An altercation occurred in the Square this morning between the pale fellow Balthazar and Landry and the far-less pale Kei Zungji. No punches were thrown, no guns drawn, but the Doctor was heard to have said to the Square in general that Mister Landry is a laudanum addict. Two ladies who saw the heated discussion in the Square chatted it at length with a group of friends at a local sewing circle:
"Well you know, I have heard that some people who've taken laudanum for pain find themselves drawn to it, and it makes them behave very peculiarly. Laudanum addicts are not to be trusted -- they laze about all day and don't work, save to steal money from honest people to fuel their craze. Why, I had a second-cousin-twice-removed who died from the stuff. Died penniless, and a petty thief."
"That's not always, you know. In fact, almost never. Some people take it just fine, for a little back pain, or headache. Mister Landry doesn't strike me as the sort to abuse it. He has a little leg pain, you know, that's why he has his cane. I think that Oriental doctor just wants someone to hassle -- Chinamen are very disagreeable. Maybe he's worried that the general store's going to get in on his business -- /he/ doesn't prescribe laudanum. Just some crazy sort of Chinese concoctions. That and I hear he uses needles! Now who ever heard of that!"
"I don't know about that, honestly. I've seen what the Doctor can do myself, and I've tried his cures. They do work...and I've not seen any of his patients get shakes afterwards. The Chinese may have strange medicine that looks much like hocus-pocus...but what I've seen really works. Representative Garrett was never given laudanum when he got shot, and look, the Doctor made him right as rain. I hear he wasn't in much pain either, while he healed."
"Really. Well...you can't go around accusing people of that sort of vice. It's an unmentionable."
"Speaking of that...you know that woman who works for Christopher Quintan? Now /she/ just might be the addict! She said right in front of everyone she takes the stuff, smiling all pleasantly and thinking she was recreating with medicine!"
"/You/ are just taking the side of that Doctor you're so fond of." A pause. "But...that Landry fellow /did/ say something about getting laudanum from some fairly shady...folks...maybe he was dealing in it? That's what the Englishman new in town said in the Square. Why would he do that if he just needed it for pain...hunh. Well, it's none of our business anyway."
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