Vintage News Articles & Finds

“Vendeur de journaux” by Het Leven.Paris, France 1929

I do a lot a digging around and reading so I come across interesting finds from time to time. These can be Newspaper clippings or articles, book sections, Magazine articles, paintings, pictures and all kinds of odds and ends. Hard to find a proper thread so thought I would give them a home.

I'll stick to mostly cannabis related stuff but will most likely veer off course now and then.

Fell free to post up your finds, tell your stories or just relax and read away.

First up a 1903 book with a reference a cannabis tincture curing cataracts in dogs.
"Dogs: How to care for them in health and treat them when ill"
by E. P. Anshutz, 1903

Continued... Picture from same book. 1903

"The Chatham Record"
April 10 1884
titled "Indian Hasheesh"


"I was, in my estimation, the Happiest man in the universe"

1903 USDA Yearbook
Gridley, CA

Magazine article from Berkley
"The Barb" 1978

Robert Alexander, August 20, 1929

Why post this guys picture you ask? In 1929 this guy had an amazing job even by today's standards. His Job title? "Charas-Officer", Quality control if you will, for the charas ( hashish) imported to India from Badakhshan and Kashmir. Growing up I always thought the people tasting ice cream had the best jobs

Gaetano Previati: Las Fumadoras De Hachis. (Women Smoking Hashish, 1887)

"The Barb" Berkley newspaper
April 1974

A story about tripping on mescaline buttons in the late 1800's, yup.

Manti Messenger, Utah newspaper
01-24-1896 titled "Joy for the Topers"

Like to pull this one out when the "founded on" talk comes out

1914 $10 dollar bill / back
Harvesting Hemp

Cannabis the cure for corn's in 1881...

Deseret News, newspaper
12-07-1881

A great 60's-70's counterculture publication to look through, the "Ann Arbor Sun" had some great art and articles. This article has some good early info on hash oil. Never heard of "The Cosmic Traveler" but in 1970 they were pushing the limits, respect.

Ann Arbor Sun, February 18, 1972

Ann Arbor Sun, April, 1967

Johnny Reeferseed

An account of effects of Hashish from a 1849 newspaper. Love how they were still using the term "Assassins" referring to early slang of "Hashish smokers" dating back to the 11th century.

Beautifully written "He heard the noise of colors. Green, red, blue and yellow reaching him in waves."

Lewistown gazette
June 02, 1849
titled "The hashish: singular effects of an oriental drug"

A Beautifully written article from 1892 about tripping on Mescal in the southwest. 124 years later just as true and poetic...

"In a world of cares and unsatisfied longings it is natural that the soul should sometimes court oblivion and turn wearily from the realities of life to seek short surcease of sorrow in the illusive glories and dreamy imaginings of intoxication. In every part of the world man finds some means to satisfy this universal craving"

The Arizona republican, newspaper
03-05-1892

“Nothing is true, everything is permitted”
William S. Burroughs interpretation from Hassan I Sabbah, circa 11th century


X #6 - Dark Horse 1994 (comic)

Origin of Assassin's

I always loved the term Assassin for toker's even though rooted in falsehoods and negative connotations. Here is a brief history.

from erowid
"In the early 11th century, al-Hassan became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians, a rather obscure party of fanatics which gained local power under his guidance. In 1090, al-Hassan and his followers seized the castle of Alamut, in the province of Rudbar, which lies in the mountainous region south of the Caspian Sea. It was from this mountain home that he obtained evil celebrity among the Crusaders as "the old man of the mountains", and spread terror through the Mohammedan world."

Our story of "the old man of the mountains" comes from a 12 century account by Marco Polo. Written below

The Travels of Marco Polo/Book 1/Chapter 23, circa 1300
"Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the Mountain dwelt in former days; and the name means "Place of the Aram." I will tell you his whole history as related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from several natives of that region.

The Old Man was called in their language ALOADIN. He had caused a certain valley between two mountains to be enclosed, and had turned it into a garden, the largest and most beautiful that ever was seen, filled with every variety of fruit. In it were erected pavilions and palaces the most elegant that can be imagined, all covered with gilding and exquisite painting. And there were runnels too, flowing freely with wine and milk and honey and water; and numbers of ladies and of the most beautiful damsels in the world, who could play on all manner of instruments, and sung most sweetly, and danced in a manner that it was charming to behold. For the Old Man desired to make his people believe that this was actually Paradise. So he had fashioned it after the description that Mahommet gave of his Paradise, to wit, that it should be a beautiful garden running with conduits of wine and milk and honey and water, and full of lovely women for the delectation of all its inmates. And sure enough the Saracens of those parts believed that it was Paradise!

Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those whom he intended to be his ASHISHIN. There was a Fortress at the entrance to the Garden, strong enough to resist all the world, and there was no other way to get in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, from 12 to 20 years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering, and to these he used to tell tales about Paradise, just as Mahommet had been wont to do, and they believed in him just as the Saracens believe in Mahommet. Then he would introduce them into his garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion which cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to be lifted and carried in. So when they awoke, they found themselves in the Garden."


Giulio Rosati (1858–1917) - The harem dance

How does Hashish get wrapped up in this tale and intertwined in history?


THE KILLERS #2 :"Assassins! Mad Slayers of the East!" 1948 comic

So in Marco Polo's tale the "ASHISHIN" turned to "haschishin" which turned to "assassin" with the weight of time. The haschishin translation between the persian "Hassassin" and the Arabic "haschishin" is where the hash gets thrown into the story replacing the most likely opium. the arabic word haschishin means Hashish user, a mistranslation in history.


Assassin of Youth (1937) film poster

The term Assassin's has been used widely for hundreds of years as a term for Hashish smokers. Early in American newspapers the story was retold in a article titled "origin of assassin's". I've found it dated as early as 1910 from Ouray, Co but best I can find myself is around 1916 arizona paper.


1910 from Ouray, Co newspaper

Repeated throughout history a retold story sticks as truth,...
“Nothing is true, everything is permitted”

Ottoman Woman -hookah- (nargilé). c 1870. Photogrphed by J. Pascal Sebah

From "The Log of the Columbia Naval Unit", 1918

Each hash mark is an honor! Thats like the floor in my house!

"There are two modes of existence - two modes of life - given to man," Moreau mused. "The first one results from our communication with the external world, with the universe. The second one is but the reflection of the self and is fed from its own distinct internal sources. The dream is an in-between land where the external life ends and the internal life begins." With the aid of hashish, he felt that anyone could enter this in-between land at will.

-Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau



Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau


Club des Hashischins

You can rattle off hundreds of names in cannabis celebrity but I'm guessing Dr. Moreau would be absent. Sure there were pioneers that came before and many many trying to claim a spot in history since, but Dr. Moreau was a first.

Dr. Moreau made hashish fucking cool...



Hôtel de Lauzun, formerly Hôtel Pimodan, meeting place of the Club des Hashischins 1844-1849


The clubs origins lies with Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau a psychiatrist who had conducted a couple experiments with hashish in the late 1830's after returning to Paris from the middle east. In early 1840's his hashish supply was running short, so instead of conducting experiments on patients he choose to use people that could explain the effects in more detail, poets, writers, musicians, painters, Doctor's and of course himself.

Club Des Hashischins or the "Club of the Hashish-Eaters" was born...

The elite hip crowd meet at what was then known as Hôtel Pimodan, today known as Hôtel de Lauzun. Dr. Moreau with his hashish supply, administered these parties through a drink called "dawamesk" (a mixture of hashish, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pistachio, sugar, orange juice, butter and cantharides).



Club des Hashischins, inside Hôtel de Lauzun, grand meeting room


Members such as Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Delacroix, Aurthur Rimbaud, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas would meet monthly to ingest the Hashish.

The Hashischins under the spell of the hashish, were then encouraged to practice the arts, writing, drawing, theorizing or just to explore the mind. All the while Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau would be observing the behavior as part of his hashish experiments.



The Absinthe Drinker by Viktor Oliva 1901


A mad hater version of the dead poets society, the parties were epic. As word of the parties spread, elite minds the world over would clamor for a spot to become a Hashischin.

Amazing times with some amazing people that would go on to shape culture for decades to come. Their legacy still resonates throughout poetry, books, plays, art, medicine and science.



Table Corner by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1872 with some Hashischin members


Next time your smoking that bowl, blow one out in honor of the hashish pioneers, blow one out for the Club Des Hashischins...

"Behold the time of the Assassins"