Chapter I: 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
Sleeplessness.--A well-intended Fraud on a Hospital
Nurse.--Return of Sleep.--Improvement in Health.--Stomach
the only Difficulty.--A Year passes.--Stomach
Worse.--Constant Headache.--Much Debilitated.--Awful
Suffering.--Bodily Agony Debilitates the Mind.--Sufferings
Intolerable.--Physicians and Remedies Tried without
Avail.--Forlorn Hope and Last Resort.--Better.--Doubts as
to Treatment.--Suspicions Confirmed.--Uncomplimentary
Remarks concerning an M. D.--Uncomfortable Discoveries and
Reflections 50

CHAPTER VII.

The War Begins.--Struggles to Renounce Opium.--Physical
Phenomena Observed in attempting to Leave Off the
Drug.--Difficulty in Abjuring the Fiend.--I Fail
Absolutely.--Some Difference with De Quincey regarding the
Effects of Opium.--A Preliminary Foresight into the Horrors
of Opium 61

CHAPTER VIII.

De Quincey's Life rather than his Writings the Best
Evidence of the Effect of Opium upon Him.--Disapproval of
his Manner of Treatment of the Subject in His
"Confessions."--From First to Last the Effect of Opium is
to Produce Unhappiness.--The Difference between the Effect
of the Drug taken Hypodermically and Otherwise,
Explained.--The various Effects of Opium, Stimulative and
Narcotic, Described.--The Effect of my First Dose at the
beginning of Habit.--Remarks of De Quincey on his First
Dose.--My own Remarks as to First Dose.--Difference between
Opium and Liquor.--Stimulation is followed by Collapse.--
Melancholy from the Beginning.--Nervousness and Distraction
of the Intellectual Powers.--Sleeplessness.--Different and
Peculiar Influences of the Drug Detailed.--Pressure upon
the Brain from Excessive Use of Opium.--Distress in the
Epigastrium.--The Working of the Brain Impeded 70

CHAPTER IX.

De Quincey _versus_ Coleridge.--Stimulation and Collapse
Considered.--The Use of Opium always to be Condemned.--
Coleridge Defended.--Wretched State of the Opium Eater.--An
Explanatory Remark 77

CHAPTER X.

The Delusions and Miseries of the First Stages of Opium
Eating 82

CHAPTER XI.

Later Stages.--The Opium Appetite.--Circean Power of
Opium.--As a Medicine.--Difference between Condition of
Victim in Primary and Secondary Stages 91

CHAPTER XII.

The Address of the Opium Eater.--How he Occupies his
Time.--The Refuge of Solitude and Silence.--Indifference to
Society or Company.--Disposition, Predilections, and
General Conduct 96

CHAPTER XIII.

On Energy and Ambition as Affected by the Opium Habit 98

CHAPTER XIV.

Opium _versus_ Sleep.--Manner of Taking Opium.--Different
Considerations Relating to the Habit.--A Prophetic Warning 105

CHAPTER XV.

Difficulties of Writing this Book.--An Attempt to Renounce
Opium in the Later Stages of the Habit Described.--
Coleridge and De Quincey.--Animadversions upon De Quincey's
"Confessions" 115

CHAPTER XVI.

Conclusion 129

APPENDIX.

NOTE NO. 1.--Coleridge and the Critics 131

" " 2.--Coleridge and Plagiarism 132

" " 3.--A Mare's Nest 134

" " 4.--Second note on Coleridge and Plagiarism 136

" " 5.--On De Quincey's Style of Writing 138

" " 6.--Third Note on Coleridge and Plagiarism 140

OPIUM EATING.