemical force and causes a molecular 
 change in the cells. This change in the arrange- 
 ment of the cells is beyond the investigation of the 
 senses, — it cannot be seen, weighed, or measured. 
 Observation tells us that if the change in the molec- 
 ular arrangement is great enough, the cell ceases 
 its functions and life ; but if the poisoning is less 
 or the dose smaller, that the molecular and cell 
 results are correspondingly less, but of the same 
 character. A continuous use of small doses of the 
 
200 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 drug makes this change of cell structure permanent 
 — in other words, there is a variation produced in 
 the type of the nerve cell, — and this variation has 
 for its object the creation of a greater resistance to 
 the action of the poison, or a greater tolerance to 
 the poison. 
 
 This is the explanation given by that great gen- 
 eral law of biology, known as natural selection, 
 and discovered by Darwin. No other explanation 
 can be given of the great facts of habit in relation 
 to poisons, nor is there any other scientific expla- 
 nation of the reasons why poison can be taken in 
 increasing quantities ; or when a tolerance to a poi- 
 son is established, there is craving for the drug 
 which overcomes the will and mental resolutions of 
 reform. The principle here involved is that which 
 is known as the adaptation of organisms to their 
 environment. When the environment changes the 
 organism must change type, structure, habits, and 
 functions in order to adapt itself to altered environ- 
 ment. Life is a continuous adjustment of inner to 
 outer relations ; or, at least, the maintenance of 
 life consists in the continuous adjustment or corre- 
 spondence of outer and inner relations. This change 
 in type of the organism means a variation in its 
 structure. If the change required is too great to be 
 met by the resources of the organism, then the 
 death of that organism is the result. 
 
 The thinking person will want to know how this 
 variation in the type of nerve cells is brought about 
 when poison is added to its environment and a 
 
HOW THE DRUG WORKS. 201 
 
 change must be made to meet' the new conditions. 
 The question can be answered and understood. 
 The first effect of a poison is to stimulate the activ- 
 ity of the cell functions. The functions of the 
 tissue cells are nutrition, reproduction, special func- 
 tion, or special kind of work, and also the function 
 or power of the change of type, or the variation 
 required to meet new conditions of life. Under 
 moderate poisoning the cell increases its functional 
 activities and develops a new type of variation of 
 special character, by which variation it increases its 
 power of tolerance to a poison. The reproduction 
 of cells is more active. As the new variation of the 
 type of cell is created it is transmitted b)^ heredity 
 to the cell progeny. In opium poisoning the 
 person who begins with a small medicinal dose 
 can gradually increase it, until after a few days 
 the average fatal dose can be taken without inconveni- 
 ence. If it were possible that the dose of morphine 
 or opium could not be increased above, say, the 
 average fatal dose, then the nervous system would 
 bear this amount, repeated a few times daily, with- 
 out inconvenience. But there are other factors in 
 the problem which are developed. A craving for the 
 drug is established as a factor of the pathology, and 
 the victim goes on increasing the quantity of the 
 drug day by day. 
 
 The reason why opium or other drugs select cer- 
 tain tissues, or have an afifinity for them, is due to 
 an established law of pathology, or of poisoning. 
 Any poison affects that organ or tissue the most 
 
202 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 which can resist it the least. Narcotic poisons 
 attack the cerebral and other nerve centres because 
 they meet here the least resistance. This is all that 
 is meant by affinit}- in this relation. The great law 
 of phj'sics and mind which reads that all force takes 
 the direction of least resistance fully explains the 
 reason whjj^ opium acts as a poison to the nerve 
 centers rather than upon the cells of the liver or 
 kidney. 
 
 The organisms of this world live on a war basis 
 or lose their lives. They are created with weapons 
 to destroy each other and the greater progress of 
 mankind has for its foundation the invention of 
 warlike offenses and defenses. Organic and living 
 things were created with an appetite for each other. 
 Opium is the weapon of a plant. It was created to 
 kill the organisms which would eat the plant. All 
 plant or vegetable -alkaloids hold the same relation 
 of purpose and capacity. But if other organisms 
 could gain no immunity to this poison the result 
 would be in time that nothing would live on the 
 earth but poppies. Some organisms learn to let 
 the poison alone, while others acquire a tolerance 
 to it. In opium poisoning the battle is between 
 the living tissue cell and the poison, and begins 
 when the cell takes it in with the food supply. It 
 is like the invasion of an industrial country by a 
 hostile army. When opium enters a tissue cell the 
 latter resists by a rearrangement of the cell mole- 
 cules. The peaceful industrial nation does the 
 same when invaded by an army. The citizens are 
 
HOW THE DRUG WORKS. 203 
 
 taken from farm, workshop, and the houses 
 of trade and rearranged as an army of defense. 
 The structure and functions of the nation are 
 changed. A variation of type is forced upon it in 
 order to meet a change in its environment. The 
 first change noted is an increased activity' ; but the 
 greater part of this increased energy is expended 
 in the variation for defense. Soldiers are equipped, 
 forts are built, and the country is changed from a 
 peace to a war basis. When opium enters a nerve 
 tissue cell there is at once an increase of activities, 
 and a change in their nature. The increased energy 
 is directed to changing the industrial molecules to 
 soldiers, so that the enemy may be resisted or 
 tolerated. Too large an army invading the country 
 can at once destroy it, and too large a dose of 
 poison can at once destroy an organism without, 
 in either case, there being a sign of resistance. 
 
 When cells are poisoned and are obliged to take 
 up the increased labor of defense, their general 
 functions are changed. Their nutrition is changed 
 and the heredity of reproduction takes along the 
 burden of a variation of type created for the pur- 
 pose of defense to poison. The functions of 
 special character are also changed. Thus certain 
 cells preside over mental manifestations — con- 
 sciousness, the will, the memory, and emotions. 
 Observation tells us all about the hallucinations 
 of the special senses — the visions, the voices, the 
 delusions and perverted emotions of the opium 
 user. Other nerve cells control sensation and vol- 
 
204 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 untary motion and the nutrition of the bod}-. The 
 clinical history of opium inebriety includes much 
 that relates to perverted sensations, to impaired 
 functions of the body, and to the changed nutrition 
 — the depravity of sense, the paralysis of the will 
 and of good intentions, the shrunken muscles, the 
 loss of manhood, the loss of honor, intellect, and 
 ambition ; the degradation of the pure in heart, 
 and the misery of life polluted b}' poison. 
 
 The world looks upon the opium user as a crea- 
 ture of depravity and vicious desires. The more 
 enlightened recognize that disease is in some way 
 .associated with the craving for a drug which nestles 
 / like the asp on the bosom of beauty. The great 
 question has always been, what makes the craving 
 for the poison? The answers to this question are 
 colored by all the lights which shine in the mental 
 chamber of learning, and by all the shadows from 
 the chambers of ignorance and superstition which 
 are yet without lights. The victim of the habit is 
 conscious only of the most intense suffering when 
 deprived of the drug. Taking the drug gives no ■ 
 pleasure except the absence of suffering. The true 
 answer to these questions is that opium poisoning is 
 a disease which is caused by nothing else than 
 opium and the chief subjective symptom of the dis- 
 ease is a craving for the drug. Men have thought 
 that the craving for the poison was due to other 
 disease or to a depraved moral status, and that the 
 opium disease, if such a thing exists, is founded on 
 
HOW THE DRUG WORKS. 205 
 
 some chronic disorder of mind, brain, or body. It 
 is impossible to take an}- kind of poison habitually 
 without causing a disease peculiar to this poison, 
 and, in all cases, there will be a craving for the 
 poison in question, which is beyond the control of 
 the will. 
 
 The craving can be explained and understood. It 
 has its origin in the pain of variation. When any 
 organism undergoes a change of tj^pe, made neces- 
 sary by a change of environment, the new type is 
 called a variation. It is on this principle that species 
 are born. The divine censure put upon man, that 
 human birth must be painful, seems to have passed 
 upon all forms of life. Pain waits upon the birth of 
 human kind, and suffering attends the genesis of 
 types and species by variation. The craving for 
 opium experienced by the inebriate is due to the ata- 
 vistic variation of the cells from the absence of opium. 
 When the poison is taken, the cells, through the 
 variation of type they have -acquired, carry on their 
 physiology in a modified way, without much diffi- 
 culty. But when the opium is consumed and is 
 thrown out of the system, then is experienced great 
 difficulty. The cells must resume the type which 
 they had before the opium was taken. This reversal 
 to a former type is difficult, and, as no anaesthetic is 
 present, this difficulty is represented in conscious- 
 ness as pain, and is repeated to the mind as a crav- 
 ing for the drug. 
 
 Such is the pathology of opium inebriety, which 
 
2o6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 is limited to the variation of the nerve cells and the 
 craving for the drug. The more remote diseases, as 
 degeneration of nerves, chronic inflammations, with 
 mental diseases, have nothing to do with the 
 habitue's craving for opium. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 VOICES OF THE AIR. 
 
 Stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 
 
 Bible — Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 No FEATURE of the opium habit was more disa- 
 greeable or alarming than what is commonly called 
 " hearing voices." This phenomenon is by no 
 means peculiar to opium, it being present as well in 
 the cocaine addiction, and in most energetic form 
 where the victim of the latter drug has the added 
 morphine habit. 
 
 Without attempting any extended physiological 
 reasons for the delusion it may be understood that 
 the organs of hearing are irregularly contracted 
 by the drug and that a disordered brain gives voice 
 to the air-waves that beat upon the drum of the ears. 
 The conditions are different when this visitation 
 comes, as it sometimes does, to the drunkard, who 
 hears these sounds only when he is suffering from 
 mania a potu and is absolutely crazy, as the inmate 
 of an asylum who likewise insists that he hears in- 
 corporeal creatures around him. The opium habitue 
 hears them and they are so distinct as to be cog- 
 nizable, the speaker being readily recognized when 
 the voices simulate, as they most frequently do, 
 
 207 
 
2o8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 those of acquaintances and friends, dead or living ; 
 but the slave of the drug is in possession of his 
 mental faculties. After the first alarm he knows 
 them to be unreal, yet at the same time their seem- 
 ing is so natural that they serve to perplex, annoj-, 
 and worry. It should be reflected, too, that the 
 knowledge of their presence was added proof of 
 the disturbing nature of the opium and afforded 
 another painful evidence of the breaking up of the 
 system. 
 
 Drunkards pass through this condition uncon- 
 sciously and are unable to recall the impressions ; 
 or, if so, most unreliably. On the other hand the 
 opium victim has no difficulty, if the necessity for 
 it existed, in evoking out of the shadows every dis- 
 pensation with its attendant circumstances. Never 
 is the brain more busy than at such times ; never is 
 feverish imagination more actively at work than 
 when the invisible air is employed by opium to 
 harass the slave. 
 
 The first trouble of this kind made a profound 
 impression and occurred in the third year of the 
 addiction. Seated in the rotunda of a Chicago 
 hotel writing a letter a familiar voice sounded out 
 in the somewhat unusual silence of the great 
 chamber : 
 
 " I can put him in the penitentiary." 
 
 "Are you sure you have enough evidence?" 
 demanded another, which was recognized as that of 
 a United States deputy marshal, whose character 
 merited confidence and who would have been prob- 
 
VOICES OF THE AIR. 209 
 
 ably one of the last men in the world to engage in 
 a conspirac}- against anj-body. 
 
 The first voice seemed that of a man who with- 
 out reason had conceived a strong dislike for me, 
 and I trembled violently when a response came that 
 everything had been arranged for my arrest and 
 trial. This was followed by a recital of an infa- 
 mous scheme for the disgrace and ruin of an innocent 
 man, who had never had a known thought in the 
 direction indicated by the voices ; for the second 
 one heartily subscribed to all that was said bj- the 
 first. They appeared to be so engrossed in matur- 
 ing details that they utterly ignored the near pres- 
 ence of their intended victim ; who, in his perturba- 
 tion accepted them as incontrovertible evidence and 
 never once looked about to verify the presence of 
 their owners. Positively nothing could have been 
 more real and substantial ; there would not have 
 been any hesitancy in making affidavit to what had 
 seemed to take place within easy hearing distance. 
 
 Frightened nearly to death, yet glued to the 
 spot because of dread lest any movement would lead 
 to arrest, there was a moment's relief when the 
 plotters seemed to have withdrawn ; then there was 
 a quick springing up and a mad rush outside, a 
 jump into a cab standing outside the door, and an 
 imperative order to drive over to the North Side of 
 the city, where lived a well known attorney, to 
 whom professional work had been confided in the 
 past. He must have thought his caller insane, for 
 the hour was about two of the morning and the per- 
 14 
 
210 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 turbation was clearly displayed in word and action. 
 Listening attentively^ to the end of a long and 
 somewhat discursive account of the hallucination, 
 he sought to demonstrate the certainty of decep- 
 tion; using the simple argument that knaves did 
 not plot in the presence of their intended victims. 
 However, he did not doubt that these were the 
 voices of living persons, but concluded I had not 
 heard aright. 
 
 His words failed to reassure me and when the 
 hotel was reached the clerk was requested to assign 
 me another room without recording the change 
 upon the register, the delusion being fixed that 
 attempt would be made to enforce the arrest with- 
 out delay. There was no sleep, however ; the re- 
 mainder of the night being passed in darkness in a 
 remote chamber, and at the first break of day my 
 grip-sack was seized and quick journey made to a 
 railroad depot, taking unquestioningly the first train 
 and proceeding to a considerable distance in the 
 country. More than a week passed before the con- 
 viction came that there was delusion. Indeed, men- 
 tal unrest on this point was not fully settled until 
 some months later, when an accidental stumbling 
 upon a brief newspaper article describing such hal- 
 lucinations afforded the first evidence that they had 
 any connection with the habit. 
 
 The success of subsequent similar tricks of opium 
 was due to their suddenness. There were no previ- 
 ous warnings, either in changing physical or mental 
 conditions, but they sounded out like thunder in a 
 
VOICES OF THE AIR. 211 
 
 clear sky. They came anywhere and everywhere, 
 by day and by night, in the office and upon the 
 street, and in the parlor and bed-chamber. When 
 people were conversing near by, it was not possible 
 to determine by the sounds the real from the unreal; 
 so clever was the counterfeit. Again and again has 
 answer been made to some fancied interrogatory or 
 a retort been given to some imaginary sneer ; this 
 being provocative of surprise on the part of auditors, 
 who could not always repress their astonishment at 
 remarks so incongruous and foreign to the subject 
 under consideration. 
 
 One evening, in the fifth year, while seated in 
 the sitting-room surrounded by the members of the 
 family, one of them inquired the cause of the Jack 
 Cade insurrection. Unfortunately at the same instant 
 opium simulated the voice of a newspaper friend, 
 who desired to know my opinion concerning a novel 
 that had recently appeared. The inward voice was 
 so startling that it evoked a most audible and abrupt 
 reply, "That fellow never wrote a decent book and 
 couldn't if he tried," words as irrelevant as those 
 which " Mr. F's. aunt " interjected in conversation 
 when excited by the presence of Mr. Clennam, and 
 which provoked a hearty laugh from the hearers, to 
 the infinite discomfiture of him who uttered them. 
 
 Frequently while walking along the streets they 
 would be so persistent and real as to evoke indig- 
 nant, outspoken protests, which excited amazement 
 in passers-by, as their countenances plainly indicated, 
 while the quickened steps of many proved their 
 
212 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 anxiet}' to get out of the reach of the putative mad- 
 man. The more courageous and inquisitive would 
 follow for some little distance in anticipation of 
 further outbursts of indignation. So permanent 
 were the voices at times that protracted rides on the 
 street cars were taken with a view to distancing 
 them. But the}'^ were persistent and malevolent 
 demons, that came and went at their own pleasure. 
 There were times when one voice would succeed an- 
 other in rapid succession until a score or more 
 would be present ; now talking confusedly together, 
 and then separately, but rarely connectedly for any 
 length of time. They frequently entered the bed- 
 chamber when sleep was vainly coveted, calling out 
 of the darkness and shadows all sorts of provoking 
 things ; now raising such a din as to deafen, and 
 then whispering softly and cautiously. There were 
 times when they would halloo vociferously and 
 surprise would be evoked that the sleeping wife 
 was not aroused by them. Sometimes they held 
 out promises of reward, and again uttered threats of 
 direst vengeance. One night while suddenly enter- 
 ing a dark room a stentor voice rang out threaten- 
 ingly, "Kill him! run your knife into him," caus- 
 ing a quick slamming of the door and a htisty 
 retreat. 
 
 Physical conditions did not appear to affect the 
 visitations in any wise, nor did the quantity of the 
 drug exert any influence. The voices came and 
 went out as they pleased, without asking permission, 
 and there were times when the}' caused infinite an- 
 
VOICES OF THE AIR. 213 
 
 noyance. This was especially true when, engaged 
 in studying some scientific work demanding close 
 . attention, they would gather about and keep up a 
 constant scolding or criticism upon what was read ; 
 for the world as though peering over my shoulder 
 and scrutinizing every line. Oftentimes they would 
 sing out a hearty welcome at the hour of awakening 
 at dawn ; when a dozen or more would contend for 
 a hearing, each seeking to forestall the other in 
 relating some bit of gossip. Again, when engaged 
 in an article for one of the newspapers they would 
 hang about, sneer at what was written, and jeer at 
 the thought of literary merit in the work. 
 
 These voices were by no means always those of 
 acquaintances ; on the contrary all manner of 
 strangers were present ; some making themselves 
 known with much grace of voice and others pre- 
 serving a strict incognito. At times the sounds 
 would be indistinct, but usually the articulation was 
 bold and perfect. Now they would call, remain for 
 a few minutes, and then depart, to be away for a 
 month or more ; then they would come and stay 
 for days at a time. One voice, that of a quack, an 
 acquaintance of other days, was very annoying in 
 his persistence ; breaking in at all manner of inop- 
 portune times, his ungrammatical words and com- 
 monplace and indifferent themes nearly causing dis- 
 traction. There was a literal "haunting of voices;" 
 visitations upon an enlarged scale, such as that ex- 
 perienced by St. Paul when on his way to Damas- 
 cus after the martyrdom of St. Stephen, "hearing a 
 
214 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 voice, but seeing no man." The knowledge that 
 they were voces ct prcetcrea nihil did not divest them 
 of their uncanniness. Upon more than one occa- 
 sion beside that first described they begat absolute 
 terror. 
 
 One night, it was in the sixth year of the habit, 
 after a hard day's work upon a Chicago daily news- 
 paper, when seated in a Madison street restaurant 
 with a party of friends, one of these intangible visi- 
 tors nearly caused insensibility through the fright it 
 evoked. A trusted friend had betrayed a trust, and 
 the loss of several hundred dollars which the 
 treachery had cost had left me in an unhappy frame 
 of mind. A humorist of the party was in the midst 
 of a very funny story, when a voice which sounded 
 as loud as thunder broke in upon the narrative : 
 
 " D has been murdered and you will be 
 
 arrested for the crime." Now D was the knave 
 
 who had swindled me, and the warning or threaten- 
 ing voice, rather, was that of the chief of police. 
 Trepidantly glancing over the table it appeared 
 astonishing that none had seemed to hear. The 
 story-teller continued his yarn and all eyes and ears 
 were attentive to his words. My heart seemed to 
 grow cold with fear and a chill perspiration gath- 
 ered upon my brow. 
 
 Immediately afterward the voice of a dear literary 
 friend, who was then in New York, called out hur- 
 riedly, 
 
 " Get away for your life. You were seen and 
 you must conceal yourself." 
 
VOICES OF THE AIR. 215 
 
 With a quick, sharp cry that startled all at the 
 table, I sprang up, seized my hat, rushed out of tlie 
 room and down the street until State street was 
 reached ; along that at a terrible rate of speed, in- 
 different to the calls of my late companions and the 
 jeering remarks of belated people. On and on, 
 urged by a mad and uncontrollable impulse, pursued 
 of phantom voices, which urged to greater speed; 
 until completely exhausted semi-common sense re- 
 turned at the corner of Twelfth street, a mile distant. 
 It demanded much equivocation to explain the 
 strange conduct on the morrow to the friends who 
 had witnessed a portion of it. 
 
 Many friends and acquaintances report experi- 
 ences of similar import, although varying consider- 
 ably in details. A Minnesota physician while out 
 upon a lonely road at night upon his return home 
 from a distant professional call was fairly startled 
 out of himself by a mournful voice, which simulated 
 that of a dearly-loved brother who was dead, 
 
 " Hurry home, your wife is dangerously ill." 
 
 Having had many previous experiences with the 
 ..voices and knowing that his wife was in excellent 
 health when he left home a few hours before he 
 dismissed the warning with a rough, 
 
 " Get out! You can't scare me." 
 
 Thereupon the same voice called out distinctly, 
 
 " For God's sake, hasten on! Martha (the name 
 of his wife) fell from the porch and fatally injured 
 herself." 
 
 Still incredulous the voice persisted in its warn- 
 
2i6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ing and began to detail circumstantially the manner 
 of the alleged accident with such vehemence as to 
 carry conviction, finally, to the hearer; who put 
 spurs to his horse, first galloping rapidly and then 
 breaking into a mad run. The distance was about 
 eight miles; the night was starless and cold. On 
 and on he hastened. His anxiety increased mo- 
 mentarily by the incitement of the voice, which 
 continued to declare the imminence of the situation 
 and the imperative need of his immediate presence. 
 Forward he pressed madly, the poor horse bleeding 
 from the spur and sweating from every pore. 
 
 As time passed another voice came and then 
 others, until a dozen or more were about him, voices 
 of friends and neighbors, each confirming in harrow- 
 ing words the first story and all bidding him hasten 
 for his life. 
 
 As the goal drew near the din of the voices in- 
 creased, until he was nearly mad with excitement 
 and anxiety. The wretched, hard-pressed brute 
 was ready to drop with exhaustion and when he 
 neared the gate the horse did actually fall to the 
 ground. Escaping unhurt the doctor ran up to the 
 door only to find his wife standing ready to greet 
 him with a smile. He will never forget the terrors 
 of that long ride with the delusive voices about him. 
 
 A friend in Arkansas was so overcome of terror 
 when he heard the strange voice for the first time 
 that he crawled under a house and remained hidden 
 for two days; a diligent search being made for 
 him the while by anxious friends. There was some 
 
VOICES OF THE AIR. 217 
 
 apology for his overwhelming fear, because the 
 voice was that of a desperado, who threatened to 
 kill him that night while he slept. 
 
 An Illinois acquaintance had a "voice" which 
 would visit him daily for months at a time and 
 ridicule his every action ; bringing him into the most 
 absurd situations. At times he would become so 
 incensed at its impudence that without regard to 
 place or hour he would rebuke it in ver}' strong 
 language, with answering result ; so that animated 
 discussions would ensue upon the street, the listen- 
 ers being at the same disadvantage as those who 
 who are in a room with one who is using a tele- 
 phone. 
 
 Without going any further into the subject 
 the reader can readily imagine the distress and 
 annoyance such an infliction might bring. The 
 "voices" continued intermittently, with increasing 
 tendencies, to the end of^riLC.^ addiction, becoming 
 grievously burdensome towards the close of the 
 long, black night. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 DOUBLE AND DISTORTED VISION. 
 
 And things are not what they seem. 
 
 Longfellow — Psalm of Life. 
 
 Opium demands complete and absolute surrender 
 of the entire man. The members may threaten war 
 and resist the encroachments in the earlier period of 
 the -habit ; but one by one they all give in com- 
 pletely, until there is entire control of every part of 
 the body. Coming of a family that boasted spec- 
 tacles had riever been, in all the generations, a neces- 
 sity to the convenience or comfort of any of its 
 members, and all unconscious that the habit involved 
 the eyes in any wise, there was no preparation for 
 the first manifestations of the tyranny upon those 
 precious organs. This disturbance came somewhat 
 earlier than is usual ; the " double vision " ante- 
 dating " distorted sight." 
 
 For the benefit of the uninitiated it may be 
 proper to explain just what is meant by these pre- 
 sentations and how they are brought about. In 
 plain words, " double vision " is precisely what the 
 term implies, the seeing of a single object twice, 
 each so distinct that it is not possible to discern the 
 line of disturbance. Distorted vision is an irregu- 
 
 218 
 
DOUBLE AND DISTORTED VISION. 219 
 
 lar contraction of the organs of sight, in such man- 
 ner as to cause one of the eyes to be " near " and 
 the other " far " sighted. 
 
 These phenomena do not occur to all opium 
 habitues, some having neither and others having 
 but one of them. Laudanum and gum or powdered 
 opium slaves are more likely to be afflicted than 
 morphine victims, and those taking it by the mouth 
 than those hypodermically. The taking of w^hisky 
 regularly has a tendency to promote one or both of 
 these conditions and to aggravate them. 
 
 Before proceeding to a consideration of the two 
 visual phenomena let it be said that it is very un- 
 fortunate for habitues that no reliable information 
 is obtainable concerning the physiological effects of 
 the drug. Because this is so, each one must learn 
 from a bitter experience, and time is required for 
 the setting of his mind at rest touching certain 
 manifestations, whether they proceed from the 
 habit or from causes that are unknown. Attention 
 has been directed already to the fear that came 
 through ignorance as to the "hearing of voices" 
 and the same is true of the laudanum phantasma- 
 goria, as well as of the "double vision" and the dis- 
 torted sight. The experience of surprised shock 
 and often distress was general among all acquaint- 
 ances in the habit. Many physicians, even, had no 
 knowledge upon the subject and puzzled themselves 
 sorely in effort to locate the cause. It should 
 always be borne in mind that the habitue is not a 
 cool, calm, and collected man, capable of deliberat- 
 
220 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ing intelligently, and his insane reticence holds him 
 from inquir}-. 
 
 After the lapse of eight years the distress which 
 first knowledge of "double vision" brought causes 
 a shudder as it is now brought to mind. The 
 scene occurred in a theater in Washington Cit}' 
 at the beginning of the third year of the addic- 
 tion, having been induced much against the will to 
 accompanj- a friend thither. Thus early in the 
 habit a dislike for all amusements had taken a 
 firm hold ; but his importunity and the fact that he 
 was a stranger in the city finally overcame my 
 scruples. 
 
 The play- was one of the modern light operas ; it 
 being utterly unattractive I sat through an entire 
 act self-absorbed, with my eyes closed, as in 
 slumber. The friend, somewhat annoyed by the 
 abstraction, said, sharply, 
 
 "Why don't you cast your eyes on the stage?" 
 
 Startled by the abruptness of his manner I did 
 as he indicated and then gave a mighty start, half 
 rising from the seat. 
 
 "My God! each one is playing double." 
 
 People in the neighborhood regarded the inter- 
 ruption with disgust, and the open manifestations of 
 disapproval led the friend to whisper savagely, 
 
 "Be silent! are you mad?" 
 
 Reassured by the vehemence of his manner there 
 was a disposition to smile, when upon directing my 
 gaze at a box to the right the occupants proved to 
 be doubles unmistakably. This proved too much 
 
DOUBLE AND DISTORTED VISION. 221 
 
 for my equanimity ; the heart seemed to cease its 
 beating ; there was a choking sensation at the 
 throat, a buzzing about the ears, and a blurring of 
 the vision. 
 
 Rising hastily and with a bluff "Excuse me," I 
 hastened to the door, followed quickly by the 
 friend, who, greatly alarmed, insisted upon knowing 
 the cause of the mental disturbance. He was 
 easier satisfied with the cause assigned than was the 
 unhappy sufferer, who, while suspecting the agency 
 of opium had no means of determining the fact. 
 For many months afterward the incident presented 
 itself at intervals of greater or less frequency, to 
 perplex and sadden. 
 
 During the next five years the disturbance was 
 repeated but twice ; but about six months before the 
 end of the habit it appeared and did not leave until 
 restoration adjusted the entire man ; remaining at 
 all times by day and by night, to add to the sum 
 total of overwhelming misfortunes and cares. The 
 first formal notification of its permanent stay was 
 on this wise : 
 
 Riding on a cable car in Chicago, when nearing 
 Fifty-fifth street a careless glance in the direction 
 of Jackson Park revealed two Administration build- 
 ings, each clear and distinct in its outlines and 
 graceful beauty. Startled but not frightened 
 because knowledge had come with the years, the 
 eyes were turned towards the Liberal Arts building 
 with the same result. There stood two, not one, of 
 those immense and magnificent edifices. So it was, 
 
222 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 look where I would, in any quarter, there were two 
 of every object, tree, house, man, etc. Thencefor- 
 ward the " double vision " remained continuousl3' 
 and added weight to the superimposed burdens that 
 oppressed before. This distraction did not interfere 
 with objects near at hand, so that reading, study, 
 and writing were pursued without trouble. Rarely 
 did the double presentation occur in any object 
 nearer than one hundred feet ; but it was in every- 
 thing outside that radius, each of the glittering 
 stars, the planets, and the moon appearing as twins 
 to the opium distracted sense of sight. 
 
 An Iowa physician, when first overcome with 
 this affliction, recalled a similar experience in his 
 younger days when he had been drinking heavily, 
 and although he had not touched liquor for 
 ten years, was profoundly impressed with the 
 thought that he was suffering from a recurrent 
 attack from the former cause. Such a position was 
 a most ridiculous one, especially when maintained 
 by a physician ; yet such is the hold of opium and 
 such the vagaries of the drug that for days he reso- 
 lutely held to that view and searched all manner of 
 authorities for confirmation of it. The man actually 
 thought he was on the verge of delirium tremens 
 from drink after a decade of abstinence ! 
 
 The novelty of the illusions impresses some 
 habitues on the grotesque or comical side and they 
 are as nearly amused by them as it is possible for 
 opium slaves to be entertained by anything. A 
 Chicago gentleman found diversion and distraction 
 
DOUBLE AND DISTORTED VISION. 223 
 
 from his pain by sitting upon his porch and observ- 
 ing the moon for hours at a time ; busying his 
 brain with speculation upon the possible and prob- 
 able effects upon the earth of two satellites instead 
 of one. He would estimate the increased light ; the 
 resultant effect of the proximate double Luna upon 
 the tides and gravitation in general. So he would 
 bus}^ himself with the distance apart of the two orbs 
 and speculate upon the possibilities of their rushing 
 together, drawn by the irresistible law of attraction, 
 and crushing to pieces ; with the possible results of 
 this catastrophe, etc. In other words he seemed 
 to accept the phenomena as a fact and find instruc- 
 tion and amusement in contemplation of them. 
 
 The effect upon the writer was identical with 
 that of all other disturbing influences, a reminder 
 and a warning that the entire man was under the 
 spell and that any hour might bring still more fatal 
 and annoying complication. There was that most 
 annoying and aggravating about the affliction. If 
 only there might be three or more objects now and 
 then, or if the illusion might only have vanished 
 for a little while ; but no, it was continuous and 
 persistent by day and by night. The electric lights 
 were double, the gas lamps were in pairs, couples 
 walking along the street became fours, and single 
 persons were pairs. The unit had disappeared from 
 earth and sky altogether. The ships and steamers 
 on the blue lake were never isolated, but each inva- 
 riably had an escort that was its alter ego. All no- 
 tations at distances were necessarily dyadic and the 
 
224 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 planet Jupiter was as Castor and Pollux ; ever}- 
 church steeple was bipunctual and ever}- fence was 
 binous. 
 
 This conjugation of things made every passing 
 man a sort of Siamese twins and the biformity ex- 
 tended even to the policeman sleeping on the cor- 
 ner. Naturally one could evade it by closing his 
 eyes or remaining in his room, but there never was 
 an unpleasant prospect that did not have a kind of 
 fascination about it ; the temptation was constant to 
 exercise this fatal gift of opium. Mental protests 
 were unavailing ; the illusion in binary would not 
 fade ; the opium vision reveled in the prospect and 
 the whole face of nature was bracketed. 
 
 Double vision is not so distinctive a mark of the 
 addiction as most of the others indicated in the 
 work. Indeed there are many habitues who escape 
 it altogether ; nor does it usually afflict those who 
 use morphine alone. If the latter have the whisky 
 habit in addition they are likely to be so disturbed, 
 although in such cases it does not appear until the 
 sixth or seventh year. Users of the crude drug or 
 the powdered opium are almost certain to suffer 
 from it, especially if they drink whisky. In other 
 words, laudanum drinkers rarely escape it, although 
 its period of presentation varies greatly in individ- 
 uals ; morphinal slaves usually are free from it and 
 opium (gum and powder) eaters proper have more 
 or less trouble with it. 
 
 " Distorted vision " does not, as its name would 
 seem to imply, cause any pranks to be played with 
 
DOUBLE AND DISTORTED VISION. 225 
 
 forms and shapes of things, but means an irregular 
 contraction of the ciliary muscles, so that one eye 
 is near-sighted and the other far-sighted. This con- 
 dition doubtless existed a long time before it was 
 discovered. The e^-esight began to fail rapidly in 
 the sixth year, solely as the result of opium, and it 
 demanded painful proof to become persuaded of the 
 fact. Returning home on the cars I found it was 
 not possible to read the papers b)- the lamp-light 
 and for several evenings concluded that the brake- 
 man had been careless in his work of cleaninof and 
 trimming the lamps ; but in time it was seen that 
 other passengers appeared to be reading freely and 
 easily. This was indisputable proof that my eyes 
 were failing ; a fact that an oculist confirmed and 
 in testing the sight discovered the difference noted. 
 The divergence gradually strengthened with time, 
 but disappeared altogether with the habit. There 
 were, of course, no specially disagreeable features 
 in this dispensation, because the differing lenses 
 brought the eyes together. It should be explained 
 that the glasses were required for reading and 
 writing and were only worn when thus employed. 
 When these were used the "double vision" was 
 impossible because no object of any kind could be 
 discovered through them at a distance necessary 
 for the production of the illusion, even had the 
 lenses not put such a phenomenon out of the ques- 
 tion. Record is made of this effect, then, not as 
 indicative of any special inconvenience or pain, other 
 than the fact that it was another link in the chain of 
 IS 
 
226 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 evidence of fatalities ; but merely for information 
 and in added proof of the thoroughness of the work 
 done by opium against its slaves. 
 
 Diligent inquiry among habitues fails to show 
 many cases of distorted vision. Sometimes there 
 has been inclination to reject it altogether as an 
 effect of the opium addiction. Unquestionably it is 
 encountered among men who never used the mor- 
 phine agent and may be absolutely independent of 
 it. Since, however, cases have been found, and my 
 own difficulty proved its origin in the drug by dis- 
 appearing with it, it seems right to give it a place 
 among the degeneratingjnfluences, with the qualifi- 
 cations here quoted. Opium may disorder any part 
 of the physical man ; this interference may manifest 
 itself as well in a disordering of the range of vision 
 as in a disturbance of the brain. As the wind 
 bloweth where it listeth so opium ranges ,over the 
 entire realm of the body, choosing its own localities 
 for displays of greatest violence. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 LAUDANUM PHANTASMAGORIA. 
 
 Imagination frames events unknown. 
 In wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin : 
 And what it fears creates. 
 
 Hannah More. 
 
 The next stage in visual disturbance to which 
 the attention of the reader is directed is one that 
 properly is confined to the laudanum drinker, and 
 may be due in part to the alcohol that is present in 
 this tincture. A few cases are known of persons 
 addicted to morphine, or gum or powdered opium, 
 who, in addition had the whisky habit, that had 
 some experience with these ignes fatui of a disor- 
 dered vision ; but investigation shows they were 
 much less violent and of briefer duration than in 
 those Who used opium in the form of tincture. The 
 illusions have, therefore, very properly been denom- 
 inated " laudanum phantasmagoria," and are so 
 accepted and taken among the initiated everywhere. 
 Any slave of the drug may have a "vision" now 
 and then upon the street, at home, in his office, or 
 upon the cars, just as such may come to the inebri- 
 ate, or the chloral, cocaine, or hasheesh " fiend ;" 
 but none of these know anything of the mad carni- 
 val of visitors — the processions, groups, gatherings, 
 
 2XJ 
 
228 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 and aggregations of creatures and things in every 
 form, real and fabulous, that march before the open 
 e3'es of the laudanum drinker when his " senses are 
 all 13'ing awake within the chambers fine." 
 
 These fantastic, realistic figments of visual dis- 
 turbance were first introduced upon the varied and 
 exciting stage in the third year of the habit and 
 continued intermittently to the close, becoming 
 more frequent with the lapse of time and the 
 tighter pressing of the tentacles of the opium 
 octopus. No difficulty is experienced in recalling 
 the first one of these remarkable and grewsome 
 tragedies, which was so fearfully real in its seeming 
 that it demanded, as will be seen, the most irre- 
 fragable proof before the senses could be made to 
 realize that it was all a delusion, a wrack-rending of 
 the watery humor of the eye. It seemed impos- 
 sible that the vision could thus be exercised by 
 empty nothings, which to the brain were forms and 
 fashions of living entities. 
 
 Lying awake in the bed-chamber at a late hour 
 of the night, after over-indulgence in the insidious 
 drug, sleep was effectually banished ; for hours the 
 brain had been tortured by reproaches that trooped 
 up out of the gloomy caverns of the past and was 
 lashed by the whip of conjured misdeeds that 
 might be. The room overlooked a miniature arti- 
 ficial lake, the grass-lined shores of which were 
 half concealed by umbrageous trees. Outside the 
 line of the latter ran a macadamized street, on the 
 further side of which was a stone sidewalk, and 
 
LAUDANUM PHANTASMAGORIA. 22g 
 
 above this 3'ellow gas-jets flickered in the warm 
 breeze of the summer night. Elegant residences 
 stood back of rich green lawns that met the pave- 
 ment and the picturesque scene was illumined by 
 three or four electric arc-lamps, scattered here and 
 there, rising high above the trees ; their rays pene- 
 trating to the walls and floor of the chamber. 
 
 Lying there with every faculty acute and con- 
 science quickened to agony there suddenly 
 appeared a great vulture in an open lot directly in 
 front of the large and low window. The lace cur- 
 tains had been drawn back and the view was 
 unobstructed. The grim, unsightly bird riveted 
 the whole attention and nothing could possibly be 
 more realistic. It stood out in the full glare of the 
 bright light with no relief except the shadow of a 
 neighbor's house standing in its rear. Presently it 
 began to snap and otherwise assume the move- 
 ments of an enraged dog. Bones and bits of flesh 
 surrounded it, which it gnawed at and devoured 
 greedily, snarling viciously the while. 
 
 Attention was soon diverted in part by extraor- 
 dinary scenes which were enacted upon the green- 
 sward, beneath the trees and on the pavement. 
 Shadows were converted into great workshops 
 thronged with busy men ; here footpads on the 
 highway felled unfortunate pedestrians and robbed 
 them; burglars with bull's-eye lanterns passed in 
 and out of the houses. Never was I wider awake in 
 my life. The excess of drug had pinned the eyes 
 wide open and they did not close once during the 
 
2 30 DOCTOR jaOAS. 
 
 long and dreary night. The fact was impressed 
 that there must be some sort of delusion in part, at 
 least ; because the changes had been so rapid and 
 many familiar shapes had taken on such strange 
 forms ; yet there had been no warning whatsoever. 
 I had never heard of laudanum phantasmagoria, and 
 had always associated visual disturbances of all 
 kinds with violent dipsomania. There was not only 
 perturbation of spirit, but also downright alarm. 
 
 The flash of pistols was seen and their report 
 heard distinctly, as men engaged in deadly conflict. 
 Shrieks and sighs and groans filled the air and the 
 heart grew cold as the eyes saw gaping wounds and 
 ghastly faces. During the whole period the dog- 
 vulture moved restlessly, pecking and tearing flesh 
 away from the bones, which seemed to be those of 
 human beings. A clock ticked upon the shelf in 
 the chamber and count was kept of the time. When 
 an hour had passed the dread strain could not be 
 borne any longer. Arising and putting on my 
 clothes I went out of the house and proceeded into 
 the midst of the discordant and frightful scenes. 
 The forms and figures receded or disappeared alto- 
 gether at near approach. Finally, persuaded that a 
 spell of some kind was at work, or, probably, an 
 optical disturbance was going on, the steps were re- 
 traced; but the wild and tragic scenes were renewed 
 as soon as the bed was reached. The vulture never 
 changed shape or position and only disappeared 
 with the other cruel forms at the rising of the sun. 
 
 In the thousand-and-one presentations of the 
 
 ^ 
 
LAUDANUM PHANTASMAGORIA. 231 
 
 next six years no phantasms came during the 
 daytime, unless the unhappy audience of one was 
 lying down in a darkened room. 
 
 Their duration and potentiality in no wise de- 
 pended upon the quantity of laudanum imbibed ; 
 but they never occurred except when under the in- 
 fluence of the drug. It frequently happened that 
 sleep would come in the height of the devil dance ; 
 in every such case the dreams were of more than 
 ordinary intensity and malignance. It was impossi- 
 ble to grow accustomed to these visitations. The 
 presentations were often sudden and metamorphoses 
 of all kinds were constantly going on. Time soon 
 proved them to be but fancies, yet they were start- 
 lingly real and excited nervous shocks. They were 
 not mere outlines or silhouettes, not shadows or 
 pictures, but flesh-and-blood entities, living crea- 
 tures of earth, air, and deep. Dull shivers would 
 come as effort was made to shut them from sight by 
 closing the eyes and burying the face beneath the 
 covers of the bed. These attempts were utterly 
 futile, for whether the eyes were open or closed the 
 horrible creatures were present in equal realism or 
 potentiality, refusing to be banished. 
 
 Why was not respite sought in sleep ? The 
 opium " fiend " has horror of sleep, because of the 
 hideous nightmares that then oppress him. Terri- 
 ble as are these illusions, they are paradisaical in 
 comparison with the dreams of the night. Then, 
 too, the opium habitue may not invite sleep at his 
 pleasure. The drug which is a narcotic at the first, 
 
232 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 is finall}' promotive of insomnia and the habitue fre- 
 quently passes man}' successive days and nights in 
 absolute wakefulness, uncontrollable by any possi- 
 ble energy- within his reach. 
 
 The grotesque largel}- predominated in these vis- 
 ions, although many of the figures in the tableaux 
 vivants were sufficiently horrible to take a promi- 
 nent part in a da7ice du diahle. It must be under- 
 stood that while these were illusions — Fata Morgana 
 — presented when I was wide awake and with every 
 faculty keenly astir, yet the forms were in their 
 seeming those of veritable creatures ; it demanded 
 no aid of fancy to clothe them with flesh or endue 
 them with life. Every forest and field, every sea 
 and river and lake sent delegations to the conven- 
 tions held in the bed-chamber, and every member, 
 whether chimpanzee, armadillo, scarabaeus or condor, 
 minnow or great whale, deported itself with gravity, 
 although each one displayed some comical char- 
 acteristic, many of the animals getting themselves 
 up specially for the occasion. A bear had a long 
 beard which tripped him as he walked, an Asiatic 
 elephant wore pantaloons, and a jaguar had on a 
 calico gown. The seriousness of the assembly was 
 somewhat marred by the persistent eye-blinking of 
 a camelopard, whose breadth of linen collar would 
 have driven a dude mad with envy. A warted hog 
 strutted about with a silk hat on its head and an 
 ourang carried a monster walking cane. 
 
 At another time rats sprang upon the bed and 
 played with my hair, or rubbed their long whiskers 
 
LAUDANUM PHANTASMAGORIA. 233 
 
 against my own. Ibises made havoc with coils of ser- 
 pents that had intruded upon the privacy and after- 
 wards rebuked me for not expressing gratitude in set 
 words. In a single aggregation there were recog- 
 nized every one of the two hundred and thirtv-five 
 varieties of snakes whose habitat is India. 
 
 Great armies of beetles, from the royal scarabaeus 
 of Egypt to the common tumble-bug, would throng 
 the room, crawling everywhere, over the furniture, 
 upon the bed and over my body, hands, and face. 
 Immense numbers of bats would fill the chamber, 
 flapping their clammy wings and causing me to 
 shrink backward in affright. Swarms of flies, great 
 in numbers as those of the Egyptian plague, buzzed 
 about, covering me completely and persistently 
 assailing with pestiferous stings every part of the 
 skin. Great companies of monkeys danced and 
 skipped about, grinning terribly and chattering like 
 so many magpies. They played at tag and leap- 
 frog, hide and seek, and other games in most restless 
 abandon, springing over the bed and hiding beneath 
 the covers. They leered viciously and threatened 
 with infinite gestures. These would be followed by 
 gnomes, fairies, brownies, ghosts, hobgoblins, 
 sprites, giants, and dwarfs, a most motley and incon- 
 gruous aggregation, every one of which made me a 
 special object of attention, pointing their long and 
 bony fingers and displaying teeth that rivaled 
 Carker's in their whiteness. At other times the 
 chamber would be crowded with the most diverse 
 concourse of human and brute creatures, a jibing, 
 
234 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 jeering, rollicking horde, bent on mischief and inim- 
 itable in their acting. 
 
 There were periods when the entire night was 
 consumed in peculiar dissolving views, meta- 
 morphoses of the most phenomenal nature. A 
 blinking rhinoceros would melt into a fiery phoenix, 
 which gave way to a frisky dolphin, that was trans- 
 posed into a wriggling ascidian. Or a dancing, 
 drunken sailor would suddenly become a grave 
 looking clergyman, who was converted into a 
 Texan razor-back, which in turn became a buzz- 
 ing bee. Tigers were converted in a trice into 
 fossil beasts, as the megalosaurus or pterodactyl, 
 owls became gymnasts, and ophidians posed as 
 harmless lambs. 
 
 Reflect upon the state of one thus condemned to 
 pass night after night in the company described ! 
 The ill-starred assemblages could not be barred 
 out. With all possible intensity effort would be 
 made, but unaivailingly, to direct the mind upon 
 pleasant subjects. Like the unbidden guest at the 
 feast they would force themselves upon the sight 
 to the exclusion of everything else. , These phan- 
 tasms were not always continuous, brief respites 
 being permitted at intervals, just as the curtain is 
 rung down at the close of acts in a play. But when, 
 with a sigh of relief, I would turn over in bed, the 
 actors, ever changing in form and shape, again 
 appeared to perform their wonted parts 
 
 What infinite variety was there in the pro- 
 gramme. It would bankrupt all the theatrical man- 
 
LAUDANUM PHAXTASMAGORIA. 235 
 
 agers in the world to pay the salaries of the actors 
 of a single night. 
 
 Policemen skipped gaily about and burglars 
 boldly plied their vocation ; great armies were 
 marshaled and fought desperately ; players, preach- 
 ers, lawyers, doctors, workingmen, and people of all 
 stations paraded, each one seemingly intent upon 
 his part ; yet there was lack of connectedness about 
 the whole, just as in the case of many of the mod- 
 ern plays in theaters. 
 
 Again there were positive jumbles of phantasms, 
 a blending of the most incompatible creatures and 
 substances, communing together harmoniously ; the 
 very beasts even, being given human speech ; and 
 houses and trees moving about freely as though 
 set upon nimble legs. Giant roses wore human 
 'faces and little forget-me-nots took the shape of 
 cunning foxes. Every crack and crevice of the wall 
 assumed a form of energy and life ; but only to 
 change it for another, until, seemingly wearied of 
 change, each would boldly hold to a specific fan- 
 tastic shape and refuse to swerve from it. 
 
 Human beings, dead as well as the living, entered 
 and spoke in tones distinctly audible. Great actors 
 accomodatingly set up their stages and with full 
 and strong supports went through their several 
 roles. Patti never sang more divinely than in my 
 bed-chamber and Liszt thrilled me with the divine 
 touch of his fingers upon the piano. Great generals 
 marshaled their armies and prodigies of valor were 
 performed by the contending hosts. Every voting 
 
236 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 precinct in Chicago chose this place and threw 
 light upon all the peculiar methods used in swelling 
 or reducing the face of the returns ; friends of can- 
 didates sought to influence my vote by proffers of 
 money and the Jeremy Diddlers of politics swarmed 
 in from the wards. Billy-goats played leap-frog 
 galore and agile gibbons eclipsed the champions of 
 America in their games of base-ball. 
 
 Through all this the brain was singularly active, 
 the nerve steady, and there was no pain other than 
 the distress that would naturally come to one thus 
 doomed to dwell among unrealities having the 
 seeming of actualities. There were frequent inter- 
 vals of absolute conviction that the forms were 
 verities, so true were they to the objects they simu- 
 lated ; but these convictions were dispelled by 
 simple processes of reasoning. 
 
 The periodicity and the recurrence of the phan- 
 tasms varied, sometimes persisting through many 
 successive nights and again disappearing after a 
 single all-night frolic ; while a month or more 
 would elapse, at the first, before their reappearance. 
 Gradually, however, I was hedged closer in, the 
 raree show came oftener and remained longer until 
 toward the closing days of the opium slavery the 
 " thick coming fancies" were nearly continuous. I 
 knew them to be maggots of the brain and eyes, 
 whimsies and gimcracks, yet when they assumed 
 shape of burglars whose bull's-eye lights dazzled the 
 sight or when there was sudden apparition of a 
 bleeding ghost from out the closet, the sensations 
 
LAUDANUM PHANTASMAGORIA. 237 
 
 were most shocking. The panorama could not be 
 shut out. Whether the gas was burning or turned 
 off, whether the eyes were wide open or fast shut, 
 the pageants moved with equal vividness and realism. 
 Nothing could possibly drive away the uncanny 
 objects except sleep or daylight. 
 
J 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SLEEP, INSOMNIA, AND SEMI-CEREBRATION. 
 
 My slumbers, — if I slumber — are not sleep. 
 But a continuance of enduring thought. 
 Which then I can endure not. 
 
 Byron — Manfred. 
 
 The relation of opium to sleep and wakefulness 
 is a matter of profound interest, for the reason that 
 the narcotic properties of the drug are a leading 
 characteristic. There are many experiences in this 
 connection that should afford subject for reflection 
 as well to the psychologist as to the general reader. 
 
 Physicians are of course aware that morphine 
 hypodermically administered acts much quicker than 
 that taken by the mouth, and that laudanum is more 
 immediate than gum or powdered opium ; the alka- 
 loid in the first instance entering directly into the 
 circulation, while the tincture's action is accelerated 
 by the alcohol, which serves as a vehicle of quick dis- 
 tribution. Still the period of resulting effects varies 
 greatly in individuals, and is by no means equal at 
 all times in the same person ; much depending upon 
 cerebral conditions, and, as previously suggested, in 
 the opposition or help afforded by the subject. 
 Sometimes, in my case, the laudanum would mani- 
 fest its presence almost instantaneously; while again 
 
 238 
 
SLEEP AND INSOMNIA. 239 
 
 upwards of half an hour would elapse, and, in some 
 instances, there would be no effect whatever. This 
 evidence is stronger, because the dose in all cases 
 was uniform and the greatest care was exercised in 
 procuring a tincture of efficient strength. 
 
 Yielding to the drug's influence was easiest con- 
 trolled early in the morning, especially after a night 
 of broken slumber. If insomnia existed, no amount 
 of opium could superinduce sleep ; its tendency at 
 such times being to protract the period of sleepless- 
 ness. But the conditions being favorable the regu- 
 lar four fluid-drachms were taken with an avowed 
 determination to sleep and there usuall}^ followed a 
 quiet, and, as a rule, dreamless sleep of from thirty 
 minutes to one hour. It is a peculiarity of the 
 habit which seems inexplicable that sleep by day is 
 usually dreamless ; which was never true of the 
 night. This morning sleep did not appear to 
 detract from the potency of the period of effect, 
 or from the length of the period. That is to say, 
 the effects usually endured from seven to eight 
 hours, whether all or any portion of this period 
 was spent in sleep. 
 
 The experience of this morning dose was a very 
 peculiar one and a recital of it may not be uninter- 
 esting. It may be truly said that the period of most 
 acute physical suffering as well as of mental distress 
 was that immediately antedating the dose. Knowl- 
 edge of this fact led to an invariable placing of the 
 laudanum bottle beneath the pillow before retiring 
 for the night, in order that there might be the least 
 
240 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 possible delay in swallowing the drug upon awak- 
 ing. Thus all that need be done was to stretch out 
 the hand and reach the potion. Yet oftentimes an 
 hour or more would be passed in endurance of the 
 most racking ph^'sical pains, while remorse would 
 set the brain on fire, because the will was not sufifi- 
 ciently potent to direct the arm to the bottle. The 
 fact that so slight a muscular movement was neces- 
 sary brought repugnance that was extreme in its 
 intensity. This proves how very weak was the 
 body when practically out of the effects of the 
 potent drug ; as well as the wretched condition of 
 the mind that was unable to compel the mildest 
 muscular energy without a protracted struggle. In 
 this hour of weakness every conceivable evil would 
 be imagined as forefending and every possible mis- 
 hap threatened as an incident of the newborn day. 
 With the suggested calamity came the taxing of 
 ingenuit)- to prevent it ; so the evil abounded, until 
 finally in a fit of utter desperation a supreme effort 
 was made and the potion was taken. This was fol- 
 lowed by lying perfectly still upon the left side 
 with closed eyes, while an attempt was made to fix 
 thought upon some favorite book of fiction, prefer- 
 ence being given to " Les Miserables," " David 
 Copperfield," or " Ivanhoe." As stated, in a few 
 momenta the sleep god fanned the heat of the 
 brain to cooling and unconsciousness ensued. 
 
 If, however, the insomnia was present the bed 
 was generally vacated within from five to ten min- 
 utes of the imbibition. Emphasis should be laid 
 
SLEEP AXD IXSOMXIA. 241 
 
 upon the fact that after the first year of the addic- 
 tion there was never a scene of entire freedom from 
 nervous suffering and when the word rest or quiet 
 is em]jlo3-ed it is used in a qualified sense. 
 
 Whenever the dreams of the night became too 
 frightfully terrible, so that sleep became hateful, 
 recourse was had to insomnia, which could be 
 brought about by taking the entire quotidian allot- 
 ment at a single dose. When this occurred no ad- 
 ditional quantity was taken until twenty-four hours 
 had elapsed, when the regular doses were again 
 resumed. The enlarged quantity banished sleep 
 sometimes for forty-eight hours and longer ; in one 
 instance extending to one hundred and forty-four 
 hours, during which time sleep never once closed 
 the eyes. It was in these seasons of insomnia that 
 the "phantasmagoria" reached their greatest en- 
 ergy and realism. At such times they would con- 
 tinue without a moment's interruption throughout 
 the entire night, and night after night. Strange as it 
 may seem nervous disturbance was not nearly .so 
 great during those spells of wakefulness as in other 
 conditions ; but there was great interference with 
 the digestion ; and, indeed, there was but little dis- ^ 
 position to eat any food. 
 
 There were times when the taking of the drug , 
 
 was followed by periods of horrible depression, a 
 portrayal of which is impossible. There was then 
 present a sense of awful and impenetrable gloom, 
 out of which came frightful forms that presaged 
 unutterable and indescribable doom. Usually, 
 16 
 
242 DOCTOR JUUAS. 
 
 however, after the next dose these troubles would 
 pass and measurable quiet take its place. 
 
 It is not possible to explain those varying 
 results. There must have been differing physical 
 conditions which were not noted. One of the 
 strangest of all the effects is one yet to be described, 
 and which may be termed an oblivious condition of 
 protracted duration. While in this strange state, 
 wanderings would be made afoot or on the street 
 cars all over the city ; acquaintances would be 
 met and colloquies ensue without the fact of the 
 cerebral disturbance being impressed upon their 
 minds. 
 
 One day, shortly before treatment for cure, it 
 was necessary to see a friend upon business of such 
 importance that it could not be postponed. Every 
 other thought was secondary upon leaving home for 
 his office. When the latter was reached, it was 
 learned that he had not been there since the morn- 
 ing. Greatly disappointed a trip was taken to his 
 home seven miles distant. In these days any mat- 
 ter was well calculated to bring distress, but this 
 being one of great importance the entire nervous 
 system became greatly shaken when a servant 
 declared he had not been seen since the morning. 
 Leaving the house, it being now the regular hour 
 for the tri-daily dose, this, the regular quantity, was 
 taken before springing upon the cable car for return 
 trip to the business district. Within ten minutes 
 consciousness was lost ; when it returned, the hour 
 was six in the morning; eleven hours of absolute 
 
SLEEP AND INSOMNIA. 243 
 
 blank having intervened. Calling a few hours later 
 upon this friend at his office astonishment was great 
 when he declared we had met the previous evening 
 upon the street, and that while the subject of the 
 business in hand was not mentioned quite a pro- 
 tracted conversation had ensued upon general 
 topics, he having observed nothing unusual in my 
 manner or speech. 
 
 A year previous to this time a period of thirty- 
 six hours of unconsciousness ensued, and, upon 
 recovering in a railroad depot several miles from 
 home, but within the city limits, there was a some- 
 what indistinct impression that a footpad had been 
 encountered at some time during the lethargic, 
 unconscious condition. Distinct marks upon the 
 throat and the utter absence of money, with dusty 
 condition of the clothing, tended to confirm the 
 latent memory. 
 
 Extraordinary indeed is the following experi- 
 ence, that occurred in the fifth year of the habit. 
 Filling a department upon one of the leading Chi- 
 cago daily newspapers I lost consciousness between 
 the home and the office and was in bed, nearly 
 twenty-four hours later, when it returned. Every- 
 thing was an absolute blank and a feeling of unut- 
 terable disgust and despair ensued. It was very 
 important that the work of the previous day be per- 
 formed and there was not the slightest recollection 
 of any event of "that day. A feeling that deserved 
 censure would attach to such reprehensible con- 
 duct and that the surcharged spirit could brook no 
 
244 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 further reproach led to a determination to send in a 
 resignation without dela^-. This resolve brought a 
 measure of relief and the morning portion was 
 drank with a view to a quieting sleep, when the 
 paper was brought in. Curiosity led to a hurried 
 examination of the columns and there were seen 
 not onl}- the designed articles but another along the 
 same line. The stj'le was unmistakable ; then began 
 a puzzling inquiry as to how a man could write 
 intelligently while in an absolutely unconscious 
 condition. When the office was reached the man- 
 aging editor threw no light upon the subject ; but 
 inquiry in another quarter elicited the fact the pre- 
 vious day's work had -been of usual length and of 
 more than usual fruitage. 
 
 The psychologist will doubtless find explanation 
 of this phenomenon in the fact that the work was 
 strictly of a routine nature, and it is known that a 
 paretic who has brain lesions that disturb all the 
 higher mental processes may discharge known and 
 familiar duties without giving any evidence of his 
 insanity. Had the work in question been such as 
 demanded deep and connected thought, or that 
 called for inventive or reflective energy, it would 
 not have been accomplished. 
 
 A distinguished literary friend had a somewhat 
 similar experience in his newspaper reporting days ; 
 but he was under the influence of liquor and his 
 "copy" required some measure of editing; while 
 mine passed directly into the hands of the printer. 
 On the other hand his was a report of a spirited 
 
SLEEP AND INSOMNIA. 245 
 
 meeting, into which he interjected much humor, an 
 inimitable quality of all his writing. 
 
 Much has been written in more recent 3ears upon 
 what physicians term partial brain paral3sis ; or a 
 suppression, or suspension, of the higher faculties, 
 as memor}', the affections, etc.; while the lower, 
 those controlling locomotion and power of action in 
 minor routine matters, are in fair working order. In 
 this way they account for the sudden disappearance 
 of men, who turn up at distant points a week or a 
 month later in a dazed condition ; or restored, with 
 declaration of positive ignorance as to movements 
 during the supposed aberrant mental state. Without 
 casting the slightest imputation upon the theor}' of 
 the profession as to the possible cause for such 
 extravagant conduct it must be said that every 
 instance of this kind that has come under investiga- 
 tion of the writer was due directly to whisk}^ opium, 
 morphine, chloral, cocaine, or some other enslaving 
 drug, any one of which is liable to produce exactly 
 similar conditions to those to which reference has 
 been made. It is not denied that sober men may 
 get into such a mental frame ; but it is affirmed that 
 the writer has never been brought face to face with 
 such a fact. 
 
 A friend, now cured of his addiction, once passed 
 into this unhappy stage and traveled from the 
 Pacific coast to New Orleans, proceeding thence to 
 Chicago ; being absolutely unconscious in all of his 
 wanderings, which covered three weeks of time. 
 His was a case of inebriety, in which the memory 
 
246 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 lapse is usually more protracted than in that arising 
 from opium. It is evident while in this irresponsi-. 
 ble frame he deported himself sanely, or he would 
 have been taken under surveillance, being a man of 
 respectable appearance and showing superior intelli- 
 gence in ordinary health. 
 
 A remarkable feature of these opium debauches 
 (this word is used in the absence of a better one ; 
 the opium habitue never at any time passing into a 
 stage of extravagance of action, or giving himself 
 over to unbridled license) was the infinite sudden- 
 ness of the passage from consciousness to oblivion. 
 Quick as a bolt from the clouds or the passage of a 
 ray of light is the transition ; now you are, and, 
 presto, you are not. Memory recalls many instances 
 of seizure upon the street cars, on the sidewalk, at 
 the club, or at home ; sometimes when alone and 
 meditating upon the unbroken reign of sorrow in the 
 sOul ; again when in the midst of an earnest conver- 
 sation upon a topic of greater or less interest. Such 
 oblivion did not by any means necessarily involve 
 silence or sleep, although both of these conditions 
 prevailed at times ; on the contrary the mind pro- 
 ceeded on its way, giving out thought of some kind, 
 which the vocal chords and lips formed into intelli- 
 gent speech. What a spectacle was there ! A 
 creature in the form of man, endowed with faculties 
 as the God-imaged creature, acting the part of a 
 man, laughing, talking, breathing, moving, yet to 
 all personal cognition, nonexistent. 
 
 In these times I sometimes moved freely about ; 
 
SLEEP AND INSOMNIA. 247 
 
 at others was quiet in a chair, and again, would fall 
 into a heavy sleep that continued for several hours. 
 So perfect was the conduct in the periods of waking 
 action that personal friends failed to notice any 
 mental disturbance. This is indubitable proof of 
 unconscious cerebration, that takes on the semblance 
 of conscious thought. 
 
 These losses of consciousness were causes of in- 
 finite distress. It was not only the dangers that 
 threatened one in such a state, while wandering 
 through a great city in ill hours of the night ; but 
 also, and in far greater depressing results, the feel- 
 ing that one should be under such complete slavery 
 that the brain had made complete surrender to the 
 drug. They proved that opium had changed from a 
 despot to a Vishnu, absorbing the very entity of the 
 individual. There would come the most awful re- 
 flections concerning this mental disorder. If the 
 Ego have no conscious being, does it exist at all? 
 What constitutes the Ego and what its limitations? 
 Is it divisible into parts, so that portions of it, as 
 members of the body, may be lost ? Can it be 
 divisible into fractional parts like the units of mate- 
 rial things, as the apple or the potato ? These 
 and a thousand other distressing questions forced 
 themselves upon the reflection and fairly set the 
 brain awhirl. 
 
 The foregoing mental results of the action of the 
 drug are most peculiar and they correspond to the 
 experience of many friends. An acquaintance in 
 Georgia, a man of superior intelligence, once had 
 
248 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 a sleep that extended through eighteen hours ; this 
 following a period of protracted insomnia. Usually 
 opium habitues do not sleep many hours at a 
 stretch. It is doubtful if they require so much as 
 people in a normal condition, for the reason that 
 opium holds the entire body in a condition some- 
 what analogous to that of the dormouse. If they 
 do, they fail to get it ; four to six hours being a 
 maximum, as a rule, in personal experience. The 
 gentleman from Georgia was unable to obtain 
 the morning nap that was so restful in my case, 
 although he repeatedly tried it. He found that 
 he could not sleep within three hours after his 
 drug was taken. An Illinois friend was never able 
 to sleep until after 3 a.m., the night being spent in 
 taking hj-podermic injections at intervals of less 
 than an hour and in reading books of romance. He 
 rarely slept more than three hours of the twenty- 
 four. 
 
 Without giving, further specific information it 
 may be said that greater differences, individual and 
 general, are shown in relation to the sleep produc- 
 ing and non-sleep producing effects of the drug 
 than in any other direct result of the habit. It may 
 be well to recapitulate these important facts : 
 
 ( 1 ) Opium, which is a narcotic in single doses, 
 may be a murderer of sleep in the habit. 
 
 (2) What will produce sleep at one time 'will 
 have no effect at another. 
 
 (3) A quantity that will quiet the nerves to-day 
 may greatly excite them to-morrow. These three 
 
SLEEP AND IXSOMNIA. 249 
 
 facts demonstrate that opium is the most unreliable U 
 of all drusrs. 
 
 Three times during the addiction and three times 
 only the quotidian allotment was increased. The 
 first occasion was in the second year of the addic- 
 tion ; when two and one-half ounces were swallowed 
 without any special observable results other than 
 increased garrulity and added dryness of the mu- 
 cous linings of the mouth and nose. The next ex- 
 perience was made in the sixth year of the habit, at 
 a time of great mental depression, when there was 
 positive indifference as to results and a complete 
 recklessness in everything. The imbibition was 
 three ounces and the result was a restoration of the 
 nerves to a fairl}' quiet condition and a protracted 
 insomnia that endured nearly six days. The last 
 occurrence was in the eighth year and the act was 
 a fuller test than any previous one of the tolerance 
 of the system for the toxic. In the preceding in- 
 stances the increase was made at each of the three 
 times of taking, but on this occasion the entire 
 quantity, three ounces, was swallowed at a single 
 gulp. During the hours that followed there was 
 some nausea, which gradually wore off, and there 
 was some excitation, but not particularly pleasing. 
 The skin and mucous membranes became very dry 
 and there was great thirst, while a spirit of unrest 
 led to aimless wanderings about the city for many 
 hours. The senses all lay awake and there was no 
 bodily pain through nearly twenty-four hours ; a 
 very unusual condition of affairs. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DREAMS OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 Oh, I have passed a miserable night, 
 So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, 
 That, as I am a Christian faithful man, 
 I would not spend another such a night. 
 Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days. 
 
 Shakespeare — Richard III. 
 
 Were the question asked, "Which one of all 
 the distressing results of the opium habit was most 
 horrible?" the answer would be prompt and swift, 
 "The dreams of the night." The soul that has been 
 lifted out of the black pit of opium revels in the 
 sunshine of deliverance because of the infinite 
 exaltation that has ensued. His freedom is com- 
 plete ; he rejoices with joy unspeakable that he has 
 control over thought, over speech, and over action ; 
 that he can walk erect with unfaltering step and 
 look with unquailing eye into any man's face. He 
 is cheered constantly in the thought that he can not 
 only plan intelligently, but he can also execute 
 successfuU}'. The bliss is complete of being out 
 of the land of shadows, away from forms whose 
 seeming was as of the spirits of other worlds ; he 
 feels and knows himself a new man. He is a new 
 creature; the former things have passed a\yay, all 
 
 25 1 
 
252 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 things have become new. Yet above all, before all, 
 he is filled with greatest peace in that the sleep of 
 the night is undisturbed b}' dreams ; that his couch 
 has no longer any terrors for him, and that he can 
 enjoy his rest because his brain is undisturbed. 
 
 Admission is freely made that this portion of 
 the confessions is approached with manifest reluc- 
 tance ; for the reason that the normal man cannot 
 bring himself into a state in which he can appreci- 
 ate the weird, fanciful, horrible, and terrifj'ing vis- 
 ions that come to the creature saturated with 
 opium. The healthy man could never have such 
 dreams ; the fever-racked brain escapes them ; if 
 the drunkard is ever so afflicted, his memory mer- 
 cifully spares him after thought of them ; the 
 chloral and the cocaine "fiends" have periods of 
 complete oblivion in their sleep, although they do 
 have frightful experiences of torture now and then. 
 It is opium which is most prolific of all the dream 
 makers of earth. Though the reader may not com- 
 prehend the punitory nature of these devil phan- 
 toms, he is assured that he need have no fear of 
 any exaggerated accounts of them. The vocabu- 
 lary of the language does not contain words ade- 
 quate to portray the infinite horror of these dreams. 
 The most terrifying of those recorded in succeed- 
 ing chapters are mild in comparison with others, 
 because it is felt that those who read, unless they 
 be in the habit, are not prepared for the truth in 
 its horror. They are extraordinary, some of them 
 wild in their fancies ; all of them are tragical in 
 
DREAMS OF THE NIGH'T. 253 
 
 their ending ; but there are those from which the 
 healthy brain of the writer turns away in utter 
 loathing. It seems impossible to him that such 
 could have been the associates of his sleep. If so 
 unreal and incredible to him who knows them to be 
 true, how can they fail to appear exaggerated to 
 others? 
 
 The second year of the miraculous cure is on its 
 wane ; the memory, clear as crystal dew of the earl}- 
 morning, can pierce the clouds of the starless night 
 and easily divide the waking from the sleeping 
 visions, although they seemed at times to merge 
 one into the other. Those that were presented in 
 the gloomy temple of sleep were too frightful that 
 they should be mistaken for others which reason 
 whispered were but the phasmic burlesquings of the 
 protean drug. These dreams were no respecters of 
 times, or seasons, or places ; winter and summer, 
 day and night, time past and time present being 
 blended together as the occasion might seem to 
 warrant or the will of the demon would appear to 
 direct. It may be stated that I had no pleasurable 
 dreams for reasons that have already been given, 
 but this is not the experience of others ; nearly or 
 quite all of those within the range of acquaintance 
 having them in the early stages of the habit ; but 
 seldom after the first year and rarely after six 
 months. 
 
 Careful investigation leads to the opinion that 
 dreams appear earlier to the laudanum and opium 
 habitues than in the morphinal addictions ; also that 
 
254 ' DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 they are more persistent and violent in the former 
 than in the latter. This is to be said, however, in 
 relation to the habit, which is referable to all habit- 
 ues, opium does not produce in any case sound or 
 refreshing sleep. This is as true of single doses as 
 of the habit, admitting of no exception. While 
 most potent of anodynes and soporifics — while nar- 
 cotic, hypnotic, and sedative, still there is present in 
 every form of the drug a brain disturbing element, 
 which manifests itself in dreams or unrest of some 
 kind. This is said with a full comprehension of the 
 virtues of the drug, so far as medical books and 
 medical knowledge can convey facts to the compre- 
 hension of the writer. Depression is a resultant, an 
 inevitable sequence of opiumi This means that the 
 nerve cells have suffered a blow ; else they would 
 not evidence pain. Modified paralysis (narcotics 
 produce such a seeming of paralysis of functions as 
 to warrant the term) does not imply healthful rest. 
 Here as elsewhere when uttering warning concerning 
 the effects of opium there is no thought of insisting 
 upon its withdrawal from the shelf of the apothecary'. 
 There may be, doubtless are, conditions of physical 
 pain so great that no other agent can be effectively 
 employed ; in such cases the after ill-effects may 
 be inconsequential in comparison with the prime 
 necessity of resort to its quieting energy. It is well 
 to know, though, that the claimed properties of the 
 drug are not all of them genuine ; that in the matter 
 of sleep the greatest ignorance would seem to pre- 
 vail concerning its office and work. It is under- 
 
DREAMS OF THE NIGHT. 255 
 
 stood that when given to relieve pain the sleep- 
 producing power of the drug becomes of secondary 
 consideration, if it be regarded at all. Still, opium 
 is a master in all cases ; never a servant. It is a 
 czar who wills to do of his own pleasure ; a Medean 
 king who sets laws that may not be evaded or abro- 
 gated. One of these enactments is that sleep must 
 follow single doses ; that sleep is not normal and 
 therefore not healthy. Equall}'^ unchanging is the 
 dictum that depression shall surely follow the wak- 
 ing. 
 
 These positive facts may not, possibly should 
 not (this is a matter, however, for the doctor to 
 determine, not the layman), prevent the use of 
 opium in extreme cases, but assuredly they should 
 ■warn against the indiscriminate use of the drug in 
 petty headaches, mild neuralgic pains, nervous dis- 
 turbance after debauches, etc. The mental unrest 
 during sleep proves that the drug attacks man in 
 his most vital parts from the very outset. Mach- 
 iavel was never so cunning, Talleyrand not half so 
 diplomatic, or the Father of Lies nearly so decep- 
 tive as the opium god in the land of night and 
 dreams. 
 
 The sleep visions date from the beginning of the 
 habit and their virulence increased with time. Un- 
 like De Quincey, they never repeated themselves as 
 those of his Malay acquaintance and others. 
 Never did one return the second time, the wretched 
 and distorted brain readily supplying new horrors 
 for every sleep, and usually a half-dozen or more 
 
256 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 each night, the tableaux often changing with 
 kaleidoscopic variations and celerit}-. They were 
 not such stuff as ordinary dreams are made of, but 
 " raw head and bloody bone " manifestations, whose 
 realism was such that time can never efface them. 
 Nine years of hideous nightmare ; nine years in 
 which there was not a single night of exemption, 
 except when insomnia banished sleep. These 
 dreams embraced ever}" stage and condition of life 
 except the erotic. 
 
 There is no death the agony of which was not 
 endured in these dreams. A hideous negro with 
 leering face garroted me on the Plaza in Havana. 
 Monsieur Diebler politely severed my head from 
 the body in gay Paris. Before a relentless jury and 
 impassive doctor I was electrocuted in the Tombs, 
 in New York Cit}', and a howling mob in Alabama 
 sent me into eternity at a rope's end ; afterwards 
 riddling the dangling body with lead. The Japan- 
 ese emperor compelled me to commit hari-kari, and 
 a bejewelled Indian Rajah administered a cup of 
 poison with his own hands. An English' court sen- 
 tenced me to be cast into a caldron of boilins oil 
 and vigorously enforced the order. While search- 
 ing for the North Pole, each of my companions 
 perished miserably from starvation and cold : a fate 
 that finally overtook me just as the goal was in 
 sight. Chicago footpads crushed out my life one 
 dark night while hurrying along State street, and I 
 was smothered to death in a simoom on the Sahara. 
 I lived for a week in a crevasse of the Mer de Glace, 
 
DREAMS OF THE NIGHT. 257 
 
 into which I had fallen, and might have remained 
 there indefinite!}- in a harrowing state of frost and 
 uncertainty, but for the carelessness of a guide in 
 dropping his alpenstock upon my head and so dash- 
 ing out my brains. The sole survivor of a large 
 ship's company, I was cast upon a rocky islet in the 
 Pacific, where I died from thirst after days of the 
 most excruciating torture. Cholera terminated my 
 career after a toilsome journey in Mussulman dis- 
 guise to Mecca, where I drank of the bacilli-charged 
 waters of the Holy Well. I succumbed to yellow 
 fever in Para and was buried in the potter's field at 
 Philadelphia, after a lingering attack of small-pox. 
 When I had yielded at Berlin to an attack of heart 
 failure, a frolicsome, beer drinking class of medical 
 students hacked and hewed my body most unskil- 
 fully. 
 
 It must be understood that all the dreams were 
 circumstantial in detail and that no feature of physi- 
 cal suffering was wanting. Indeed, the exaggerat- 
 ing tendencies of the drug but intensified the agony 
 of the various tortures through which I passed. 
 There are times when it seems that again is felt the 
 horn of the rhinoceros which pierced my body 
 in an African hunt, and shudders have returned a 
 thousand times over the pain inflicted by an infuri- 
 ated tigress in an Indian jungle. 
 
 No general of any age was present at a tithe of 
 
 the battles in which I participated, every one of 
 
 which ended in imprisonment, desperate wounds, or 
 
 in death outright. Napoleon complimented me 
 
 17 
 
258 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 upon my courage at the battle of the Nile, but was 
 barely prevented from shooting me at the siege of 
 Toulon for cowardice. Nicholas caused the knout 
 to be applied to my shoulders and back for a refusal 
 to be his lackey, although I had served him faith- 
 fully as a soldier in the Crimea. A cannon ball from 
 a batter}' in Mahone's brigade carried away my 
 hand at Antietam, but I afterward lost a leg at Get- 
 tj-sburg while resisting the gallant charge of Pickett. 
 I was with young Napoleon in Africa and received 
 a score of the assagais that were designed for his 
 hapless body. 
 
 Somehow there was a penchant for walking along 
 the top of high walls, the stones of which gave way 
 beneath the feet or the whole of which would crum- 
 ble and bear me with the ruins to the earth. Pirou- 
 etting on the edge of precipices I would fall upon 
 the rocks thousands of feet below. Once I was 
 carried over Niagara Falls and met a painless death ; 
 but suffered untold chagrin because during an entire 
 week friends made no effort to recover the mangled 
 body which floated in a bight hard by Whirlpool 
 Rapids. Deadly serpents bit and huge p3'thons 
 smothered me in Cairo, and a frightful disorder 
 caused my arms and legs to decay and fall away 
 while in a loathsome prison in Smyrna. I was wit- 
 ness to some of the most frightful cataclysms of 
 nature ; being a victim of the earthquake and tidal 
 wave visitation at Callao in 1867, was projected a 
 score of miles on the horn of a destructive tornado 
 cloud in Iowa, fell into the seething crater of 
 
DREAMS OF THE XIGHT. 259 
 
 Kilauea, and was killed by lightning under a tree 
 near Galveston. Rashl}- ascending in a balloon 
 when its owner was absent I was borne upward 
 through an infinitude of space, when I finally- col- 
 lided with the body of a defiant comet and was 
 hurled earthward with a velocity that set the brain 
 on fire, an eternity of time passing before reaching 
 this planet, which opened to receive the crushed 
 body. 
 
 The companions of life would basely betray me ; 
 financial distress to the extreme of pauperism be 
 visited upon me ; dearest ones would die after lin- 
 gering torture or be taken suddenly off in a hideous 
 tragedy, and azotic influence of a deadly nature 
 would environ m}' household. Of all the fancies of 
 sleep those were saddest which brought into my 
 presence the faces and forms of dear ones who had 
 long ago passed into the other world. They were 
 precisely as known in life, vigorous in their strength 
 of body, and they remained as it seemed for days, 
 weeks, months, even, only to die. Mine was the 
 agony of witnessing their physical pain when sick- 
 ness overcame them, mine the torture of their death 
 agony, mine the distress of looking upon their livid 
 corpses and following them to the grave. There 
 would be present the little sister of less than six, 
 who had died nearly forty years before. I was a 
 child again, joining zestfully with her in her games 
 and was busy planning other pastimes, when some 
 dread pestilence would deprive her of life. Or I 
 was with schoolmates, eager in pursuit of studies, 
 
26o BOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 foremost in games, when some frightful upheaval of 
 nature or grim contagion would carry them off by 
 scores until finally none were left. Father, mother, 
 brothers, aunt, and uncle all passed into the illimit- 
 able hereafter, returned again and again, under 
 varj'ing conditions, but in every case to die b}' some 
 fell catastrophe or by lingering and torturing dis- 
 ease. It will be understood that these dreams were 
 not dreams but absolute realities ; the opium-satu- 
 rated brain with its exaggerating tendencies making 
 more intense the agony. 
 
 Sometimes the loved ones came with sorrowful 
 faces, not upbraidingly nor reproachfully so much 
 as touched with infinite pity of my condition, as 
 they tearfully sought to encourage me to leave off 
 the fatal alliance and become one more a man. 
 
 Nights of dreams, full of uncouth and uncanny 
 figures trooped out of the unknown and unknowable, 
 whose suggestions could only have been born of a 
 brain distempered by opium. These were literal 
 dances of death, therein spirits of the lost whirled 
 about in wildest steps to weirdest unseen music ; 
 spirits with sunken eyes that glowed in fire which 
 burned into the soul ; spirits that had no flesh, 
 whose death's heads wobbled and wiggled on their 
 bony shoulders ; spirits that raced and tumbled and 
 rolled about in utter abandon, all the movements 
 rhythmic yet disordered. The festive scene was 
 shocking by reason of the despair that was written 
 on their wan countenances. Out from the shadows 
 poured satyrs, wood-nymphs, ghouls, and furies, as 
 
DREAMS OF THE NIGHT. 261 
 
 well as all manner of forms that were half beast and 
 man ; a lot of jibing, jeering creatures which pinched 
 and tortured ; scratching, biting, springing upon 
 and sometimes actually tearing me asunder. Now 
 they would appear in thunder and rain, then in the 
 blackness of night shadows, or again in the bright- 
 ness of spring, weaving garlands of beauteous 
 flowers ; but in all cases, whether grotesque and 
 saturnine, or somber and earnest, they ended by 
 inflicting untold suffering upon the object of their 
 wrath. 
 
 Such dreams were these. I have been made 
 drunk upon the pulque of Mexico, the aguardie7ite 
 of Cuba, the rice wine of China, the rum of Jamaica, 
 the wines of the Rhine, Moselle and Burgundy, on 
 alcohol in Russia, punch in Sweden, beer in Ger- 
 many, ale in England, and whisky in America, and 
 each intoxication was followed by the pains such 
 excesses always inflict. 
 
 The repertoire of dreams comprehends demons 
 from hell, ghosts and bogies, Gorgons and Medusae 
 — in fact, every creature that extensive reading and 
 travel could have suggested or a disordered brain 
 evolved. Out from the opium land of shadows the 
 specters rush with wing-tipped feet, pouring from 
 the Inferno of Dante, the hell of Milton, and the 
 halls and corridors of prisons and temples whose 
 very plinths and entablatures have long been in 
 dust; out from Jerusalem desolate, from Nero's 
 burning Rome, from earth-riven Lisbon, Paris of the 
 revolution, forms pierced and bleeding, shapes 
 
262 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 whose bodil}- hereditaments had endured in their 
 severalt}- all the sufferings that make the sum of 
 human agony; out from the shadows and unending 
 procession of wars, plagues, and pestilences, the 
 judgment of the damned, contention of the elements, 
 and all the abominations that make desolate the 
 habitations of men. 
 
 Had Sancho Panza been an opium "fiend" he 
 would have cursed rather than blessed the inventor 
 of sleep. Driven to desperation by the accursed 
 visions, awakening out of sleep with the echo of 
 thunderous detonations in the ears, trepidant, drip- 
 ping with perspiration and with hair on end, I would 
 swear in my wrath that never again would I sleep. 
 It was in such mood as this that three doses would 
 be swallowed in one, experience having taught that 
 the increased quantity' would greatly protract the 
 period of wakefulness. One of the chiefest joys 
 connected with release from the habit is the fact 
 that I can lie down to rest in peace and security, 
 undisturbed of visions, for not once since the cure 
 have I had a dream of any kind whatsoever. Dur- 
 ing the enslavement I loathed the bed and sought 
 it only when exhaustion demanded it, there being 
 an ever present fear that each night would be the 
 last upon earth and that I should pass away in the 
 midst of the harrowing visions of sleep. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 
 
 This is the rarest dream that e'er dull sleep 
 Did mock sad fools withal. 
 
 Shakespeare — Pericles. 
 
 There was naught that was unseemly, incongru- 
 ous, or inapropos in any of the dreams that made 
 hell of the night and fire of the unrested brain. 
 Every one was a reality whose Seeming entered the 
 day life and often froze the soul with the horror of 
 their memor}'. The following extraordinary vision 
 came in the fifth year of the addiction and is abso- 
 lutely faithful to an unfailing and unfading recol- 
 lection. The one difficulty in its presentation 
 has been the paucity of the English language in 
 words wherewith to paint the gorgeous splendors of 
 a scene, where glowing tints and myriad gems glo- 
 rified the landscape with their beauty. 
 
 I was aroused out of a sound, refreshing sleep, 
 so it seemed in the dream, by the voice of a neigh- 
 bor, who bade me hasten to view an extraordinary 
 phenomenon. Difficulties are easily overcome at 
 times in dreams and transportation from one point 
 to another is made easy. It was but a single step 
 from the chamber to the center of a distant public 
 park of infinite beauty, where was presented to the 
 
 263 
 
264 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 dazed vision one of the weirdest and most extraor- 
 dinarily beautiful panoramas that mortal was ever 
 permitted to witness, even in his dreams. In a 
 trice, so it seemed, a semi-tropic landscape had been 
 breathed upon b}^ winter's gelid breath, resulting in 
 a coating of hyaline ice over the entire face of na- 
 ture ; the buds, flowers, leaves, and grass visible 
 beneath in all the glory of their many gorgeous 
 colors. 
 
 The sun had scarcely been an hour on his diur- 
 nal way, yet was radiant in glory of flame, which 
 flashed out upon every crj'stal object, the splendor 
 of which dazzled wifhout obscuring the eyes. The 
 sky was exquisitely lovely, a bright erubescent gos- 
 samer cloud crowning the horizon, above which 
 were superimposed filmlike strata of emerald, 
 topaz, lapis lazuli, and amethyst — a broadened iris, 
 the luridness of whose hues were more intense than 
 any bow that ever repeated the Noachan promise of 
 a never-returning deluge. This bestriped banner 
 reached nearly to the glowing sun, whose flames of 
 gold were surrounded by an aureole of vivid buff 
 and pale lavender. The remainder of the sky over- 
 head and in the west was a delicate yet intensely 
 deep, though translucent, sapphire, the eye seeming 
 to penetrate its infinite depths and fathom the mys- 
 tery of the "without beginning and without end." 
 
 What language can adequately portray the splen- 
 dors of the terrene panorama, the glister and flare 
 of tree and shrub, hillock and grass-plat, lakelet 
 and bridge, walk and drive ? The blight of the rime 
 
FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 265 
 
 had been suspended, and pansies, daisies, geraniums, 
 larkspurs, tulips, crocuses, anemones, hyacinths, and 
 roses, with every variety of flower that blooms from 
 vernal birth to autumnal death (for opium dreams 
 confine no objects or things to their times and sea- 
 sons), each and every one rested in the full glory of 
 its coloring beneath its brumal coat, every tint radi- 
 ant and sending forth gemmed spiculse of light. 
 The virent grass had borrowed the luster of velvet 
 and was scintillant beneath its transpicuous sheet. 
 The trees, — oaks, maples, catalpas, pines and other 
 conifers, vied with each other in warmth of glow 
 beneath their frigid covering, and neither they nor 
 the herbs, shrubs, plants, or grasses appeared to add 
 aught to their dimension by the enfolded congelated 
 sheets. On the contrary infinite grace of form 
 stamped the scene without a single discordant or un- 
 seemly element to jar upon the vision. A million 
 irises flashed from the vitreous blue of the lakes and 
 from the virescent leaves of the trees. 
 
 The uncanniness of the scene occasioned no out- 
 burst of surprise. As in all the dreams there was 
 infinite realism in everything, and as we gazed in 
 rapt admiration upon the dream mirage, we spoke 
 only of the glorious beauty of the objects; our 
 attention being directed to one after the other, as 
 children in a great museum for the first time are 
 wont to rush from one novelty to another in exquis- 
 ite surprise. 
 
 Presently, and yet so many were the objects that 
 challenged and evoked admiration it seemed hours, 
 
266 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 we strolled along a paved path whose lateritious 
 tint borrowed showy coloration from its coat of ice, 
 when greater and more startling phenomena were 
 displayed. Beneath a graceful ice-clad lilac bush 
 squatted a virile rabbit, whose great eyes flashed 
 the flow of light within ; a thing of ice withal. From 
 a crystalline fir-tree proceeded the soft flute-like 
 notes of a robin-redbreast, enclosed in a sleety 
 mantle. Sparrows twittered, noisy blue-jays chat- 
 tered, and brilliant ruby-throat humming-birds were 
 suspended before scarlet gladioli ; the honk of wild 
 geese, noisy quacks of ducks and shrill, monotonous 
 cries of sand-hill cranes filled the air ; but each and 
 all of these were still as statues of marble, while iri- 
 descent with the glow of the sun upon the congealed 
 sheets encircling them. At a little distance deer, 
 buffalo, ibexes, Rocky Mountain sheep, and other 
 animals seemed to be transparent works of art ; but 
 nearer approach disclosed living creatures without 
 power of motion, yet instinct with healthy life. 
 Gray-vestured policemen had met the same fate as 
 other creatures in the park and were revealed as 
 the hyperborean breaths had found them ; one in 
 the act of lighting his pipe, another having his right 
 arm raised as if in expostulation, while yet another 
 was caught with his left eye askance. In the dream 
 I recalled those Pompeiian soldiers who had been 
 enmeshed by the webs of seductive Vesuvius, and 
 bore corporeal witness in after centuries to the sud- 
 denness of the attack. 
 
 Strange feature of all, this austral tropic scene 
 
FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 267 
 
 was dissociate from a suggestion of wintery blasts ; 
 on the contrary the mildness of spring prevailed ; 
 the air being balmy, as the sky was serene. 
 
 These and thousands of other sights flashed be- 
 fore the vision and yet the sun chariot had scarcely 
 seemed to forge its way a half hour ahead ; when, 
 suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, the wintery 
 spectacle disappeared, early summer succeeded, and 
 all animal and vegetable life was aglow with energ}'. 
 The birds multiplied in number and variety, swans 
 and geese swam about in the liquid, warm, glowing 
 lake ; deer and goats flitted about in their enclosure, 
 and trees and plants flashed dew diamonds from 
 their bright emerald bosoms. The winding paths 
 and drives were covered with many inches of water, 
 which was warm to our soaked feet. We were thread- 
 ing our way along with difficulty, wondering how 
 we should emerge from the maze, when a hideous 
 creature of most anomalous parts rushed suddenly 
 out from a clump of bushes and pierced me with its 
 long, single-pointed horn. Then I awoke with a 
 shriek of mortal agony.' 
 
 Much has been written concerning the periodicity 
 of dreams and there has been wide divergence 
 of opinion touching this matter. It chances that 
 circumstances surrounding the arctic-tropic vision 
 enable me to speak with positiveness concerning 
 the time within which it appeared, and should set for- 
 ever at rest the notion that dreams necessarily 
 require any appreciable space for their development. 
 Thought is more rapid than light, and dreams are 
 
268 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 but thoughts more or less awr3-. The elaboration 
 of thought and proper coinage of words for their 
 intelligent communication to others demands time, 
 but waking and sleeping thoughts may be practically 
 instantaneous, the reproduction of which might 
 demand hours in their recital. As to the dream 
 in question : this and two other vivid ones certainly 
 occurred, all three of them, within the space of six 
 minutes. The rays of a not distant electric lamp 
 lit up the room, and a few feet away, on a dressing- 
 case, was a clock, the hands of which had been 
 observed in their rounds from the hour of retiring 
 at eleven until four minutes past three ; four mor- 
 tal hours, which seemed like an eternity. There 
 could possibly be no mistake in the matter; for 
 every faculty was alert, every minute and every 
 second had been counted. On a sudden, I became 
 intensely and rapidly sleepy, a not uncommon experi- 
 ence with an opium user and I fell asleep, the last 
 observation of the clock showing four minutes past 
 three ; after waking with a shriek, as narrated 
 above, upon looking again at the time-piece under 
 the impression that daylight, so long desired, had 
 come, I was utterly astounded to find that it was but 
 ten minutes past three. Yet the two dreams which 
 preceded this one were of exceptional length, the 
 first extending through three days of time, in which 
 hundreds of events transpired that are yet vividly 
 impressed upon the recollection. 
 
 The following extraordinary vision appeared in 
 the eighth year of the addiction. It was in the 
 
FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 26g 
 
 month of January and the weather was very cold 
 without ; a glowing fire from a large open stove dis- 
 pensing warmth in the large sitting-room. Wearied 
 with the duties and cares of the day I had thrown 
 m3-self upon a lounge and sleep quickly followed. 
 
 Presently, so it seemed, a form rose up out of 
 the Coals, its eyes blazing balls of fire, its back 
 white-heated, and its talons glowing with igneous 
 warmth. While looking in terror upon the strange 
 and mighty creature it was recognized as a roc, the 
 fabled bird that figures in the stories of Arabia. 
 Making directly for the couch it buried its long 
 claws deep into the quivering flesh of my side and 
 breast, while with its merciless beak it tore away 
 the muscles from cheek and chin and eagerly 
 devoured them. I shrieked aloud in anguish and 
 fought desperately with hands and nails ; but the 
 bird was of monstrous size and was utterly indiffer- 
 ent to the resistance offered. 
 
 The homy beak reached the jawbone and the 
 cruel claws penetrated far into the body. Blood 
 poured from a dozen or more wounds and the end 
 seemed near at hand. Looking about for help I 
 saw a score or more of gnome-like creatures perched 
 on the stove, upon the book-case, piano, and table, 
 all laughing gleefully as they rubbed their fat little 
 hands. They encouraged the roc to its attacks by 
 cheering words and urged it to complete the work 
 of destruction. 
 
 Presently, when it seemed that nothing remained 
 of the face but the eyes, from which the lids had 
 
270 DOCTOR JUUAS. 
 
 been torn away, the bird suddenly ceased its attacks, 
 and then seizing the body with a firm grasp 
 extended its wings and rose, despite the most des- 
 perate struggles on the part of its victim. The 
 floor and roof offered no obstacles and soon we 
 were rapidly rising in the air. The pain in the 
 breast and face was agonizing ; the raw wind struck 
 against the exposed bones of the latter, as the black 
 monster raised itself steadily in the air. On and on 
 it flew, higher and higher, farther and farther awa^- 
 eastward, while my legs hung limp and helpless and 
 the arms were drawn downward in excruciating 
 pain. Upward the journey ; the air fast grew chil- 
 lier and rarer, breathing became more difficult, and 
 the cold reached the very marrow of the bones. 
 Swift and swifter flew the tireless bird, the broad 
 sweep of its great wings being more rapid, and the 
 wind rushed madly by. 
 
 The sun had just climbed above the great lake 
 when the journey began, but soon it was directlj' 
 overhead ; then it began its western descent, while 
 still the flight was continued. Finally it went out 
 of sight and night succeeded without a gloaming. 
 
 O, the bitterness of that night of cold ! The 
 hands had long since become benumbed, the feet 
 were as ice, and the heart pumped the life-blood so 
 feebly that there was no longer any consciousness 
 of the pressure. The raw rime encrusted eyebrows 
 and mustache and the feeble breath appeared to 
 change into tiny snow crystals as fast as it left the 
 lacerated mouth. The arctic cold upon the gaping 
 
FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 271 
 
 wounds was as bars of iron white-heated pressed 
 against the raw flesh and it seemed that life was 
 swiftly ebbing away. The stars gleamed bright, 
 but, O so cold and unsympathetic from their 
 depths, and appeal to these as well as to any other 
 help was utterly in vain. Leaden despair settled in 
 upon the soul. Effort to pray was futile ; the words 
 would not come ; nor was there piower of directing 
 thought upon a petition. The lethargic state was 
 steadily growing more profound and there was will- 
 ingness to surrender completel}' to it, in the feeling 
 that death was preferable to such a condition of 
 suffering, when suddenly the talons of the bird re- 
 laxed and I was released. Oblivious to the sur- 
 roundings there was cause for exultation, which 
 voiced itself in a mighty shout of relief, if not 
 of joy ; tliere was consciousness of separation, the 
 great bird rising and the victim falling through the 
 air. 
 
 The triumph was short lived ; for a half-roar, 
 half-shriek of furious rage proceeded from the huge 
 bird fiend, as it stopped suddenly in its course and 
 then drew its wings closer together for a rapid de- 
 scent. Now followed a mad race in mid-air, the 
 bird screaming as one possessed with a thousand 
 harpy spirits ; my heart taking on fresh pulsations 
 in the excitement and the soul shrinking within it- 
 self at thought of the fate that awaited should the 
 pursuer again seize its prey. Gradually the distance 
 shortened ; closer, closer the bird drew ; its hot 
 breath could almost be felt, when there was a train 
 
272 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of fire approaching with lightning swiftness straight 
 in the line of our path. Its intense heat reached 
 the body and filled the soul with apprehension. 
 Then there was a loud explosion, a frightful deto- 
 nating sound that fairly deafened and shocked me. 
 This was followed quickl}^ by giant showers of 
 feathers and bits of seared flesh that fell all about. 
 
 The monster had been torn into atoms bj- a 
 meteor and I was free. For a moment there was 
 exultation in the release, but a moment only ; for 
 then came a realizing sense that sure and awful des- 
 truction impended ; a fate worse, if possible, than 
 that which befel the ill-starred bird. The sickened 
 spirit almost envied it the end it had met. Ah, how 
 swiftly the body passed through the fast rushing 
 air ! What dizziness and what roaring there was in 
 the ears ! Ten thousand storms could not have pro- 
 duced greater din ; dim light flashed before the 
 dazed vision, while the tortured brain was fairly 
 alive with heat. The intense cold had gone and 
 every part of the body glojved with unnatural heat. 
 The blood could be felt and heard sweeping through 
 the veins and arteries, as the waters of the rain- 
 swollen stream fast down the mountains. The sys- 
 tolic and diastolic action of the heart, while inter- 
 mittent in intensity, was violent and gave acute 
 pain. Through all this frightful experience there 
 was greatest possible suffering from the wounds in 
 the face and breast and there was an ever present 
 feeling that they alone were mortal. , 
 
 Down and down, down and down, faster and yet 
 
FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC DREAMS. 273 
 
 faster, the brain dizzy and whirling, the ears roar- 
 ing, the nose sending out streams of blood, down 
 and still down, whirling over and over, bewildered, 
 half-crazed, and choked almost to death ! There 
 was one supernal effort to remain suspended in air, 
 and then I awoke. 
 
 For daj's afterward, so real was the dream, there 
 remained a memory of the pain from the gaping 
 wounds made by the bird on face and breast, and 
 the pain continued as though the injuries were real. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A WONDERFUL BATTLE SCENE. 
 
 Saevit amor ferri et scelerata insania belli. 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 The following dream, which came on an Octo- 
 ber night in the seventh year of the habit, affords 
 an apt illustration of the deftness of opium in weav- 
 ing together the opposing colors of awfulness and 
 comicalities, at times blending the two in a kind of 
 harmony that appeals to admiration. Let it be 
 understood that these dreams pertain in no sense to 
 the writer ; but are the work of opium and opium 
 only. They are not creations, for opium never was 
 and never can be creative ; they are simply impres- 
 sions that are taken from the brain. There were 
 dreams that were mere hotch-potches — a show of 
 connectedness here and there and a mass of con- 
 fusedness as a whole ; precisely as there were day 
 visions and opium suggestions in waking moments 
 that were jumbles and inanitions. 
 
 I stood in an old field, known in my childhood 
 days as the " Race track," where corn-hills of two 
 or three years standing made rough the surface of 
 the ground. Not a human being was in sight, and 
 looking away upon the old village home a mile 
 
 274 
 
A WONDERFUL BATTLE SCENE. 275 
 
 away there was wonder that any sort of chance 
 should have led to this solitude ; when suddenly, 
 there appeared in sight the most grotesque company 
 imaginable ; seeming to come out of the air, to 
 form from intangible nothing. Closer scrutiny 
 showed the creatures to be men of real flesh and 
 blood, all of whom were readily recognized as 
 friends and acquaintances. The commander, an 
 Irish saloon-keeper named O'Kelley, was attired in 
 continental uniform of blue and buff, with immense 
 brass buttons, each larger than a silver dollar, and 
 great epaulets. The tails of his coat reached to the 
 ground and he was constantly being tripped by his 
 huge sword which dragged behind. He was of 
 diminutive stature but of great weight, and when he 
 fell to earth, as he often did, rolled over and over 
 like a rubber ball. At such times he was picked up 
 by an orderly in flaming scarlet, who appeared to 
 attend him for that purpose. His great fat belly 
 was constantly shaking with suppressed laughter 
 and his face was wreathed in smiles. His orderly 
 sergeant was little Noah Padgett, the village tailor, 
 who weighed scarcely ninety pounds ; immediately 
 behind him was the butcher, a six-footer German, 
 weighing three hundred or more. Such a motley 
 crowd it was — limping Bill Garrison, a half-wit 
 fisherman ; Joe Gregory, the one-armed drayman ; 
 Riah Johnson, the bald-headed exhorter ; several 
 septuagenarian inmates of the poor-house ; a number 
 of dare-devil young fellows ; a score of eminently 
 respectable citizens ; and many others. Some were 
 
2/6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 richly dressed, while others were in rags. In lieu 
 of guns they carried broomsticks, tree boughs, 
 umbrellas, canes, and pitchforks. Their faces wore 
 a pallid but determined expression, as though bent 
 upon a business that involved reputation and life. 
 
 The evolutions of the Falstafifian group afforded 
 the greatest possible amusement ; for never before 
 were men put through such antics. The captain 
 had the voice of a stentor, issuing his commands in 
 tones of thunder, and they were obeyed to the letter. 
 Now the militiamen, in all cases holding fast to their 
 arms, leaped nimbly on each other's shoulders ; then 
 stood upon their heads, their heels beating tattoos 
 in the air. They ran about on all-fours like so 
 many lively sheep, alternating with leaps in the air 
 or over one another's bodies ; or they buried their 
 heads deep down in their knees, and thus making 
 themselves into balls, rolled about the field so 
 rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow them. 
 The captain kept them in almost constant motion ; 
 causing them to dance at a lively rate, to gyrate 
 first upon the right and then upon the left foot, to 
 spring high in the air, walk about upon their hands, 
 and then to turn handsprings with such celerity as 
 made the men appear so many revolving wheels. 
 These and other pranks were executed with the 
 utmost gravity by the men, although the doughty- 
 little captain seemed to be fairly dying with internal 
 laughter, as he wiped the perspiration from his face 
 and brow and rushed about here and there, falling 
 down and being picked up again. 
 
A WONDERFUL BATTLE SCENE. 277 
 
 While this extraordinary farce was at its height, 
 there came, sounds of far-off music and then an 
 ominous boom, boom, as of great cannon. Looking 
 backward in the direction whence it came to my 
 infinite consternation there moved a vast army — 
 companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions, 
 and corps ; a great multitude which no man could 
 number — foot, horse", and artillery, splendidly ca- 
 parisoned and uniformed, the bayonets glistening in 
 the bright sunlight. Then a sudden movement in 
 my rear diverted attention in that direction ; I saw 
 that O'Kelley's company had been metamorphosed 
 into a superb command of thoroughly equipped, 
 newly uniformed men, armed with repeating rifles 
 and marching with the precision of regulars. The 
 captain saluted gravely as he passed. Instantly I 
 was in the uniform of an officer, a major of infantry. 
 Pushing rapidly forward a general of brigade, who 
 . recognized me as his chief of staff, assigned me a 
 place in the great moving army which pressed grimly 
 forward. 
 
 Now the air grew dim, although the sun still 
 shone in an unclouded sky ; but everything was 
 changed. The vast army passed along through 
 rocky and craggy places, and finally formed lines 
 upon a great level plain, where the command rested 
 upon arms, in seeming silent expectation of coming 
 great events. Meantime cannon boomed and now 
 and then musketry reports rang out in the air. A 
 position in the center afforded me a fine point of 
 view for observing all that was transpiring. 
 
278 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 Lightning flashes played in the western sky, 
 where were no clouds. Great flocks of buzzards 
 flew high overhead. Trees swayed fearfully in an 
 onrushing storm of wind that went hurtling by. 
 The sky took on a sickly and blood-red hue and 
 faintness made sick the soul. The faces of comrades 
 were pallid as death's own touch ; but their still 
 eyes glowed with intensity of passion, while no one 
 spoke. The bands had ceased their playing, the 
 drums their beating, and no longer did bugle or fife 
 send out shrill notes. The living were standing as 
 so many pillars of stone in their immobility ; yet 
 the impression was potent that they were soon to be 
 quickened into active life and many of them silenced 
 into unwaking death. No such sickening fear had 
 been experienced when present in the struggle be- 
 tween great contending armies during the late war. 
 I was in the mighty shadow of death — a grim and 
 horrible shadow that seemed to take the shape of a 
 relentless horror, with monstrous jaws that fairly 
 foamed with impatience of waiting for victims. 
 
 Then suddenly, for changes are rapid in opium 
 dreams, the enemy was near at hand, driving upon 
 us the opposing skirmishers and sharpshooters. 
 While we were resting in the shadow of a black and 
 somber sky, the approaching hosts, vast in numbers, 
 were in a clear, sunlit field, and the barrels of their 
 guns reflected the beams of light as so many narrow 
 and long mirrors. 
 
 It did not appear strange that such a prodigious 
 army should have come in sight; nor was there 
 
A WONDERFUL BATTLE SCENE. 279 
 
 inquiry as to whether they were from foreign lands 
 or enemies from within. It was all perfectl}- natural 
 and proper, except there was present a mortal 
 agony of fear ; still every sense was quickened ; 
 there was not lost a single one of the thousands of 
 scenes and tragedies enacted on this memorable 
 field. All was in the open. There was no breast- 
 work or barrier of any kind. A short distance 
 intervened between the opposing hosts and the 
 order was distinctly heard for the left wing of the 
 army to charge. Then upon the startled sight burst 
 a vision of camels, elephants, camelopards, zebras, 
 unicorns, and hippopotami, rushing madly forward, 
 urged by their riders who wore the uniform of 
 Turks, Egyptians, French, Austrians, and Italians, 
 while a magnificent body of cavalry in English uni- 
 form followed close after. As the center was not 
 disturbed I was afforded every opportunity to 
 observe the onslaught. Impassive as marble the 
 men awaited the coming of the immense cavalcade. 
 The tread of the beasts made the earth tremble as 
 in a mighty cataclysm; the brutes themselves 
 uttered wild discordant cries that deafened the ears, 
 while above all arose the shrill voices of officers 
 giving words of command. A few hundred feet 
 only intervened ; when, for the first time since reach- 
 ing the ground then occupied, our men gave sign 
 of life. With seemingly a single motion the rifles 
 were loaded and like so many automata the men pre- 
 sented and fired. The powder was smokeless, every 
 act was plainly in sight, and the carnage was fearfuL 
 
28o DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 The dumb creatures fell like grass before the mower 
 and their riders dropped by thousands. Quickly 
 the ranks closed and a sheet of flame burst from 
 their rifles. The execution was deadl}', our men 
 falling like nine-pins before a skilful bowler. 
 Fast and faster grew the firing, near and nearer 
 the combatants came in a maddening rush; when 
 they at last met. Then was a wild scene of con- 
 fusion, brutes and men mingling in an indistin- 
 guishable mass. Sabers rose and fell with deadly 
 stroke, guns were clubbed and crushed through 
 yielding skulls, elephants roared in rage as they 
 pierced men through with their polished tusks, uni- 
 corns impaled victims alive and ran about with them 
 on the plain, hippopotami crushed shape out of 
 beings with their ponderous weight, while the timid 
 camelopards ran hither and thither over the fields 
 in abandon of fear. Then shouts of victory filled the 
 air and the hosts of the enemy fled in disorderly, 
 straying bands back whence they came, hotly pur- 
 sued. At the same time bugles quick sounded 
 along the line, fifes rang out shrilly, drums beat 
 hasty calls, and in a moment our entire army, the 
 center and the right, were rushing forward like hun- 
 gry wolves upon the prey. 
 
 Glancing backward for a moment upon the hosts 
 of the slain there were seen men running hither and 
 thither about, picking up legs here, arms there, and 
 heads everywhere, which they placed upon torsos 
 in reckless haste, apparently indifferent as to their 
 proper belongings, and those that had been crushed, 
 
A WONDERFUL BATTLE SCENE. 281 
 
 mangled and dead rose to their feet. The specta- 
 cle was most comical, for the relief party in their 
 hurry had here and there fastened the head of one 
 of the beasts upon the shoulders of a man, the 
 head of a man upon the body of a beast; so there 
 were centaurs — horse-men and men-horses ; men- 
 elephants and elephant-men ; men-unicorns and uni- 
 corn-men, nimbly skipping along in bright uniforms 
 with guns at a charge. The whole body of the 
 dead had arisen, beasts and men, and those that had 
 not been joined together were apparently not in any 
 degree inconvenienced ; headless bodies of men and 
 beasts, animals that were legless or armless, ani- 
 mals with ghastly holes through their bodies, all 
 were pushing nimbly along; former foemen unit- 
 ing in fraternal bonds and showing eagerness to 
 slaughter their whilom allies. 
 
 On pressed the army, while artillery thundered 
 and rifles made hideous music with their ceaseless 
 crack. Men about me fell by scores and hundreds, 
 whole ranks being plowed down and covered over. 
 Suddenly my heart grew faint, dizziness seized me 
 as a cannon ball lurid with heat was rushing toward 
 me in a straight line. Powerless to evade the hiss- 
 ing death missile the arms were folded and my 
 head was crushed into a thousand fragments. There 
 was consciousness afterward and a dull, heavy pain 
 was experienced that at times changed to acute, 
 darting agony ; then came oblivion. When I recov- 
 ered, two jocose comrades had me in their arms and 
 with many a quip and jest strode along until they 
 
282 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 came to a great pit, which had been freshly dug 
 and was nearly filled with mutilated bodies of the 
 dead and dying. At its brink they halted and with 
 a merry dance-hall song-snatch they flung me in 
 / among the carcasses of men and beasts indiscrimi- 
 nately piled together. In an agony of despair I 
 shrieked and awoke bathed in sweat. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 VISION OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er, 
 The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more. 
 
 Gay. 
 
 The boundless flights of fancy, with the terrible 
 scourgings of conscience under stress of opium, are 
 depicted in living words of truth in the following 
 dream, which came near the close of the eighth year 
 of the habit. 
 
 The country was an unknown one, the people 
 strange and uncanny, who seemed resolved to stare 
 me out of countenance. Grotesque indeed they 
 were ; wearing tall, pointed hats of blue or yel- 
 low; cloaks of many hues, that reached nearly to 
 their ankles ; and yellow shoes that turned high 
 upward, an exaggerated copy of the fashion of 
 forty or more years ago. Some were very fat and 
 short, while others were thin and tall; many had 
 humps on their backs, while numbers walked with 
 paunches extended far outward. The noses of all 
 were hooked and nearly met the chins, which 
 were curved like that of Punch in the pictures. 
 
 Instead of walking they projected themselves 
 forward by a sort of double-shuffle movement, with 
 an intervening long jump ; a feat that appeared to 
 
 283 
 
284 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 afford them much pleasure, the only bar to full 
 enjoyment of which was my apparent silent protest 
 against their presence. They walked around me 
 in a sort of circle and grinned horribly as they 
 directed threatening gestures at me. Their lips 
 moved in manifest wrath although no sound 
 escaped them, and I was beginning to fear bodil}' 
 violence, when there suddenly appeared on the 
 scene a tall and remarkably handsome youth of 
 about sixteen, attired in a snuff -colored broadcloth 
 suit of the greatest elegance, in the style worn by 
 naval cadets. By a waving movement of his hand 
 he dismissed the uncanny creatures, who dissolved 
 in air, and then directed upon me a gaze that burnt 
 into my soul. His presence suggested the sublime 
 Enjolras in "Les Miserables," his beauty being of 
 the type of that leader, although there was a sort of 
 celestial radiance, a something far higher in con- 
 tour and fiber than mortals are made of. His 
 marble brow was sad, as he pointed his tapering 
 fingers at the western sky. 
 
 A heaviness seized me and I shivered as though 
 the hand of death had been laid upon me. The sun, 
 which a moment before was shining brightly, had 
 totally disappeared and an appalling gloom had set 
 in ; not the darkness of night, but a somber, awe- 
 some, greenish-brown color enveloped the whole 
 face of the earth and sky. Out of it there glowed 
 in the west, at a point about fifteen degrees above 
 the horizon, a great luminous spot as of a cloud 
 enveloping an infinite flame that refused to be con- 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 2S5 
 
 cealed. It flickered and flared as a great conflagra- 
 tion in a night of mists when sudden wind gusts 
 send the blaze upward only to let it fall again. 
 
 Terror seized me, and turning to the silent youth 
 for comfort I laid mj- hand upon his sleeve and was 
 shocked to perceive that it gave way to the touch, 
 the fabric being utterly rotted. Fagots in his hand 
 that were but a moment since green and vigorous 
 dropped to pieces and fell into dry dust. A greater 
 agony seized me as I saw that the exquisitely 
 moulded face of adolescence had given way to 
 senility ; being wrinkled, sallow, and dry like parch- 
 ment. His teeth fell through his withered lips, 
 which muttered these words, 
 
 "It is the time of the end." 
 
 Then his bent, attenuated body crackled and 
 fell into dry and choking dust. Turning away 
 with beating heart I sought to flee the grewsome 
 and horrible ground, when I was held fast as in a 
 vise. No effort could release me from the invisi- 
 ble cords. It seemed I was undergoing some sort 
 of a mutation, but all was m3'sterious, deep, and 
 unfathomable. I puzzled myself in vain to know 
 what it was. Presently I saw a distant object in the 
 sky towards the north, and positively forgot the 
 gravity of the situation in the contortions and 
 wrigglings of the creature or thing, which, bearing 
 a golden color, rapidly drew nearer and nearer, 
 until I recognized in it a huge squirrel, covered 
 with flame, having no wings but sustaining itself in 
 space by repeated summersaults and zigzag move- 
 
286 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ments, darting upward and downward, its long and 
 bushy tail waving and flopping ceaselessly. The 
 contortions of the animal provoked such uncon- 
 trollable laughter that my sides began to ache and 
 I designed to place my hands there to relieve them, 
 when, to my horror, I found that I had no hands, 
 no arms, no sides, no body. I was present in 
 imperishable essence. I felt, saw, breathed, lived, 
 was a creature of emotion, sentiment, energy, 
 action ; still, all that was of me, as I had known 
 myself to be for upwards of forty years, had 
 entirely disappeared. In the absorption of this 
 knowledge I lost sight of the squirrel for a season ; 
 but when I again looked upward, the heavens were 
 literally filled with an innumerable host of all the 
 feathered creatures of every land, following the 
 lead of the squirrel, which was pointing for the 
 luminous cloud that had grown much larger and 
 brighter, occasionally sending out jets of flame. 
 
 Soon I was startled by a mighty noise in the 
 rear, as of battle and war of elements. Looking in 
 that direction I saw beasts of every clime as well as 
 creeping serpents, crocodiles, alligators, lizards, and 
 turtles, rushing forward with mighty clamor and 
 clangor towards the west. I stood in their path 
 and sought to escape ; but, doubly rooted to the 
 spot, I gave myself up for lost. Whither could I 
 flee any way? for this army of rushing creatures 
 was illimitable, stretching to the right and left as 
 far as the eye could reach, the line extending back- 
 ward miles upon miles. In a moment I was in their 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 287 
 
 midst ; yet whereas I could feel the hot breath as it 
 passed forth from their inflamed nostrils and actu- 
 all}- the contact of their hot bodies, I was speedily' 
 reassured, because there was no sense of shock. 
 Then I essayed the impossible task of counting 
 them ; failing in which I sought my watch that I 
 might time their passage. But watch as well as 
 clothing and corporeal substance had disappeared. 
 I had now attained a point where surprises had 
 ceased altogether. On the stream passed, how long 
 I could not estimate, but I was beginning to weary 
 of it when attention was directed to a great and 
 mighty wall of light-lit water that was rolling 
 toward me. At the same time from out the infinite 
 space, for it seemed that everything in the firma- 
 ment above had magnified boundlessly, I heard a 
 voice of peculiar melody, saying, 
 
 " And the waters of the great deep shall be 
 swallowed up in the mighty conflagration of the last 
 day." 
 
 These were the oceans of earth, all of them 
 attracted by the lurid light in the Occident ; stream- 
 ing towards it with lightning speed, as were the 
 birds and beasts. I was afraid, yet a benumbing 
 sense had come upon me and no effort was made to 
 escape the gigantic tidal wave, that rose many times 
 higher than Everest in the Himalayas. I felt no 
 sense of asphyxia or shock of violence as I was 
 engulfed by the waters. Then for the first time I 
 observed, for the water was clear as the air in a sun- 
 lit June day free of haze, that the seas were full of 
 
288 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 fishes of every kind ; all the leviathans of the deep, 
 as well as the timid minnows, all wriggling ascidians, 
 the tiny medusae, and the infinitesimal mites of cre- 
 ated things whose habitat is the deepest waters of 
 old ocean. The disturbance of all these was great, 
 for they flitted hither and thither about ; darting 
 here and there, as though seeking to avoid their 
 impending fate. 
 
 On the titan wave rolled, until it reached the 
 fleeing hordes of beasts ; on, until it overwhelmed 
 them and the countless flocks of birds ; on, until it 
 reached the m3'sterious blaze, which had been fast 
 growing in size and intensity. Then there was a 
 mighty conflagration, a great consuming fire that 
 made quick fuel of the flood and swept over all the 
 surface of the earth, sending shoots of flame thou- 
 sands of miles into the air. As I had been safe 
 from the stampedes of beasts and rush of waters, so 
 the transparent but infinitely heated flames gave no 
 sense of pain and I stood in a dazed condition, 
 inquiring what the end would be and if I were the 
 only creature that remained of all the myriad beings 
 that had lived and played their little part in the 
 drama called life. 
 
 While standing thus engaged in guessing, with 
 no idea of time's flight, not knowing whether it were 
 ten minutes or ten thousand years, for the ethereal- 
 ized essence appeared to have entered upon eter- 
 nity's epoch, which kept no record of moments, 
 hours, and days, since periods of duration would be 
 valueless in such a state ; — while standing thus en- 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 289 
 
 veloped in flame, I felt a sort of shock, an electric 
 thrill, as I may term it, and like a mighty scroll the 
 flames, the sky, the earth itself appeared to roll 
 away in majesty of movement and I stood upon a 
 new globe ; or, was it one that had been rejuvenated 
 and etherealized ? I could not determine, but the 
 heavens, now visible, contained no sun ; yet a glo- 
 rious, brilliant, but at the same time agreeable light 
 prevailed and the space above was marvelously 
 penetrable to the gaze. I could pierce a distance of 
 millions of miles and perceive the planets of this 
 system and the distant suns, even Sirius, the stars 
 of Orion and of Pleiades, in infinite splendor of pro- 
 portions, and could clearly note their revolution 
 through space. 
 
 Chiefest, though, was the attraction of the globe 
 -on which I stood, for all was there changed, the 
 whole mass being substantial yet vitrified. There 
 were no jagged hills or yawning chasms, no depres- 
 sions from former beds of rivers or seas, but all was 
 harmonious ; great plains of crystal and plats of 
 precious stones of all colors. The absence of water 
 and vegetation did not shock me, for the eye seemed 
 to take in symmetry everywhere and nothing was 
 wanting to complete the sum of fulness of beauty. 
 
 Again from out the stillness a voice was heard, 
 saying, 
 
 " This is the new heavens and the new earth let 
 down from above, and death shall be no more for- 
 ever." 
 
 Then the eyes seemed to open with a new light 
 
 19 
 
290 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 and I saw about me everywhere the figures of crea- 
 tures like unto men and women and children. I 
 knew them to be such, yet they were not creatures 
 of flesh and blood, but spirits that were visible, who 
 did not interfere with the light waves. They had 
 no weight nor corporeal substance, yet their forms 
 and features were discernible ; for I recognized one 
 by one thousands known during the life in the old 
 world. The faces of every one of the throng, which 
 swelled momentarily until they got far beyond any 
 power to number, wore an anxious, expectant look, 
 while no glances of recognition were exchanged and 
 not a word was spoken. 
 
 The silence was profound as the spirits moved 
 slowly about and I preserved the same reticence 
 that was all-pervading, as I moved in among them 
 freely ; for with the new change I had been released 
 from my unseen bonds. 
 
 Then, as by a common impulse, all looked up- 
 ward and we heard soft, enchanting music as of 
 sublime voices, and instruments whose sounds were 
 strange, yet all ravishing. We saw nothing, yet felt 
 the presence of the ineffable Unseen and Unknow- 
 able. I knew there was no mistaking the truth that 
 the great Judge was in our midst and that we must 
 render an account of our deeds done in the body. 
 I was distressed and puzzled, because I could not 
 see the heavenly host and tbe Almighty Greatness ; 
 but presently the cause was made plain, when a 
 great voice called out from the glory of the Pres- 
 ence, 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 291 
 
 "None shall see His face but those who are par- 
 takers with Him in the bliss of the new kingdom." 
 
 Then I wept bitterly, as I felt m^' doom was 
 already pronounced, since all about were those 
 whose faces were truly luminous with radiance of 
 happiness, as they appeared to fasten their eyes 
 upon the great central point whence emanated the 
 profound voice. Their ecstasy was my denuncia- 
 tion and I saw millions like me in the shadow of an 
 irreparable sorrow. 
 
 I heard my name pronounced ; then felt myself 
 seized by invisible hands and led forward a short 
 space. Again the voice that had before spoken 
 cried out aloud, 
 
 "Let the witnesses appear." 
 
 What an array of spirits they were ; how con- 
 vincing their evidence, although not a word was 
 spoken. Strangest' sight of all my own self ap- 
 peared in the witness box, with every creature with 
 whom I had been associated in childhood, youth, 
 and manhood. Every deed of my life, good or 
 evil, was presented as it had been done, without 
 coloring, evasion, or omission. The very words were 
 repeated in burning letters that all could read, and 
 thoughts even, assumed shape and spiritual essence. 
 I became my own judge. There was no need of 
 sentence. Eternal equity made me condemn my- 
 self and I turned agonizingly away, overwhelmed of 
 indescribable suffering with head bowed and eyes 
 downcast. 
 
 " Into outer darkness. Forever and forever." 
 
2g2 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 These words fell upon the spirit as damnation 
 that knew no relief; yet I could not tell whether I 
 spoke them or they proceeded from the august, un- 
 seen Presence. But I was obedient. No thought 
 of plea for mercy entered the oppressed soul. I was 
 my own judge, convinced of the righteousness of 
 the infliction, and thoroughly pursued of the thought 
 that He ordered it well. 
 
 Was I seized of unseen spirits or was it the inef- 
 fable and all-potent Will that directed me out from 
 the innumerable throng which gave no heed to me, 
 for all were intent upon their own fate. While my 
 trial was in progress millions of others were going 
 on, and I saw when passing out great numbers 
 directing their way as I was going. 
 
 Rapidly, frightfully so, I was urged on, through 
 the,~,boundless space realm, out of the bright light 
 into a seeming gloaming, on beyond planets and 
 suns, on and out by all worlds that man's gaze had 
 viewed, out into darkness that was thick and black, 
 out and onward until the great light of worlds failed 
 utteily, out and onward until the burden of the 
 spirit led me into unutterable despair, as I repeated 
 over and over again the utter condemnation, " Into 
 outer darkness ! Forever and forever." 
 
 Then the onward march suddenly ceased and I 
 lost the power of control. I began to fall, fall, fall 
 downward through the space that had no worlds to 
 light it and no signs to mark the distance. Down, 
 down, down, down through infinite millions of miles 
 that seemed to demand years and years as mortals 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 293 
 
 count time, until finall}- it proved a measure of re- 
 lief to see far, far beneath a tiny light, like some 
 star of the sixth magnitude. Yet I knew that spot 
 to be the abode of the eternally damned. Head- 
 long I plunged, swifter and faster, the light growing 
 stronger, my head reeling and burning, the soul on 
 fire with agony — plunged down and down, until the 
 smoke of the eternal torment reached the nostrils 
 and sickened me as unto death ; down and down, 
 until I saw the very jaws of the flaming pit that 
 seethes with burning, the fire of which shall never 
 go out ; down with a last, final, accelerated rush, 
 with the awful "forever" ringing in the ears! the 
 intense heat of the flame consuming every part of 
 the wretched entity ; down with a terrific splash 
 into the lake of tempestuous fire in which I was 
 fairly smothered. Then I awoke panting, with 
 heart beating a tattoo against the sore ribs. 
 
 Recalling the misery, wretchedness, horror, and 
 despair of sleep it seems that the worst suffering 
 endured of all the accentuated agony of the length- 
 ened period of slavery was when in a condition of 
 utter weariness and depression there would be terri- 
 ble blows upon the head ; or intense detonations 
 and mighty roarings, as the rushing of many waters 
 down a swift incline. These inflictions would inva- 
 riably come when in bed and inclined to sleepiness. 
 In fact, as a rule but not always, these pains and pen- 
 alties would occur just at the point of falling asleep, if 
 in bed. To escape them I would occupy a rocking- 
 chair night after night for a week or more, or until 
 
294 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 the period passed ; for it was intermittent and very 
 irregular. It will be understood that these and all 
 other unfavorable symptoms strengthened with the 
 habit. I have had as many as three-score of these 
 attacks in a single night. Sometimes I would feel 
 a terrific blow back of the head, an inch or so above 
 the atlas, followed by a frightful singing in the ears, 
 with detonations at intervals that seemed to shake 
 the room. The loudest thunder was faint beside it. 
 Accompanying these would be very frequently a 
 mighty rush of blood to the head, a sensation as of 
 falling, falling down, down, down through an infin- 
 ity of space, when I would suddenly come out of 
 the attack covered with profuse sweat, the night 
 robe saturated. This would speedily dry up, the 
 skin would become like parchment, and then the 
 frightful experience would be repeated. 
 
 Understand I was not asleep. Never were the 
 senses wider awake. Again and again would the 
 thought overwhelm me, " You are dying. This is 
 the last of earth." Vainly would I essay to call 
 upon my wife and bid her farewell. No sound 
 would escape my lips. I have had a thousand, yea, 
 ten thousand nightmares during the opium habit. I 
 know what these are, alas ! but the experiences as 
 just related did not partake of the nature of these. 
 I do not attempt any explanation of them. That is 
 a matter for the scientist and not the layman. The 
 book is a record of experiences and impressions and 
 is designed to go no further. This I will say, that 
 
VISION OF JUDGMENT. 295 
 
 the fear of these visitations haunted me by day and 
 made hideous all thought of the couch. There was 
 death in it. The sounds and the shock were so 
 many voices from the unseen world, telling as in 
 set words, " Prepare to meet thy God." 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 
 
 To be weak is miserable. 
 Doing or suffering. 
 
 Milton — Paradise Lost. 
 
 Man thinks himself free because he aspires to 
 perfect liberty. Cain revolted against the greater 
 privileges enjoyed by Abel, and in every generation 
 since man has slain his brother, because of sup- 
 posed or real assumption of superiority over him. 
 Helots, plebeians, thralls, ryots, peasants, and serfs, 
 have resisted tyranny and have given up their lives 
 for the inherited impulse toward freedom. Never 
 in any age has there been present as now such an 
 insistence for what is termed personal rights, or 
 such persistent efforts put forth to curtail the 
 greater license of what is termed the privileged 
 classes. This unending struggle, when observed in 
 the brute creation, is denominated "a battle for 
 place," with a tendency towards better development. 
 When man considers it in relation to himself, he 
 calls it a God-inspired love of liberty. 
 
 Esteeming himself free because he is a part of 
 the integral whole, taking part in government, 
 having his home and governing his family, he has 
 infinite scorn for the slave — the craven spirit that 
 
 296 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 297 
 
 will not rebel against the tj^rant and die rather than 
 continue submissive. He does not call it scorn but 
 pity. He vaunts himself that human slavery in the 
 Southern States was abolished by the government 
 under which he lives ; ' forgetting that emancipation 
 was but an accident of the rebellion ; unmindful 
 that former slaves, creatures that were put in chains 
 for no fault of theirs and for no sins of their parents, 
 are still serfs in that they are practically denied the 
 full rights of citizenship, while they are studiously 
 held to the discharge of menial offices. 
 
 Glorying in his infinite freedom lordly man con- 
 stantly enslaves himself to public sentiment, lest he 
 be object of ridicule. His diet, his manner of liv- 
 ing, style of residence, and cut of clothes, are regu- 
 lated by the fashions of his neighbors ; his opinions 
 are withheld, lest they interfere with the profits of 
 business or with standing in professional life. Yet, 
 although a slave to opinion, man does glory in his 
 liberty ; he contemns all wretches not equally fortu- 
 nate with himself in having no temptations to lead 
 him astray and no physical weaknesses to overwhelm 
 him with disease. 
 
 These words are not uttered in unkindness nor 
 in any spirit of cynicism, but as expressive of a 
 social condition that seems inseparable from prog- 
 ress. Nothing is more difficult than for a man to 
 put himself in the place of another or to understand 
 one whose environment is different from his own. 
 He is by no means deficient in charity that suffers 
 long and is kind, charity that believes all things and 
 
298 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 hopes all thing, when he properly appreciates the 
 situation of the afflicted. The difficulty, the ap- 
 parently insurmountable difficulty, is to bring him 
 to a point where he can be properly touched of the 
 spirit of his brother's infirmity. 
 
 Free himself from enslaving appetites he cannot 
 have sympathy for the poor devil who yields his 
 body and soul to them. Engrossed with the cares 
 of business he has no time nor the disposition to 
 investigate into the causes of man's weakness, 
 folly, and sin. 
 
 Knowledge of the facts recited is present in the 
 brain of every opium habitue ; it is for this reason 
 that he seeks by deception and lying to conceal his 
 habit. Aware how uncharitable the world is towards 
 offenders of his class, because his memory tells him 
 of his own uncharity before he fell, he persists in 
 concealment in every condition and stage, even 
 after the evidences are so plain that a child might 
 condemn. 
 
 With infinite pity for the drunkard the declara- 
 tion is here made emphatically that the difference 
 between the habits of drunkenness and opium are 
 profound, and men who persist in condemning the ' 
 slaves of both drugs equally should be informed 
 touching the matter. 
 
 Here and now there is emphatic protest against 
 any personal plea for sympathy or apology for my 
 transgressions. The wine-press was trod alone ; the 
 agony endured has passed. Strong in brain and 
 body, resolute in purpose, the writer asks nothing 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 299 
 
 for himself, because he needs nothing. The good 
 do not taunt a man because of sins for which he has 
 made complete restitution; the judgment of the 
 evil is despised. The plea is for those in the pur- 
 gatory of opium, who are helpless and who merit 
 the ministration of gentle hands and the tender 
 sympathy of loving hearts. 
 
 The opium habitue generally has the habit given 
 him by another, and is in no sense responsible for 
 it ; the drunkard makes his own election ; it is his 
 personal acts that cause his addiction. This is 
 true, however ; very many of the patients are in the 
 condition of Barkis, being perfectly "willin"' to 
 accept the opiate and to fall easy victims to the 
 drug. When it is remembered that fully one-half 
 of the male opium habitues of the country receive 
 their first impressions of the narcotic after drunken 
 debauches, the statement will not be so difficult to be 
 understood. The fact that the patient under such 
 conditions is a receptive quality is so much the more 
 urgent reason why the doctor should take heed to 
 his action. Millions of drunkards recover from de- 
 bauches without aid of opium, or, indeed, of any 
 other drug; with them it is merely a matter of 
 enduring some discomfort for a day or two, at the 
 most ; the taking of opium at such times is but a 
 temporary make-shift. After the effects of the drug 
 wear off, there is considerable mental depression, 
 with possibly bodily disorder. Whatever may be 
 said of the beneficent effects of opium in certain ills 
 that oppress humanity, the best time in the world 
 
300 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 to let it alone is when a drunken wreck clamors 
 for it. 
 
 The opium habitue in all cases retains a measure 
 of self-respect and is desirous of holding the confi- 
 dence of his neighbors and friends. He does not 
 frequent the saloons, gambling houses, or have low 
 associations ; never becomes a criminal, nor consorts 
 with low companions. In all the stages of his 
 addiction he is respectable in appearance and does 
 evil to no one except himself, beyond the suffering 
 that comes to those who love him, because of his 
 nerveless, purposeless life. He does not go upon 
 protracted sprees, with the avowed purpose of having 
 a good time ; the periods of unconsciousness ordin- 
 arily termed debauches, which come to him, are 
 beyond his control and come when he least expects 
 them. 
 
 Those are mistaken who think him fool or mad 
 in the sense that his wits have deserted him. There 
 is no busier brain in all the universe than his. His 
 thought is never still, except in those brief periods 
 of unconsciousness previously described. Whether 
 asleep or awake his brain is a seething fire of activ- 
 ity, the flames roaring and the heat fairly bringing 
 the walls of his skull to a white heat. Fortu- 
 nately for him the faculty of concentration is defi- 
 cient; fortunate, because if his mind did rest for 
 any extended period upon a single one of his many 
 woes, real or imaginary, he would go mad indeed. 
 His thoughts are variable as the wind and as 
 uncertain, but they are and they work continually. 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 301 
 
 He is singularly intelligent where his interests are 
 involved, quick to discern a slight, and ready in 
 forming plans. There is, of course, inertness, 
 because his disease deprives him of muscular 
 strength ; he is incapable of executing plans, 
 because the malady will not permit it any more 
 than typhus will suffer its victim to arise, take up 
 his bed and walk. 
 
 Those who so universally despise the poor 
 opium slave fail to apprehend the fact that opium 
 (the reader will bear in mind that opium smoking 
 is not included in the range of these reflections) is 
 a contemner of the poor and wretched of earth and 
 that he takes his place among the intelligent, the 
 middle and upper classes, men and women whose 
 brains are big enough not only to think for them- 
 selves but also for others. The David of whisky 
 may have slain his tens of thousands and the Saul 
 of opium only his thousands ; but these thousands 
 represent more intelligence, wealth, influence, and 
 character than the hosts of the first named. Opium, 
 like death, loves a shining mark,- but, unlike this 
 monster, is a respecter of persons. The fact of 
 opium slavery is fairly good evidence of intelli- 
 gence ; for it would seem that those who are stolid, 
 those who are commonplace, and those who are 
 stupid have no affinity for the drug. Working peo- 
 ple are happy, as elsewhere stated, in escaping the 
 temptations of physicians, and besides, the expen- 
 siveness of the habit must always prove a deterrent. 
 The cases from this class of social life that have 
 
 ^ 
 
302 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 come under observation have been few, but in every 
 instance they have been men of superior intelli- 
 gence and bright wit. 
 
 People who are thus reared feel keenly the 
 slights, jeers, and stings of adverse criticism ; and 
 though they are careful to conceal, like the thief, 
 they think themselves suspected, if not detected, 
 and hence the averted 63-6, the depressed chin, and 
 the confidenceless air that mark them. They may 
 not extenuate their sin, because they dare not plead 
 guilty to the fault. They cannot take any into 
 their confidence, for with the admission of the sin is 
 the utter withdrawal of confidence. They walk in 
 the shadow of condemnation, with no one to pity 
 and none to save ; yet as the good God above 
 knows, they are made a complete sacrifice for the 
 transgressions of others. Perhaps the load might 
 be lighter if they knew that their own were the 
 hands that lifted it to the shoulders. Because of 
 the foil)', ignorance, carelessness, stupidity, or crimi- 
 nal act of another, let it be called what one pleases, 
 they are sent out with the cross ; the thorns pierce 
 their brows, while they plod the weary way with 
 faltering feet and fainting heart, and long as is the 
 rocky road no compassionate Simon of Cyrene 
 offers to help them. As the ancient Jew stoned the 
 poor brother upon whom the taint of leprosy had 
 come and drove him out among the lions and jackals 
 of the caves, so men of this day drive the opium 
 " fiend " from their presence with the cruel, flinty 
 stones of neglect and contempt. Justice is and 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 303 
 
 abides ; 3'et she is not omniscient and there are 
 wrongs in this world, which, if seen by the angels, 
 must bring them many bitter tears of grief. 
 
 Right is denied those not having a diploma to 
 discuss the pathological conditions of any malady, 
 because medical science assumes that knowledge 
 upon this point is withheld unless it be sought in 
 given established schools. Yet at the risk of giv- 
 ing offense and moved by an irresistible impulse to 
 do all that may be possible for the condition of the 
 wretched opium habitue, the statement is boldl}- 
 made in contravention of accepted teachings that it 
 is as reprehensible to attach censure to the opium 
 " fiend " as it would be to reproach the victim of 
 small-pox. Medical science has not attained infalli- 
 bility by any means. Poor old Galen was chased 
 out of Athens by his brother medicos, because he 
 insisted that a knowledge of anatomy was essential 
 to intelligent practice, and he was persecuted be- 
 cause he sought to dissect a corpse. For hundreds 
 of years medical science drew all its knowledge of 
 the human body from the anatomical structure of the 
 Barbary ape, which banished Galen chanced to 
 encounter. The Sangrados have too often grown 
 popular and rich, while the Jenners are proscribed 
 by their brethren for discovering an immortal truth 
 designed to bless the millions. Pasteur underwent 
 all sorts of proscriptions before the intelligent 
 01 r.oXhn compelled respect for him from the doctors. 
 Within twenty years medical science lauded chloral 
 to the skies as a panacea for most ills of humanity, 
 
304 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 and to-day so worthless is it known to be as a medic- 
 inal agent that its use by any practitioner should be 
 prima facie evidence of his charlatanry. 
 
 These few instances of medical errors (they 
 could easily be extended greatly) are given, not in 
 reprobation of the medical art ; on the contrary it 
 deserves the highest praise for the inestimable bene- 
 fits it has conferred upon humanity, not only in 
 healing diseases, but also, and what is much better, 
 in preventing them. The}' are cited only to show 
 that doctors may be very positive and still be very- 
 wrong. They have insisted for ages that the 
 drink, opium, and other habits are vices, with which 
 they have nothing to do. This ultimatum has been 
 put forth and the profession universally accepted it. 
 
 " As well ask us," said an eminent physician, 
 "to cure the habit of lying or the habit of stealing, 
 as that of drunkenness or that of opium. The 
 moral obliquity of mankind does not come within 
 range of materia medica." 
 
 Entertaining highest regard for members of the 
 medical profession and expressing confidence in 
 their skill, issue must be taken squarely here. If 
 disease be an unhealthy condition of the body due 
 to extraneous influences of whatever kind, then the 
 opium habit is a disease. If a man be in such dis- 
 ordered condition and his disease disappears under 
 intelligent scientific treatment, then is the opium 
 habit a disease. These pages have been written to 
 prove disordered physical and mental disturbances. 
 The fact of their existence can be established out of 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 305 
 
 the mouth of many credible witnesses. Equally 
 susceptible of proof is it, that in the most rational 
 mariner, under the application of medicinal agents, 
 the malady was radically and forever cured. Were 
 my case an isolated one then might it be claimed 
 that the cured man only thought himself cured, or 
 that he was taking the drug surreptitiously. But 
 out of the mouth of many witnesses shall a truth be 
 established. The names and post-office address of 
 more than a thousand men can be furnished who 
 have been thus scientifically treated and effectually 
 cured. More than this : the most skilled physician 
 sometimes fails of curing men of small-pox and ty- 
 phoid fever ; but under this tfeatment no man dies 
 and every man is cured. A man may shut his eyes 
 and refuse to see the trees and flowers and grass 
 and deny that they exist ; but his denial does not 
 disprove their fragrance and beauty. It is unhappy, 
 that physicians should be so slow. in accepting es- 
 tablished facts, in a matter wherein so great respon- 
 sibility attaches to them for the existence of the evil. 
 The sum of the whole matter is found in these 
 words : If the opium habitue has the habit, it has 
 been fastened upon him by another without his 
 knowledge or consent ; or he has become addicted 
 to its use by his own hand as the result of a dis- 
 eased condition of the body. If the habit be a dis- 
 Ccise which he can in no wise control, what shall be 
 said of the justice of the world which elects to re- 
 gard him with more infinite contempt than the igno- 
 rant, emasculated slave of the Eastern harem ? 
 
3o6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 Surely it should be permitted one who has been 
 tempted in all things as these habitues and who has 
 tasted the bitterness of their sorrows, to speak in 
 their defense, since the very nature of their malady 
 sentences them to a profound silence. 
 
 Recognizing and appreciating the noble work 
 done by organized bodies of women and men in 
 educating the people to a proper appreciation of the 
 evils of alcoholic intemperance, I turn to these 
 courageous bands of humanitarians and with most 
 earnest pleading urge that they place opium side by 
 side with alcohol, and combat as zealously and unre- 
 mittingly for the repression of the former as for the 
 latter. The times of ignorance might be winked 
 at, but the eyes of intelligent persons dare not be 
 any longer closed to the truth that the evils wrought 
 by opium are fiasf exceeding in magnitude those 
 effected by alcohol. It is an incontrovertible - fact 
 that the baleful narcotic is being substituted for the 
 inore boisterous, blood-inflaming alcohol drug. The 
 Rev. Dr. Peters, an eminent divine of New York 
 City, is reported by the Associated Press to have 
 uttered from his pulpit recently the following start- 
 ling language : " Every ninth man in the United 
 State is a drunkard and every seventh person is an 
 opium fiend," thus actually declaring that opium 
 habitues exceed drunkards in numbers. Without 
 giving endorsement to this view of the case it is 
 quoted in order to show that the enormity of the evil 
 is impressing itself in some high quarters, at least. 
 
 The eye that is trained to determine the presence 
 
SYMPATHY FOR THE SLAVE. 307 
 
 of opium in the individual must have no tear-ducts, 
 if it can without weeping scan the streets of cities, 
 towns, and villages. It sees not the outcast, the 
 tramp, and the worthless, but the noblest and the 
 best among men and women of the world, who 
 have been brought low through the seductive drug. 
 There is no profession, or business, and no higher 
 social circle that is exempted from its encroach- 
 ments. Opium is scholarly, refined, and aristocratic 
 in its associations ; it has no part or lot with the 
 ignorant and degraded. Its victims are those who 
 build up thought, who advance material wealth, and 
 give polish to society. Hence the destruction it 
 works is' frightful. Because it is insinuating, be- 
 cause it has made no noise in its progress, men have 
 been silent concerning its infernal ravages. Alas ! 
 its very silence is ominous of its strength. The 
 silent forces of nature are those which are most po- 
 tent. If opium habitues were noisy, demonstrative, 
 brutal, wicked, and criminal, they would excite leg- 
 islation and popular hostility to the advances made 
 by the drug. The evils are intensified because of 
 their noiselessness. 
 
 Women are appealed to most, because their sym- 
 pathies are greatest, to consider this grave question. 
 Women are urged to action because their own sex 
 are sufferers from the demon drug. A good woman 
 is rarely overcome of alcohol, but hundreds of 
 thousands of pure, virtuous, and intelligent wives 
 and mothers in the land are under the pitiless 
 thrall of opium. Alas ! they were mothers before 
 
3o8 DOCTOR JUUAS. 
 
 opium had fastened its gyves about them, because 
 it never permits the joys of maternity to hallow the 
 home of a woman in its toils. Women, who in 
 obedience to divine enactments are made to endure 
 most, noble and good women, to them I turn, and, 
 pointing to the numberless army of sufferers of their 
 sex, beg and implore that they come to the rescue. 
 
 All temperance movements are abridged indeed, 
 which exempt opium from the giants they combat; 
 for greater than all the evil spirits of the age is this 
 insidious monster of the poppy flower. There 
 should be general education of the young in the 
 public schools, that they be warned in advance of 
 the direful peril ; the adult should be told that its 
 "lure is woe, its sting is death;" legislative bodies 
 should be urged to provide for the cure of those in 
 the habit, and enact laws for restricting the use of 
 the toxic drug to the intelligent physician. 
 
 Sympathy without works is like faith that bears 
 no fruits. Tears may indicate a tender heart, but 
 helpful action denotes a noble spirit. He who 
 reads the record of this frightful agony of a human 
 soul will have read in vain if he be not moved of a 
 stirring purpose to do what in him lies to remove 
 the hellish curse from the children of men. Earn- 
 est appeal is made to organized bodies which have 
 reform for their object, because organization implies 
 earnestness and combined intelligence. As they 
 have accomplished much good, so they have oppor- 
 tunity for doing a grander and nobler work in the 
 freeing of opium slaves from a galling bondage. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 
 
 My body is from all diseases free, 
 
 My temperate pulse does regularly beat. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Consideration of the effects of the habit would 
 be incomplete if reference were not made with some 
 measure of particularity to the cure. The testi- 
 mony would be utterly unreliable if the drug were 
 not completely eliminated from the body and if the 
 brain were not in a healthy condition. There is no 
 purpose to enter into any explanation of the man- 
 ner of the cure, for that pertains to the physician 
 under whose skilful ministrations it was effected ; 
 besides, I am as ignorant of the remedies employed 
 as a babe unborn. Nor is there desire to inquire 
 touching the matter. Like the man in the Scrip- 
 tures, all I have cared to know and all I now 
 care to know is that whereas " I once was blind, 
 now I see." I do know that the treatment was 
 purely scientific and that the cure was radical. It 
 was scientific, because the methods were rational 
 and because it is efficient in all cases. It is proper 
 to portray personal experiences during the progress 
 of the cure rather than to attempt to give the form- 
 
 309 
 
3IO DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 ulae used in the treatment or the rationale of the 
 regimen pursued. 
 
 Bear in mind that when the treatment began I 
 was in a wretched physical condition. Not ohly 
 was there mental distress so complete as to take on 
 the form of mild yet almost irresponsible mania, 
 but the body also had reached a condition of pos- 
 itive wreckage ; the stomach for days having 
 rejected food, my nerves being utterly shattered, 
 and my physical strength completely exhausted. 
 The long flickering and sputtering candle of hope 
 had gone out in the socket. I took the drug 
 because the power of resistance had been for nine 
 years utterly dead. I took it, not for any antici- 
 pated delectation or pleasure, but to quiet the 
 myriad nerve throbs and heart pangs. For the wild 
 and weird misgivings of the soul there was no 
 nepenthe. The barbed arrow had entered the spirit, 
 the stigmata were ineradically stamped, and the 
 mournful -refrain of the raven of unhappy Poe had 
 long been my. own, "Nevermore." It was the 
 physical man only which could be reached by the 
 drug, and that was but slightly palliative. Again 
 and again I found myself repeating these terrible 
 words of a despairing spirit : 
 
 " And my soul from out the shadow that lies floating on the 
 floor, 
 Shall be lifted nevermore." 
 
 Wasted from bodily starvation, a poor, trembling 
 creature, out of whose life had passed all that was 
 beautiful and good and true ; seeing before me an 
 
THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 311 
 
 Open grave, and beyond, the illimitable years of 
 eternity tainted with the unpardonable sin of the 
 opium habit — there then came to me a good angel 
 in human form, who flashed the divine promise, 
 " At the evening time it shall be light ; " words of 
 heavenly benediction that fell upon the dulled ears 
 like refreshing showers upon the parched and 
 cracked ground. 
 
 Previous to heeding the angel voice from hu- 
 man lips every available means of cure had been 
 tried unavailingly. The materia medica had been 
 searched ; all recommended methods applied with- 
 out desired results. The physicians were consulted 
 and their skill employed, where they held out any 
 promise of relief. They, however, almost without 
 exception, read the sentence of condemnation with 
 pitiless lips and with eyes that plainly told their 
 unutterable disgust. 
 
 This was the verdict of the scientific medical 
 men in the closing decade of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury (let it be read aud duly pondered, as showing 
 how long the Urim and Thummim of the sanctuary 
 are cherished after the grace of the gospel of a new 
 dispensation is offered ; let it be read and remem- 
 bered how ethics and conventionalism may con- 
 strain great and good men to hold to what has been 
 rather than grasp what is, and, therefore, immortal): 
 " The opium habit is a vice which cannot be reached 
 by medical science." 
 
 One of these doctors, a man justly loved for his 
 many virtues and illustrious because of his services 
 
312 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 in the profession he long has honored, said, and he 
 was an exception to the others in that his voice was 
 kind and sympathetic, "The matter does not admit 
 of discussion. He who declares there is a scientific 
 cure for the opium habit is an enipiric. Like 
 inebriety it is a vice, and can be discarded only by 
 the exercise of the power of the will of the 
 habitue." Listening I said nothing but thought, 
 " Exercise of the will. Does not this great doctor 
 know that I have no will power? Can he be 
 unaware that the first act of opium is to strangle all 
 purpose in its slave?" Then he resumed, "Would 
 any one for a single moment think of curing the 
 thieving habit, or the idling habit, or the swearing 
 habit, by means of medicine ? Just as consistently 
 might we attempt to effect cures of the opium habit. 
 The habitue is a sinner, a violator of the moral 
 code. He should make the matter a subject of 
 prayer for deliverance." 
 
 Pray for a cure ! Is there a single storm-tossed 
 mariner on the desolate sea of opium that does not 
 turn his eyes appealingly to the God of the help- 
 less and pray for deliverance? High above the 
 mighty surge of the billows and the deafening roar 
 of the winds his voice climbs heavenward, until 
 exhausted he falls in despair to the deck ; only to 
 get strength that he may cry and cry again. Pray! 
 Had I not wrestled in prayer like Jacob at Bethel, 
 swearing I would not let the angel go until the 
 blessing came ? Had I not prayed, not as Daniel 
 at morning, noon, and night, but in all the hours, 
 
THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 313 
 
 from the time of the matin song of the birds through 
 all the day watches and in the solitude of the night; 
 prayed until it seemed there was no God with 
 ears to hear or eyes to see. I had prayed until the 
 very words I uttered mocked me and the silence 
 that followed railed at my calamity. Yet the emi- 
 nent physician had seriously advised prayer as the 
 last resort for him who had utterly exhausted prayer. 
 His words were as the knell of death to the con- 
 demned criminal, who knows that every hope of 
 pardon has departed forever. 
 
 In the condition so faintly described above 
 treatment was begun for the cure, and looking into 
 the door of the past it seems the very purpose to 
 dare gave a measure of strength. It is positively 
 true that improvement in the physical and mental 
 condition was manifested as early as the second 
 day ; the frightfully abused nerves especially begin- 
 ning even then to yield perceptibly to control of 
 the will. On the morning of the sixth day the 
 mind showed decided increase of vigor, and from 
 that time dates absolute removal of all desire for 
 the accursed drug. Since the morning of that day 
 there never has been the suggestion of a desire for 
 it. Thenceforward the mind began its work of 
 "clearing up" and memory kindly commenced the 
 task of calling up forms out of the forgotten past 
 and trooping them before me. 
 
 Gradually and with the persistent releasing of 
 the brain physical pain increased, especially in the 
 joints of the body, attaining a maximum of intensity 
 
314 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 in the seventeenth or eighteenth nights. Those 
 were the only sleepless nights during the thirty 
 days' treatment. Indeed, from the first night until 
 this hour" I have slept soundly and well, with the 
 exceptions indicated, and during the entire month of 
 treatment I dreamed but twice ; nor has there been 
 a single dream since that period. It demands that 
 one must have passed through nine years of insuf- 
 ferable wakefulness, filled with grewsome phantasms 
 or of restless sleep crowded with frightful visions, 
 to appreciate the blessedness of this condition — the 
 ability to sleep soundly for eight hours and to 
 awaken without the memory of a dream. 
 
 The physical pains continued throughout the 
 thirty days of treatment unbroken. About the six- 
 teenth day I began to sneeze frequently, a sure evi- 
 dence that relaxation of muscles had set in ; the 
 pupils of the eyes dilated somewhat beyond their 
 natural size and I yawned almost constantly ; nor 
 this because I was sleepy. The sneezing continued 
 for nearly four months, but steadily decreased in 
 violence and frequency ; the yawning practically 
 ceased about the twenty-fifth day, and the pupils 
 were restored to their natural size near the end of 
 the month. The hearing of voices and the double 
 vision did not occur once after the first day, and I 
 observed a " straightening," if I may use the word, 
 or an adjusting, rather, of the vision, the long dis- 
 tance and the short distance sight slowly correct- 
 ing, but the latter continued for a period of nearly 
 six months before they came together and I was 
 
THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 315 
 
 able to do away with the irregular lenses I had been 
 using for nearly three years. 
 
 Near the twentieth day the wrists gave great 
 trouble, the pain being acute, and there was a seem- 
 ing as of the hands falling away from the arms ; a 
 fact due to the release of the muscles which had so 
 long been contracted by the opium. The wrists 
 became very weak and did not grow strong until 
 after ninety days or more. The knees also became 
 so weak that walking was difficult ; they would 
 smite against one another. Indeed I had a sensa- 
 tion as if placed in a machine of torture and drawn 
 partially asunder. Pains as of millions of needles / 
 pierced the joints, especially the wrists, linger joints, 
 and knees, and there was experienced the greatest 
 physical weakness, with a peculiar nausea of a 
 somewhat mild nature. I fell away in flesh and 
 food became distasteful. When pronounced cured 
 I returned home with all the symptoms last de- 
 scribed. During the next ninety days I was 
 scarcely fitted for work and attempted but little of 
 any sort. 
 
 This fact must be emphasized, however. I be- 
 gan the treatment doubtful, infidel I may say, as to 
 results. It was undertaken to please the famil}' 
 and because, as any other desperate man, I was 
 willing to take chances. Yet when I arose on the 
 morning of the sixth day, I read the sure promise of 
 a cure in a changed current of thought and feeling, 
 and declared to my wife the blessed knowledge of 
 deliverance. 
 
3i6 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 At that time, the sixth day, with the banishment 
 of the desire the habit was as something greatly 
 removed as to time, and ever since it has been as a 
 far-away dream of childhood. The strength that 
 came with the knowledge of cure, for it was cer- 
 tainty and not mere faith, was supreme ; and physical 
 suffering, which was intense, was endured with a 
 fortitude that surprised my wife greatly. It would 
 have been possible to escape much of this suffering 
 by informing the attendant physician, who again 
 and again declared it to be no part of his purpose 
 to permit me to suffer unduly ; but I felt he must 
 resort to substitute drugs for my relief, and the bit- 
 ter experiences I had had with one drug caused 
 loathing for all drugs ; an aversion that still clings 
 pertinaciously and doubtless will so long as I may 
 live. I cannot conceive any condition of pain or ill- 
 ness that would induce me voluntarily to take medi- 
 cine of any kind whatsoever. The simplest and 
 most innocuous remedies suggest nausea and disgust. 
 
 The consciousness that the lion of opium was 
 dying in me, in fact, was already practically dead, 
 that I never again should feel its fangs and claws 
 tearing the flesh, inspired me with a courage to dare 
 any physical pain that might be inflicted. My very 
 weakness was strength, because I knew that every 
 pain now endured was a dying throe of the monster, 
 and sometimes I could actually forget for a few 
 moments my own suffering in the exciting thought 
 that the wretch which had so long tortured was 
 itself now undergoing the pains of the rack. 
 
THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 317 
 
 During the cure the head was at times confused 
 and memory would stumble in its effort to adjust 
 itself ; but I was conscious from the outset of a for- 
 ward movement in the right direction. I had no 
 desire for companionship ; not that I felt toward men 
 as before the change began, but I was so nervous, 
 weak, and suffering that the exertion of talking or 
 being compelled to listen to others was painful. 
 The experience was not as that of many acquaint- 
 ances, a number of them, probably one-half, passing 
 through this ordeal of cure with little or no suffer- 
 ing, while some did not experience the slightest 
 inconvenience. As far as observations went, those 
 who took opium in any form experienced more pain 
 than those who had either of the morphine addic- 
 tions. Morphine is far more hurtful to the brain 
 and nerves than laudanum or gum or powdered 
 opium, insanity and suicide being much more fre- 
 quent ; but those having the morphine addiction 
 may confidently trust to effecting a cure with less 
 physical suffering. 
 
 Let there be perfect understanding in this matter. 
 I do not for one moment consider that the sufferings 
 endured while getting rid of the devil drug are of 
 " any consequence," as Mr. Toots would say. I did 
 not so regard them at the time. While I could not, 
 as heroic martyrs might have done, glory in my suf- 
 ferings, I certainly regarded them as just and proper, 
 and with the power to largely mitigate them, I chose, 
 rather, to endure. Now, as then, I look upon the 
 days of penance as days of supreme good. The 
 
3i8 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 period is one of hallowed and precious memory, a 
 via dolorosa, it is true, but one that led up to para- 
 dise. The fiat lux had reached the soul and I was 
 as the Arctic explorer, who after the long night of 
 winter, sees the tints of gray and crimson which 
 augur the coming day. He does not as yet behold 
 the sun-kissed icebergs in their iridescent splendors, 
 nor the glories of the landscape made luminous by 
 the glinting spicules of golden light reflected . in 
 wavy images over hummocks and the broad seas of 
 glass ; yet he is lifted up of the promise of the 
 matin coming foreshadowed in the East, and he turns 
 his eyes away from the somber shadows towards the 
 approaching light. I realized that the long and 
 horrible night of opium was fleeing before the dawn- 
 ing of the day of self-conquest and of restored man- 
 hood. The completeness of the truth could not 
 have flashed all at once, or I had gone mad from 
 excess of joy. 
 
 The restoration is complete. I am physically a 
 perfect man. My powers of endurance excite the 
 admiration of friends. The step is elastic, carriage 
 erect, digestion perfect, and every organ of the 
 body performs its functions well and thoroughly. 
 The night of cloud and thick darkness has disap- 
 peared utterly and in the sunlight of redemption I 
 should be supremely happy but for the memories of 
 the time of shadows. Because I would make resti- 
 tution as far as in me lies, I have told the plain 
 story of slavery. Let those condemn who will ; let 
 him criticise who pleases, but it will be less than 
 
THE CHAINS ARE BROKEN. 319 
 
 justice if any motive for the confession is ascribed 
 other than a desire to warn men of the danger 
 that threatens in the drug, and to hold out hope to 
 them that now walk in darkness and in the valley of 
 the shadow of death. 
 
 God pity us every one, but may He in His 
 mercy spare man from the curse of opium and 
 speedily deliver those now in bondage that they 
 may suffer no more forever. 
 
 With the joy which comes of a glorified deliver- 
 ance there is infinite sympathy for the millions who 
 yet bow the knee to the Baal drug. Speaking for 
 myself and for thousands of others who have been 
 corrupted by the opiate god, I give assurance that 
 redemption is possible in every case. There is not 
 one, however low his condition, but that can go 
 to a Jordan of washing and be cleansed of the 
 leprous taint. Were it not true, this book could 
 not have been written. The Abana and Pharpar of 
 prejudice must yield to the promise that is herein 
 contained. As I have suffered, so I appeal to the 
 suffering and urge them to the hope that comes of 
 fulfilment in others. Whatever may have been 
 said to the contrary by those assuming knowledge, 
 whatever may be urged against the fact of a cure 
 for the opium habit, here is offered testimony that 
 is absolutely unassailable. When Naaman had 
 bathed seven times in Jordan and saw the hard, dry 
 scales fall away from his body, he knew that the 
 promise of Elisha was as the voice of God which 
 cannot lie. As the captain of the host of the king 
 
320 DOCTOR JUDAS. 
 
 of Syria, so I and a great multitude of others have 
 washed to our everlasting healing. 
 
 Touched with a compassion that comes of the 
 memory- of the agony of the tristful enslavement, 
 I declare, with all the intensity of my being, that at 
 last, in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, 
 for the first time in the world's history, a cure has 
 been found for the disease of opium, and that it 
 yields as easily to intelligent scientific treatment as 
 does ague and fever, or any other disease; with 
 this added encouragement, that whereas in nearly 
 all other diseases there is an appreciable percentage 
 of fatalities, in the treatment for the opium habit 
 every one is restored, with not a vestige of the 
 curse remaining. 
 
 Urged onward by an irresistible impulse to the 
 writing of this frightful record of suffering there 
 has been ever present an inspiration that came of 
 the incomparable boon of liberty and the blessed 
 privilege of communicating the immortal truth to 
 others. The balm that is in Gilead is complete to 
 the healing of all nations. 
 
 THE END.