Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-01
From the China correspondent Of lhe London Times.
Pictures OF China.

never was found, in any age or IN any chime,
a tribe. race. or nation, which had not some
sfimuant in which they habitually indulged-
Mrs. Chinaman takes her mundungus (: her
husband varies the same pleasure with an oc- /
scasional Whit of the stronger narcotic. Iwish
he would drink becr.-or whisky. or gin. or
British brandy, for they are all recognized
means of intoxication, and British manufac-
lures. But he steadfastly refuses-Que uo,aez
pous? Nea fait CONNIE celia A Chinaman loves
opium as he loves nothing else. The head of
Parse honse at Hong Kong was so civil as
to take me into his warehouse. and TO open
two chests of opium. that might see the drug
as 1t passes In commerce. The first consisted
of balls, the size of large apple dumping,
and when cut open the mass was found to be
solid; the other was full of objects which
commander in the navy notlong since ordered
his men to return to the owners of captured
junk. " Arn't yoH ashamed. my lads. to loot
lot of miserable Dutch cheeses?' The
- Dutch chooses" were fine Patna opium,
worth about five pounds each. They are
globes of thick. dark jelly inclosed in crust,
not unlike the rind of a cheese. My Parsee
acquaintance tapped one with a fragment of
an iron fastening of chest, and drew forth
about spoonful of the evil-smelIing drug. 1t
was not the opium which engaged my atten-
ton; it was the effect produced by il
upon thesurrounding coolies. | never be-
lOIc sd" Ttstl eAciLeffieHI IN Il CUlndDlan = lace
I've seenthem tried for their lives and
condemned to DEATH and I've seen them test
the long-suffering patience of Mr.. Tudor
Davies i'll the Hong Kong police court.
where that gentleman is duly engaged in
laborions endeavors 10 extract truth out
of conflicting lies. I've seen them laugh
heartily at an obscene gesture. at a singsong,
and L once saw witness grin with great de-
light as he Unexpectedly recognized his most
int 10 fr1nn and zf taI
wealth, among crowd of prisoners in the
dock. But these coolies. when they saw that
opium opened their horizontal, slit-shaped
eyes, till they grew round and staring; their
limbs, so lax and limpid when not in actual
r.rain of labor, were stiff from excitement:
very head was pressed forward, every hand
seemed ready TO clutch. There was a posi-
bility that it would be put down upon the
window sill near which we were standing |
could see the shadow of fingers ready to slide
in. 1t was almost certain that ii would be
thrown aside: there was the grand hope of an
opium debauch gratis: and this was the state
of mind that hope created. The Chinese
Governments have long ceased to strive
against this passion for opium. | doubt
whether they ever really did strive against it.
AT one time, when the balance of the trade
was against China, the opium was drawing
the Sycee silver ont Of the country and Lin
-
of State policy. to stop the traffic. A Chinese
official is the Joseph Surface of diplomacy:
be his deeds good or evil, they are certain to
be concealed under mass of fine sentiments
An OPIUM DEN AT NNGPo.-At Ningpo
accepted an invitation from the Rev Mr. Rus
sill. the Church of England missionary priest
AID the Rev. Mr.. Edkius, of the London Mis-
sion at Shanghai, 10 visit the opium dens of
Ningpo city. Commander Dew of the MINI
accOmnaQIpl / hal fha
eaters of ConstantinOple and Smyrna. and the
haShish-smokers of Co1stantinople, and was
prepared for cmaciatud forms and trembling
limbs. recolected buying tabooshe in the
blzaars of Smyrna from young Moslem
whose palsied hand and dotard head could not
count the coins | Offered him. | recollect the
hashish smokers of Constantine who were to
be seen and heard every afternoon at the bot
tom of that abyss which yawns under the
''Adultress's Rock lean, fieshless Arabs,
smoking their little pipes of hempseed chant
ing and swaying their skeleton forms to and
fro, shreling to the wild echoes of the chasm,
then sinking exhausted under the huge cactus
sights and sounds of saturnalia in purga-
tory. The Chinese exhibition was sufficiently
disgusting, but was otherwise quite q failure
These opium dens are ordinary Chinese cot
tages. with room about twelve feet square,
furnished with a bed, table and a sofa In
the first we entered three men sat upon the
sofa. There was the Opium pipe, the lamp,
and the small porcelain cup of treacle-looking
opium. One of the customers takes the pipe
and the lamp, then dips pin into the opium,
turns it round and around till he has the
proper quantity of the jellifed drug, inserts
the pin in the pipe, applies the pipe to the
flames of the lamp, and at the same time
draws up the vapor by two or three long in
haations, not whifis, tor he draws it into his
snngs then he passes on the pipe, the opium
being consumed, and gradually lets the yapor
slowly return through his mouth and his
nose.
The members of this convvial society were
good hnmorcd and communicative. One was
n chair cody, n second was IL petty trades
man. third was "A runner in mandarin's
yamun; they were all of that class of urban
population which is Just above the lowest
They were. however, neither emaciated nor
intirm. The chair cody WAS sturdy fellow
well capable of taking his share in the porter
| age of siXteen-stone mandarin, the runner
seemed well able tn run. and the tradcsman
who said he was thirty-eight years old-say
thirty-scven. for the Chinese commence tC
! count their age nine months earlier than VT
| do-was remembered by all of us TO be a sin
! gularly young-looking man for that age. liz
/ had smoked opium for seven years. AS W,
! passed from the opium dens we went into
| Chinese tea garden-a dirty. paved court
| with some small trees and flowers in flower
| pots, and "A very emaciated and yawing pro
| prctor presented himself "The man hl
! destroyed himself by opium smoking" sait
| Mr.. Russell. The man being ques toned. d.
| clared that he had never smoked an opium
pipe in his life; bad shot, at which no on
was more amused than the reverend gentle
man who fired it, | only take the experiment
for what il is worth There must be verl
! many most lamentahlc specimens of the effect
Of indulgence in this vicious practice, al
though we did not happen to see any of then
that morning. They are not. however, SO uni
| versal. nor even so common, as travellers VIII
write in support of some thesis, or who ar
not above trucking to popular prejudiccs il
England, are pleased 10 say they are. But,
| our visit was failure in one respect. ii wa
| fully Instructive ia another. In the fir
house we visited no man spent on an average
less than eighty cash day on his opium pipe
One man said he spent one hundred AM
twenty. The chair cody spends eighty, an,
his average earnings are one hundred cash
day. English physicians, unconnecte,l wit
| the missionary societies. have assured ms
that the cody opium smoker dies, not iron
opium. but from starvation. II he starve
himself for his pipe, we need not ask wha
happens to his family.