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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.




PREFACE.


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

The reader is forewarned that in the perusal of the succeeding pages, he
will not find the incomparable music of De Quincey's prose, or the
easy-flowing and harmonious graces of his inimitable style, as presented
in the "Confessions of an English Opium Eater;" but a dull and trudging
narrative of solid facts, disarrayed of all flowers of speech, and
delivered by a mind, the faculties of which are bound up and baked hard by
the searing properties of opium--a mind without elasticity or fertility--a
mind prostrate. The only excuse for writing the book in this mental
condition was, and is, that the prospect of ever being able to write under
more favorable circumstances appeared too doubtful to rely upon; I felt
that I had better now do the best I could, lest my mouth be sealed forever
with my message undelivered. The result is before the reader in the
following chapters; his charitable judgment of which I have entreated in
the body of the work. The introductory part of the book, that relating to
my imprisonment, is inserted for my own justification.

THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS


                                                                      PAGE

  CHAPTER I.

    I Enter the Army.--Taken Prisoner.--Sufferings on the Road
    to and at Richmond.--Leave Richmond for Danville.--Our
    Sojourn at the Latter Place.--The Small-pox.--Removal to
    Andersonville                                                       13

  CHAPTER II.

    Entrance into Andersonville Prison.--Horrible Sights.--The
    Belle Islanders.--The Kind of Treatment for first few
    Months.--Condition of Things generally during that
    Time.--New Prisoners.--Inauguration of Cruel Treatment.--
    Going out for Fuel and Shelter Prohibited.--Rations
    Diminished.--The Philosophy of Southern Prison
    Discipline.--Severities of Climate and Dreadful Suffering           19

  CHAPTER III.

    The Chickamauga Men.--Personal Experiences and
    Sufferings.--Merchandising at Andersonville.--The Plymouth
    Men.--A God-send to the Old Residents.--"Popular Prices"            28

  CHAPTER IV.

    Ravages of the Scurvy among the Chickamauga Prisoners.--Too
    long without Fruit and Vegetables.--The Horrors of the
    Scurvy.--Certain Death.--Frightful Mortality.--Fortunate
    Removal from Andersonville.--Arrival at Charleston, S.
    C.--Transferred to Florence, S. C.--Description of the
    latter Prison.--Shortest Rations ever Issued.--Certain
    Starvation on the Rations.--Efforts for more Food.--
    Providential Success.--Three Days without Rations.--
    Prison-Keepers Cruel and Inhuman.--Terrible Sufferings
    during the Winter.--Unparalleled Mortality.--Raw Rations
    and Insufficient Fuel.--Life under Ground.--Swamp
    Fever.--Taken with the Fever.--Flight from Florence.--
    Wilmington.--Goldsboro'.--Hard Times of a Sick Man.--
    Prison Exchange Foolery.--Back to Wilmington                        34

  CHAPTER V.

    Return to Goldsboro'.--Drunk with Fever.--Too Sick to
    Walk.--Left Behind.--God Bless the Ladies of
    Goldsboro'.--Personal Experiences.--Negotiations for a
    Friend.--An Improvised Hospital.--Sick unto
    Death.--Semi-Consciousness.--More Kindness from the Ladies
    of Goldsboro'.--Paroled.--Passed into our Lines near
    Wilmington.--At Wilmington in the Hands of the Blue
    Coats.--Friend Lost.--Still very Sick with Fever.--
    Determined to go North.--Efforts to get North.--On board
    Ship.--Ho, for Annapolis.--Incidents of the Voyage.--
    Annapolis.--Getting Better.--Stomach Trouble.--Sent to
    Baltimore.--Furloughed Home                                         44

  CHAPTER VI.

    At Home.--Nothing but a Skeleton.--A good Imitation of
    Lazarus.--A digression upon the Subject of
   