Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/opiumeatingauto00phil 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.