Confessions of an American Opium Eater : from Bondage to Freedom

Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924090935077 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2001 GforttcU Uttlnetaitg ffiibrarg Stljaftt, !N*ni lock CHARLES WILUAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA aWD THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 laiB ''^.^^^-^ ) : Confessions American Opium Eater From Bondage to Freedom Timely advised, the coming evil shun Better not do the deed than weep it done. — Trior. BOSTON James H. Earle 178 Washington Street 1895 Copyright, i8gS, By James H. Earle. Ail rights reserved. OOI^TEZSTTS. CHAPTER I. Preliminary i CHAPTER II. Concerning My Early Life lo CHAPTER III. My First Experiment with Opium 24 CHAPTER IV. Am I My Sister's Keeper ?—The Prodigal Daughter ... 33 CHAPTER V. At the Gaming Table — The Death of My Wife .... 41 CHAPTER VI. I Attempt to Break Away from the Opium Habit, Do not Suc- ceed, and Return to Gambling 47 CHAPTER VII. "Who Fell Among Thieves"—A Startling Experience . 51 CHAPTER VIII. I Enter the Maine General Hospital as a Patient ... 56 CHAPTER IX. I Attempt to Fight the Demon Morphia Single-Handed and Am Defeated 63 II OOlTTEilsrT'S. (COHTISUEDA CHAPTER X. A Dishonorable Lawyer — I Advocate My Own Case . 73 CHAPTER XI. How I Was Living . .... 78 CHAPTER XII. I Believe in God and Christ, but Have No Religion . 86 CHAPTER XIIL I Find it Friend and Employment 90 CHAPTER XIV. Gleanings from My Mother's Letters 98 CHAPTER XV. I Attend Revival Meetings, and Meet a Dissembler . 104 CHAPTER XVI. My Blessed Emancipation from Morphia 107 CHAPTER XVIL Another Conflict with My Tempter . 120 CHAPTER XVIII. My Foe Appears in Another Form — Seven Days and Nights Without Sleep 125 CHAPTER XIX. Other Extracts from My Mother's Letters 131 CHAPTER XX. My "Good Samaritan" 134 CHAPTER XXL The Prodigal's Return .... .... 139 CHAPTER XXII. "Multum in Parvo " • 1^8 -A. :e' 1= B IT ID I x:. Letters of Coleridge 162 John Randolph and the Opium Habit 164 A Bitter Experience: Fitz Hugh Ludlow 164 A Typical Case of Attempted Self-Cure 167 William Wilberforce 171 A Half- Century's Use of Opium 172 A Morphine Habit Overcome 173 Liquor and Opium Compared 176 Attempted Cure of the Opium Habit by Reducing the Quantity 177 "Notes on the Opium Habit" 179 "What Shall They Do to Be Saved?" 183 Morphine versus Alcoholic Stimulation 186 Government Responsibility in the Opium Traffic .... 188 Dr. Keeley on the Opium Habit 191 The Cocaine Habit 195 Drugs Used in Attempts to Cure 196 Descriptions of Opium ..... ... 199 The Opium - Smoking Habit ........ 206 The Hydrate of Chloral 237 The Opium Traffic Should be Regulated by Law. 239 iXiXiTTsma-A-Tioisrs. By ARTHUR OBARFIEU,!} liEARNED of Chelsea, Mass. Frontispiece — "The Author." " Answer Me, You Sir, or Leave This House." " The Spirit of the Game and the Place Forsook Me." " I Walked the Floor in the Cold December Atmosphere.' " Like a Creature from the World Celestial," "The Sight I Saw Called Forth an Agonizing Shriek.'' "In Raised Letters of Gold the Word 'Forgiven,'." " Gertrude." Without creeds but not without faith. IPI^.EIF'J^OE. It becomes the author to say that the pages published in this volume have had their birth in poverty, have been reared in adversity, and have been compiled and sent forth in the hope that attention will be drawn to the pernicious Opium habit, and they will illustrate the manner in which the author found deliv- erahce from the Opium bondage. These experiences have no relation whatever to the " mind healers' art," the Christian Science doctrine, or to any sect or creed. The motive for their publication has been actuated by no selfish ambition or pecuniary gain. The author is painfully conscious that they contain glaring imperfections when contrasted with the writings of men of letters, who have portrayed the delights and sufferings by the Opium habit, but who, unfortunately, have been deprived of the privilege of singing the song of redemption in this world. The potency of Coleridge's wail, " When I am dead," is almost suificient to deter him from sending these " Confessions " forth during his sojourn in the land of the living. If the reader dis- covers the author's reasoning conflicting with his own religious training or thoughts, let him bear in mind that in no sense is this work written other than that for which expression has already been made. Since these experiences were purchased by great and un- mitigated suffering, to be an unknown benefactor to humanity would be far more in harmony with his feelings than to be the possessor of all the halo that clusters around the brow of the world's great saviours of "mankind. The illustrations in this work are intended to represent bona- fide experiences, and are not put in for embellishment alone. The Author. Brookline, Mass., March to, tSqj. CONFESSIONS. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. "After my death, I earnestly entreat that a full and unqualified narrative of my wretchedness and of its guilty cause, may be made public, that at least some little good may be effected by the direful example." Coleridge. " It is almost like Dives seeking for a messenger to his brethren; but tell them—tell all young men what it is, that they come not into this torment." Request of a Dying Opium Eater. "The sentiment which attends the sudden revelation that all's lost ! silently is gathered up into the heart; it is too deep for gestures or for words. * * * Upon seeing those awful gates closed and hung with draperies of woe, as for a death already past, I spoke not, nor started, nor groaned. One profound sigh ascended from my heart, and I was silent for days." De Quincy. THE above extracts are incorporated here by the author, not that they are isolated and exaggerated expressions of the despair that wells up from the soul and finds vent in the only method man has of sending forth the warning" cry to his fellow-travelers on life's high- way, but rather that they are weak, and feebly express the agony and remorse of numberless perishing souls who 2 CONFESSIONS OF AN have borne testimony in like manner to those immediately connected or associated with them in their dying moments, but which have never been given to the world ; not from any feeling of pride, however, but from the fact that no scribe stood by to take down and send forth their dying protests to unborn generations " that they come not into this torment." The Opium Eater (the cognomen by which the author will be known in these pages) will not wait, however strong may be his desire, like Coleridge, until death removes him from the living, to bear witness to that which was the cause of untold wretchedness and despair in his own life ; and, more wonderful still, to that which has brought joy unspeakable and hope, freedom, and emancipation from the opium curse. Since the days when De Quincy and Coleridge and countless others indulged in the use of opium, man's inge- nuity has brought forth many inventions ; and an "opium eater," so-called—one addicted to the use of opium in a crude state—is perhaps a rarer thing now than in the days of those individuals, on account of said discoveries. Both of these gentlemen's "opium eating" consisted principally in using vast quantities of laudanum—an alkaloid made from gum opium. It would be a task for which I am unqualified, to detail the numberless poisons that today are in use, the victim of almost any one of which would be classed in the category of an "opium fiend." The fact that almost everywhere throughout our land, institutions for the cure of those addicted to some one of the many drug habits — to say nothing of those reared for alcoholic inebriates—would be AMERICAN OPIUM EATER. 3 in itself an ample apology for this work. These institutions are the outgrowth of a demand on the part of those who are seeking an asylum to be liberated from a bondage they are unable to emancipate themselves from. The utter ignorance of the frightful arena into which the Opium Eater at last found himself, and the vain attempts to retrace his steps to freedom and liberty from his relentless captor, — Opium, — makes it almost imperative that the rising generation be made more familiar with the facts of this awful existence which came to him, blasting all hopes of pleasure and enjoyment in this beautiful world, by doubly destroying the temple which the Infinite Mind has created for our happiness. Freedom after years of incarceration in a prison may be sweet to the prisoner, but time will not efface, nor the joy of liberty compensate, for the guilty act which brought about the cause of his punishment. As this narrative will show, after perfect emancipation from morphia and total abstinence from all other stimulants, and years of perfect health, — God's great gift to man, — far rather would it have been my choice to have known and thus escaped the evil, than to have purchased the knowledge of it at so fearful a price. Hence, then, these " Confes- sions " are for those who will heed and profit by the mis- takes of the Opium Eater and others herein narrated.

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