Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-02
THE MONGOLIAN BROTHER.
His Opium Habits and Other Prae
tices of the Race.

nces OF the Race.
San Francisco Bulletin
The opium which the Chinese preiej
both for smoking ard eating comes il
the form of sticks about an inch and one
halt in length and fourth as much il
diameter Such piece of opium costs
at a Dupont street opium vendors 81 81
ard will last a Chinaman, ordinarily
about three days. The kind in common
use is the "tailings" of the better kind
mixed with the scrapings from the opium
pipes This is sold by the ounce, and is
comparatively expensive. A Chinaman
accustomed to the drug, when deprived
OF 1t by poverty or Imprisonment is the
most piuable wretch imaginable. His
, state is worse than that Of a drunkard in
the delirium tremeus He can neither
sleep nor think, and when waking, trem-
bles as with an ague If deprived of the
poison long enough his complexion turns
to ghaslly white, and his stomach will
not retain food When this state is
reached the only remedy which can save
his life is the drug itself The Warden
at the county Jail has often been com.
PEELED to procure opium for the Chinese
prisoners. In one case, where it was
proposed to discover if abstinence would
not wsrk cure, the mans lips and
tongue dried and cracked, and his voice
became so hoarse as to be inaudible, but
when opium was furnished him he soon
reganed his health.
The fbIauipn Il a.
nese are generally ascribed to the moral
and religious principles of the race and
their low mental calibre-in other words
to pure cussedness which is great
mistake. Investigation will show that
nine tenths of the Chinese criminals 10
this city are inveterate opium consum-
ers, and that it is solely to supply them.
selves with this drug that they plunder.
10 be sure, there are many consumers of
the drug among the race who are not
criminal, but negative proves nothing.
The poorer opium consumer lies in bis
bunk day after day, requiring little or
no tood dreaming gorgeous dreams Of
Oriental lands; seeing and wandering
through mighty cities of diamonds and
gold, with alabaster domes and silver
spires, living his childhood over again
in the fiowery land; using his brain as a
mere machine to play upon itself with
drugs to give him sensuous pleasure;
until at last bis money is exhausted and
be IS forced into the street to pilfer suf-
hclent once more to wrap him in the de-
liriOus delight of dreams. Unlike his
temperate brother, the opium devotee
has no ambition to acquire eompe-
tence with which to return TO ChiAa. He
cherishes no hope the realization of
which is more satisfactory than an
opium eaters dreams.
Even those Of our own proud Caucs-
sian race, however respectable they may
formerly have been, whenever they have
acquired this terrible habit and have i'm
poverished themselves, seem to lose all
moral restrain, and will commit any
crime and run any risk in order to pro-
cure opium. 1t is a notable fact that
among the innumerahle crimes commit
ted by Cinnamon in this city it is seldom
that larceny or burglary is the main OBJ
ject. The explanation is obvious. Weak
and debilitated from their sensual habits
they are incapable of bold, ambitious
crime.
In China habitual criminal is marked
that he, may always be known. Among
the lower and opium-eating classes in
this city are hundreds who are in some
way marked. In some cases the outer
rim of each ear has been removed, in
others particular tendons about the
mouth have been cut, which leaves the
individual with something like grin at
all times upon his face; the lower lip is
in other cases, scared and the nostrils
widened, 1t is not to be wondered at
that these parties thus terribly branded,
have sought a newer and wider field Of
labor.
AS race, the Chinese are the most
inveterate and consistent of fatalists.
Their indifference in the time of grief
and trouble, which we generally ascribe
to apathy, is more commonly the result
of their philosophy. Medicine, as is we'll
known, is with them a science in which
for hundreds of years no progress has
been made, owing, it would seem, in a
great measure, to their fatalism. With
Chinese population in this city of
twelve thousand, there are at the most
not more than ten physicians, and these
derive their incomes in o great measure
from outside sources. Such remedies
as are commonly in use among them
have probably been proved by the expe-
rience Of centuries. A Chinese criminal,
not destitute of money, in many cases
refuses to employ an attorney, in the
firm conviction that whatever he may do
will not alter the result of his trial; and
such as do procure counsel are inclined
to be uncommunicative and Indifferent
in enhghtening him as to the facts in
the case, and await the result with the
utmost seeming indifference. In answer
to the interrogations of counsel, they
are apt to turn away with shrug and
You are lawee man; you know allie
same me.
They believe that if a dwelling or
business house Of Chinaman is at any
time in the day thrown in shadow by
new building higher than the old misfor-