The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-04-08

comfortable. My companion worked
away like skilled tinker, twirling the
slender needle and deity cooking and
molding the plastic pills. His face and
hands glowed in the clear yellow lamp
light, the rest of his person merging UNI
definably into the shadows. He chatted
as he worked, and when the pipe was
ready he swung the mouth-piece around
to me, and prepared to bring the pill
against the flame. had my doubts
about drawing a quantity of opium smoke
into my lungs, and shrewdly determ-
ined to do the work as l would with a
pipe of tobacco. He asked me if was
ready and replied that was. He tilt
ed the opium pill against the flame, and
1 performed rapidly with my lips the OPP
Grafton that have always found to sue
coed so admirably in smoking tobacco
pipe. / think it was about the most flu
tile effort that ever made. 1t seemed
as if l were sucking at all outdoors, and
in a moment the pill took to flaming
and suffering in most alarming way,
and my companion adjured me to hold
on" He proceeded to inform me that
it was impossible to circumvent an opium
pipe in that infantile manner, and, over
come with chagrin at my failure, per-
mitted myself to be betrayed from the
shrewd standpoint which / had taken,
and promised him that would positive
ly fetch the thing at the next trial" /
did succeed with it in three trials. Ifelt
a smooth and oily warmth sliding, as it
seemed to me, into the very recesses of
my being, and when the pill had quite
disappeared lay and enjoyed the pride
consequent upon having mastered the
technique of a vice that is so odd.
We lay for two hours. Ismoked four
pills, and my companion smoked fifty
cents worth. / do not know that the
opium produced in me any other effect
than a somewhat surprising but GER
tainly very willing acquiesence in my
surroundings. felt well pleased. Tray
after tray was borne in by Wing, until
nearly everybody was smoking. The
smoke lay in thick strata. Its odor,
though heavy, was sweet and pleasing.
Under it, as under the moonlight, OBJ
jects seemed shorn of their ungainly fea-
lures, and appeared soft and charming.
We went to another branch in Mott
Street. The rain was still falling, and
darkness had set in. Opium seems al
ways to be smoked in cellars, and it was
into cellar that we went. The smoke
was so thick that for several minutes l
could not see my hands as held them
at my waist. At length l became aware
of a room about twenty feet square. My
head, as stood, came within an inch of
the ceiling. A platform, raised a foot
and half from the floor, extended about
three sides of the apartment. In cor
ner behind stove, pot of tea and a
small counter, lay Poppy. the proprietor.
A dozen of the little peanut oil lamps
glowed round about like fire flies in a
fog. The place was packed with smokers,
and they were all Americans. doubt
if, engaged at any other occupation, so
many could be contained comfortably in
SO small an area. They lay as / have
already described, with their heads
against the walls and supported upon
crickets, and now, moreover, each group
contained third person, who reposed
transversely with the other two, making
pillow of one of them. Five women
were among the smokers. Two of these
were the same as have mentioned as
passing me in the afternoon. My COM
panion got place, after a while, at a
tray. / sat on stool at his feet, and
leaned upon him. Everybody was chat
ting save the Chinese proprietor, Poppy.
He was busy in supplying opium. The
familiar cry of Poppy, gimme quar-
ter's WORTH" came at brief intervals, and
from all sides. He tried behind his coun-
ter and his jars of tea to smoke pipe
himself, but he had only Indifferent sue
cess. The two young women who had
passed me in the afternoon, with the
listers and the fur capes, were reposing
close by me. They lay facing each other,
the little flame of peanut oil between
them clearly illuminating the faces of
both. They had companion, young
man. They talked in languid fashion
among themselves, and with others in
the room. The women were good
looking, twenty-five years of age, per-
haps. They had made themselves quite
comfortable. Their hats and wraps
were laid aside. One of them at
attended to the ''chying'' or cooking of
the opium. and the pipe was passed
about among the trio in turn. She was
very def at the work. The slender
needle of steel was twirled in her fingers
more rapidly than the eve could follow
it, the while she lazily chatted and smiled.
The young man was listener. He lay
with his eyes half closed, and smoked a
cigar between his pipes of opium. When
fresh opium was called for, as it was re-
peatedly, an evenly divided pool was
made up among the three to pay for it.
One of the young women had just re-
turned to the city from trip through a
country where she could get no opium.
She described her warnings for the drug,
and her enthusiastic delight at this first
taste Of it after her forced abstinence.
She had escaped great suffering by the
use of morphine pills.
All the smokers were acquainted and
they called one another by their first
names. Two of the women were
variety actresses, and third per-
forms in a dime museum the trick
whereby the head of living