Amador Ledger-Dispatch, Volume 1900, Number 27, 27 April 1900 — MINERS AND MORPHINE. [ARTICLE]

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MINERS AND MORPHINE.

\ Necessary Custom Which In Sot

Pleasant to Contemplate.

"When I was In the northwest," said :i gentleman with some money invested In mines, "I employed a prospector to go out into the mountains looking for properties which had been recommended to me. One day he was to have jtonu from our camp over Into a very rough and rocky district but when evening came he reported that he baJn't made the trip.

" 'Why not?' I inquired.

" 'Because I didn't have my morphine with me,' be responded in a very matter of fact manner. .

" 'Morphine!' said I In astonishment. 'What has that got to do with it? You are not a morphine fiend, are you?'

" 'Not as much of a one as you are a tenderfoot,' he laughed and proceeded to inform me that every prospector who knew his business always carried with him enough morphine to kill a man easily and that he did so in order to end himself quickly in case of an accident which would disable him far away from assistance. There were many Instances of prospectors falling over cliffs and crippling themselves or breaking a leg In a hole among the rocks or rendering themselves helpless In some other way, and death was sure to follow by starvation or freezing or In some sections by being devoured by wolves or other wild animals. Iv order to prevent such a horrible death as any of these the prospector simplified matters by always carrying a. little packet of morphine, which not only quieted the pain of the hurt he had sustained, but put him to sleep pleasantly to wake no more on earth. - It struck me at first as uncanny, not to say wicked, but I got over that feeling after a narrow escape or two, and I carried my little tin box just like a veteran would." —Washington Star.