In Minnesota’s Notorious Nellie King I detailed Nellie’s several substance abuse habits: whiskey, laudanum, morphine, and cocaine. Just recently, however, a new favorite of hers has surfaced:
from Duluth Evening Herald, Sep 29, 1891
This should come as no surprise, though. Opium use was rampant during the 1880s and 1890s, and opium joints likely existed in every American city and frontier town. I wonder if contemporary readers instantly recognized what “sadly demoralized state” meant, e.g. withdrawn from a drug high.