Morning journal and courier., 1884-07-24
SLAVES OF THE OPIUM PIPE.
The Sights to be Witnessed in a Smok
 ing Den in Hong Kong.

- ing Den in Hong Kong.
 [China Letter in the St. Louis Republican,
 The smoker lies curled up, with his head resting a bamboo or earthenware pillow about five inches high. Near him stands an opium lamp, the flame of which is protected by glass shade low enough for the point of the flame to project above the top of the shade The smoker takes a wire and dips it into little box containing prepared opium. A small quantity adheres to the point of the wire, which is then held over the flame of the lamp until the heat has swollen it to about ten times it's original size. This is rolled over and over the fiat side of the clay bowl, the opium all the time adhering to the wire. When it has been rolled to soft, solid mass it is again applied to the lamp and this alternate roasting and rolling is kept up for at least ten minutes, by which time it is in the shape of pill and ready for use. The aperture in the pipe is so small that 1t can only receive the smallest quantity, and the most careful manipulation is needed to transfer the tiny ball of opium from the end of the wire to the bowl of the pipe The point of the wire is inserted into the hole of the pipe and worked round and round till the soft opium forms into a conical-' shaped ring around the wire. By twirling the wire the drug is gradually detached from it, leaving hole through the opium about as large as the hole of the pipe bowl, with which it communicates. The pipe is now ready, and the bowl is held over the lamp so that the opium comes in contact with the flame. A spluttering noise ensues as the smoker sucks at his pipe. After each sue cessive draw he ejects from nose and mouth a volume of smoke, the very smell of which is enough to turn horses stomach. By the end of the fourth or fifth whiff the pipe is empty. The smoker now scoops out another dose of opium, rolls it into pill and repeats the operation with the same patience as be- fore, and smokes away until the pipe falls from his hands and he is lost in dreamland One thing is very certain, that if tobacco smoking were only half the trouble tobacco nists would soon have to shut up shop.
 After little while we turned a corner and passed into back room. Here were the same scenes, the same filth, the same with cred faces and the same spluttering of opium pipes. These seemed to be secret smokers, who had come here to avoid detection where there seemed to be every facility to evade the search of their friends. We are not surprised to find in this room mere youths, who, judg- ing from their silken robes must belong to wealthy families and who were here begin ming career which must end in ruin and disgrace. On entering the den we were sur rounded by a half dozen emaciated looking objects, who implored us to give them medi- cines to cure them. Every foreigner in Chi na is believed to be god to kill and make alive. He has great reputation as medi- cine man. We were fortunately able to di- rect the poor fellows to the missionary hospi- tai, where they would get weaned from the drug. One man told us that he had smoked for thirty years; that his physical energies had clean gone and he fast becoming wreck. He spent three-fourths of his family earnings at the den, and the craving was be coming so intense he feared that before long all his money would go in opium. It is only very common example where a wife of port opium-smoking husband and father. A beginner has only to pay two or three wis it's to the den, and the place has wonderful fascination for him. Three weeks smoking, at couple of hours per day, and the man, left to himself, is bound slave to the pipe as long as he lives, held down by chains stronger than iron, from which only death can release him.