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Alice O’Riley arrived at Arthur Gardner’s roadhouse on the morning of Dec. 26, 1892. The 40-year-old woman had previously worked at the Pontiac Avenue establishment, cooking the meals that were served to guests before taking the same position at another roadhouse in Providence. Known as one of the best cooks in Rhode Island, Alice seemed to insert herself into questionable establishments when it came to employment. Fearing that her new employer was about to get raided by police, she wanted to stay at Gardner’s place until the chaos subsided.

Alice was given a room although it was evident to everyone there, staff and boarders alike, that she was acting very abnormally. She moved in a slow dreamlike state which no one could attach a reason to until one of the female boarders noticed Alice pull a bottle from her pocket and sip from it. The woman grabbed the bottle. The clear, glass container had come from a pharmacy in Providence and contained laudanum. It was almost empty.

A sedative and pain-killer, laudanum was a tincture of opium, a popular household cure-all at the time and highly addictive. A one-ounce bottle could be had for 10 cents and a four-ounce bottle for 28 cents at any pharmacy. Each fluid ounce contained about 45 grains of opium and was at least 40 percent alcohol. Consumers were directed to administer one drop to children two-months and older. Adults were instructed to take 25 to 30 drops.

Made from the extracts of ripe seeds of the poppy plant dissolved in alcohol, laudanum was a reddish brown color and had a very bitter taste. Quickly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, the drug reached its peak one hour after ingesting. It was used by those seeking to quell diarrhea, cough, depression, body aches and cranky babies.

Although a sedative, laudanum produced a temporary euphoria before calming the user. Too large of a dose or frequent doses could result in abnormal liver function, pulmonary or cardiac failure. Because only 2 ½ tea spoonsful was enough to kill a person, it was a very popular means of suicide.            

Those addicted to products containing opium were usually introduced to the drug as a medicine. Deadening pain and arousing excitement, the addiction presented an overwhelming restlessness when the drug began to wear off, alleviated only by ingesting more of the drug. Most addicts finally resorted to simply drinking laudanum throughout the day.

Alice O’Riley was an addict. Those who knew her claimed that she was very cranky while under the influence. By the time her bottle was taken away from her and disposed of that winter day of 1892, she had already consumed most of the contents and, by evening, she was nearly in a trance. The clerk employed by Gardner there at the roadhouse carried her upstairs to her room. Her shallow breathing and pupils the size of a pinpoint were signs of overconsumption and the female boarders and staff of the roadhouse cared for Alice the best they could before leaving her to sleep of the effects.

About 12 hours later, the clerk went upstairs to Alice’s room to check on her and discovered her lying on the floor. She was dead. After an investigation by the medical examiner, her death was ruled a suicide although no one could give any reason why the woman would do such a thing. The overdose might have been accidental. Alice’s body was taken to John Walsh, a Providence undertaker, while efforts were made to contact her family. The daughter of James and Mary O’Riley, she was a native of Mass.

Alice O’Riley was laid to rest at St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket, one of the many who have been fatally seduced by the effects of opiates.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.