The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-23 00:00:00

AN OPIUM DEN IN LONDON.

We find the following hi M. Albert Wolff's ex-
periences of a night in London, which are just now
appearing day by day in the Figaro. The locality,
it should
e
is %Vhitechapel
W
on e of these hovels ; the police
stopped be remarked,
before
officer pushed open the door, which was ajar.
" Who's there ?" demanded some one inside.

"Don't be frightened, Jack ; it's only mo !" replied our
Hercules. Whereupon we enter a small room ; a strange
nauseous odour pervades the apartment, and we quickly
beat a retreat.

" Wait awhile," says the policeman ; " it's only opium."
By the flickering light of the fire burning in the grate I
perceive the individual addressed as Jack. It is a Chinese
who keeps this wretched hole whore one can get intoxi-
cated for a few coppers. The room wo enter is so low
that we are unable to stand upright. Lying pell-mell on
a mattress placed on the ground are Chinamen, Lascars,
and a few English blackguards who have imbibed a taste
for opium. Some stretched at full length abandon them-
selves to the fumes of intoxication in its different stages,
while others are only just commencing to light their pipes
at a kind of night lamp which is placed at the side of
each smoker.

Jack, the master of the house, jabbers a little English.
Ile inquires of us if we wish to smoke, and points to some
pipes, which have been already in a thousand courteous
mouths, and which he will be happy t, offer us, lying on
a table between'a pile of potatoes and a few bits of char-
coal. The police officer explains to this devil's tapster that
we have come simply t, look on.

" Is thero no one upstairs ?" inquires he.
" Yes, there is ono Woman."
" Whereabout is upstairs ?" ask I, looking around.
" Why, there is no staircase."

Jack fetches a little ladder from the yard and places it
against the wall, whore some cats' and rats' skins are
hanging ; ho mounts a few steps, and pointing to a hole in
the ceiling, says, "Here."

" There is not room for all of us up there," remarks the
police officer. "You follow the Chinaman, and I'll wait
for you below."
Oue by one we climb the ladder and mount through the
opening. Seated on a mattress in a room lighted by a dim
lamp is an old woman with dishevelled white hair, thin
face, and dull-looking eyes, blowing a cloud of smoke and
coughing eve►y now and then like a person in the last
stage of consumption. She casts a stuptied gaze upon us,
then throws herself back and continues to puff away at
her pipe of opium.
The room whore she is is a small loft, encumbered with
amultitude of objects, belonging to:the excellent Jack, but
beyond the mattress on which the old sorceress is reclining
there is not a single piece of furniture. The atmosphere is
so tainted with opium that, being on the point of suffoca-
tion, I break the oaly window pane, through whibb, by
the way, a kitten would find some difficulty in passing.
The fresh air inundates the room, rousing up the sorceress,
who gives vent to a volley of complaints in unintelligible
jargon. A shilling flung on the unclean couch mollifies
the old woman, who opens her eyes to their full extent by
a superhuman effort. She seizes the coin with her long,
bony fingers and contemplates it with delight. A now
attack of coughing more formidable than the former seems
to tear her lungs as we retreat through the little hole
and down the ladder steps.

The Emperor Napoleon has given from his privy
purse £4,000 towards the cost of the building of the
church at Ratnbouillet, the foundation-stone of
which was laid on Tuesday week.

[ADVERTlSEMENT.J—llyspepsia(lndigestion), Constipation, De
bility, Consumption, and all nervous, bilious, stomach, and lives
complaints in every stage, are only aggravated and accelerated
by diugs of every description, but perfectly curable by Du
Barry's health-restoring Reveslenta. Arabia). Food, as proved by
thousands of cases which had been considered hopeless, such
as—cough, asthma, also diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, liver com-
plaints, flatulency, nervousness, biliousness, fevers, sore throats
diphtheria, catarrhs, colds, influenza, noises in the head and
ears, rheumatism, gout, impurities, eruptions, hysteria, neuralgia,
iri stability, sleeplessness, acidity, palpitation, heartburn, head-
ache, debility, dropsy, cramps, spasuls, nausea and sickness,
even in pregnancy or at sea, sinking fits, bronchitis, scrofula,
tightness of the chest, pains at the pit of the stomach and
between the shoulders, &c. We quote a few : —The Pope's health
restored lay Du Barry's Food. Cure No. 68,413.—" Rome, July
12, MO. —The health of the Holy Father is excellent, eepeei y
since., abandoning all other remedies, he has czutthea hiuss.At
entirely to Du Barry's Revaleuta Arabica Food, of which he
consumes a plateful at every meal. It bits produced a sur-
prisingly beneficial effect on his health, and his Holiness cannotio
praise this excellent food too highly."—From the " Gazette
bcei
lungs, Midi, July 25 Cure No. 46,270 Mr James Roberts, btu
merchant, of Frimley, Surrey, of thirty years' dirlasLaf.ess.
spitting of blood, liver derangement, and
Nr,-) 40,8 V. "Fifty
Waterford, of many years' dyspePsia---
Cure No. 1,771. Lord Stuart de Decies, pLorrta Lieut. of
al nervousness.
years' indescribable agony from
asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency,
sPSlsvare of the many
vomiting.—MariaJoly." Important C a 01.2.
81imitations to which, withoW
dYBPeP.-- as;t, sicknes sand
unsavoury and more than sloppy
audaciously attached.—
authority, Baron Liebig'
In tins at Is. lfcl.;
R9Y. Do BARRY and Co., No. 77,
is
12 lbs., 225.; 24 lbs., 405.-
131bn:1r most 2
lbs., 4s. 61, ; 5 lbs. Ils. ;
t• 4 Cheapside; 63, 150, and 298,
and at 61, Gracechureh-street; „
Regent-street, London; alsol3i''Oßriasum and Mason, 182, Piccadilly :
Oxferd-street 330,trAnd; and a nix (nen 111 A atemiffle.

Mr. Gladstone sends to the Guardian a copy of theletter
which he addressed to Dr. Hannah, the Warden of
Trinity College, Perth, in 1865. It was to this letter that Mr.
Hardy referred in the recent debate, Mr. Gladstone said that
be could not " as a Minister and as member for Oxford allow
the subject to be debated an indefinite number of times, and
remain silent." He thought, however, that " the question
is remote, and apparently out of all bearing on the prac-
tical politics of the day. . . One thing, however, I
may add, because I think it a clear lamb:lark. In any
measure dealing with the Irish Church I think (though
I scarcely ever expect to be called on to share in
such a measure) the Act of Union must be recognised, and
must have important consequences, especially with refe-
rence to the position of the hierarchy. lam much obliged
to you for writing; and I hope you will see and approve
my reasons for not wishing to carry my own mini further
into a question lying at a distance I cannot measure."
The italics are Mr. Gladstone's own.

THE LATE EDNION of " THE SUN " at
JAMES SPEEDY'S, "The Wehington,"Wellington-street,
Strand.

HE LATE EDITION of "TILE SUN " at
J. SMITH'S, 89, Bow-street, Covent-garden.

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