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OPIUM EATING.

Opium Eating.

AN

Autobiographical Sketch.

BY
AN HABITUATE.

PHILADELPHIA.
CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER,
624, 626 & 628 Market Street.
1876.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

J. FAGAN & SON,
STEREOTYPE FOUNDERS,
PHILADELPHIA.

Selheimer & Moore, Printers.
501 Chestnut Street.

[Pg vii]

PREFACE.

The following narration of the personal experiences of the writer issubmitted to the reader at the request of numerous friends, who are ofopinion that it will be interesting as well as beneficial to the public.

The reader is forewarned that in the perusal of the succeeding pages, hewill not find the incomparable music of De Quincey’s prose, or theeasy-flowing and harmonious graces of his inimitable style, as presentedin the “Confessions of an English Opium Eater;” but a dull and trudgingnarrative of solid facts, disarrayed of all flowers of speech, anddelivered by a mind, the faculties of which are bound up and baked hard bythe searing properties of opium—a mind without elasticity or fertility—amind prostrate. The only excuse for writing the book in this mentalcondition was, and is, that the prospect of ever being able to write undermore favorable circumstances appeared too doubtful to[Pg viii] rely upon; I feltthat I had better now do the best I could, lest my mouth be sealed foreverwith my message undelivered. The result is before the reader in thefollowing chapters; his charitable judgment of which I have entreated inthe body of the work. The introductory part of the book, that relating tomy imprisonment, is inserted for my own justification.

The Author.

[Pg ix]

CONTENTS