Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-30
Opium Smoking.
A Former Keeper of a Den Denies the
Effect of the Drug Upon the Tmagt-
nation.

Effect OF the Drug upon the tmagt-
nation.
[Frem the New York SUM-
Several newspaper clippings, giving &C
counts of opium smoking in uptown Joints,
were recently shown to a man who had been
part proprietor of one of these places. tsNot
being interested in any joint now," he said,
'I don't object to speak little from ex-
perience 1t is characteristic of opium smok-
ers that they can seldom be induced to talk
about the drug to the uninitiated. They
have plenty of conversation for one who is
given to the habit or shows that he under
stands the ways of the gang, or as it is called,
the society of iends. If opium smoking was
anything like what it is generally represented
to be, the whole country would have been
given over to the habit years ago. I have
smoked in all parts of the States, and have
never seen anyone under the influence of
opium who could not tell painted WON an
from a mermaid, mat-covered bunk from a
silk hammock, or nickel from a S. gold
piece. 1t would be very fine if you could
float off into space to invisible music, see
Spanish castles in thick clouds of blue smoke
or think yourself in land of purple daisies
and blue eyed sirens. Education was not
neglected in our family and they say 1 don't
lack imagination but I never got any such
effect from smoking dope (opium.) My
thirst for an experience of this kind led me
to use the pipe, and that is what brings in
new recruits. NO matter now gOOQ q tT1end
he may be, smoker will never tell the truth
to a person whom he is trying to inoculate
with the habit. Hundreds have tried the
pipe for the first time during the past few
months, and l will make an affidavit that I
never saw one that wasn't disappointed. The
beginner is always told that no one gets the
effect good until the syst en- has become ac-
customed to the drug by four or five smokes.
The pleasure seeker comes again and again,
and smokes from five to twenty pipes at a
time. If he has a good cook one who
knows how to dangle the paste over the flame
until it takes the brown color of the bowl
and has an odor something like cocoa, he
gets the effect after while from eight or
ten pipes The sensation is pleasing, at times
delightful, and is made continuous by an oc-
casional pipe. Conversation is greatly en-
ioyed, especially when it needs only an assent
now and then from the smoker, who is so
comfortable, SO to speak, that he does not
tionate, wishes everybody we'll, and is gener
Gus with his money. But he has halluci
nations, no dreamy wandering, with incoher-
ent mutterings.'
&c AS the joint is kept dimly lighted, phys
ical defects are not brought out, compilations
appear to be all alike, and there is kind of
forbidden fruit pleasure about everything
said and done. These are about the only
agreeable effects to be had from opium smok-
ing But it is not the effect that is sought
by the average frequenter of white joints, SO
often as it is the continued novelty of the
surroundings, the agreeableness OF the asso
Citations, and the general soeiability of all
concerned. These attractions seldom fail to
bring back new candidate for the society of
fends. They have an ambition to get the
habit. Without cigars, cigarettes, drinks
and lunches, the joint loses half its entice-
ment. The joints in Thirty second. Twenty
sixth, Fourteenth, Spring and Crosby streets
had few regular frequenters except sporting
men, CROOKS variety actors, small number
of professional brain workers, and all kinds
of demireps. The scene was sometimes made
more attractive by singing or some kind of
quiet music from outside performers, who
passed around the hat and found themselves
considerably richer than when they came In.
Many of the old timers are wishing the club
chance to sleep when the park benches are
wet. The joint was q kind of first and last
resort for the crook with or without
money.
"When a person has smoked opium regu-
Iarly for long time it becomes a necessity
to him. Without it he is nervous and irrita,
BILE, has cramps and gripping pains, and the
most intense longing for the soothing smoke
Then he knows that he has the habit, and
has become a real 'fiend.i He calls it having
the finyan' In New Orleans where they
smoke good deal. there are about fifty gen
uine 'fends.' In New York there are more.
but, excepting Cinnamon, it is doubtful
whether there are 100 residents of the city who
have the habit fixed. 1t is quite an art to
cook opium, and there are probably less than
twenty five whites here who can handle the
syenhock Cooking needle) as well as Chi
naman can. A bad cook will make smoker
look like a corpse A tricky cook will roll
m pill and slip it into his 'hoptoi (box)
for the sinyan' when it catches him in his
sleep. Good cooks make considerable mon
ey by attending persons who order 1ayouts'
to be brought to the house.
tOpium smoking in New York has been
colIared at the right time. It has a strong
foothold among certain people, and needed
but little more time to develop into fashion
able dissipation. There are at least two pri-
vate clubs in the upper part of the city where
opium is smoked by people whose reputation
and standing are good. Smoking is probably
the least injurious form in which the drug is
consumed Many have resorted to the pipe
to reduce the flesh, and some declare that it
wards off disease. There may be some truth
in this, as it is well known that opium eaters,
laudanum consumers, and morphine takers
are free from many of the small ills of other
people. The authorities are now paying q
good deal of attention to opium smoking,
and if they are in earnest about the matter
thew ought to take look at the druggists
who sell and the physicians who prescribe
the drug in its other forms. The opium
smoker can taper Off on 'yenshee (residuum)
and whiskey, and shake off the habit alto
gether, while the gum eater takes up the
Eatery extract and makes headway back
ward
Mount Carmel Cider.
DOTTLED for our retail trade. The quality this
] > season. .ts very ane.