The Opium Habit

To the opium-consumer, when deprived of this stimulant, there is nothing that life can bestow, not a blessing that man can receive, which would not come to him unheeded, undesired, and be a curse to him. There is but one all-absorbing want, one engrossing desire–his whole being has but one tongue–that tongue syllables but one word– morphia. And oh! the vain, vain attempt to break this bondage, the labor worse than useless–a minnow struggling to break the toils that bind a Triton!