The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-12-31
HANDLING YEN HOOK.


U1itoA States. s3
80 you hit the pipe, do you?''
This question was put to q gentleman
of elegant leisure.
mo, not now; nor have I for the last
ten years. It cost good deal of time
and money. When did caress the bam-
boo it broke down my health. rendered
me unfit for business, and made me y
slave to the most horrible dissipation in
existence. When once opium is inhaled
for pleasure, and it does not make you
deathly sick, the effects are too delight
full for words or pen to describe. You
have only one choice, if you do not quit
then and there, and that is to become
fiend. For ten years suffered as no
human being ever suffered. The FIRST
year 1 smoked 1 liked it, for my COM
panions were jolly good fellows, who
met regularly every night and listened
to each other tell their experience in
every part of the known world. Some
were gamblers, others business men,
actors, minstrels, men of the world
and do you know that the strongest
Masonry in the world exists among per-
sons who handle the yen hock?''
"Yen hook, what is that?''
"Why, that is the name of the wire
on which the hop is cooked or prepared
for smoking. Did you ever know who
introduced this damnable vice into the
United States?"
"No.'
"Well, will tell you. In about 1865
Tip Orendorf, then good-looking
gambler, who was very inquisitive,
lived in California. and at light would
stroll among the Cinnamon and watch
them play ali tan, which is national
game among the Celestials, as much so
as faro bank is among well-raised Ken
tuckians. Tip watched them several
nights, and became known to several of
the keepers of the gambling establish
ments in some way which he
never told to living soul. He was in
itiated into the mysteries of hop TUX, or
the opium pipe. He smoked for four
years and then he came east to Utah,
where he met Johnny McCleary. John
ny and Tip became fast friends, and
Johnny was soon broke in and became
a fiend. McCleary was a young fellow
who could learn anything quickly, and
came west from Kansas with the track
layers on the Union Pacific Railroad,
where he drove dump cart. He would
20 to town on the Union Pacific Rail-
road, which were then built up quickly
and mostly of tents, and contained y
few small stores, plenty of large dance
houses, in which there were always a
bar and plenty of games of chance. He
would play anything and soon became
real live sport. If Johnny won, he
usually made very large winnings, and
as money had no value with him he
made friends. Tip and Johnny made
trip to Denver together, and there
met the Hon. Harry Wicks of New Or
leans. Harry was the prince of Dor
rowers, but he only borrowed money
for two things, one was to gamble with,
the other to spend with his companions.
The three men whom l have named
are the men who introduced opium
smoking in the United States among
Americans. When these men left Den
yer. Orendorf went to Virginia City,
Nevada, where there were at one time
200 smokers who could trace their hab-
1t of opium smoking to Tip Orendorf.
McCleary went to San Francisco and
taught about 1000 men and women to
smoke. he made a big winning and
went to New York. remained there
long enough to initiate hundred or
more, got broke, and went back to
San Francisco, where he stayed with
out money for long time. He
could always raise money enough to
smoke. He made a big winning in
1876 and went to Europe. and smoked
in London and Paris. He came back
as poor as a Hot Springs pig, worked
his way West, where fortune smiled
on him again, and he raised a big
amount of the filthy lucrc and took his
second Continental tour, visiting En-
gland, France, Germany and Italy, and
returned to his native soil tramp in
looks. He worked his way West, but
sunk into oblivion.
"Now for Harry Wicks. He left Deu-
yer and went to some mining camp in
Colorado where there were races going
on. He established himself as a pool
seller, got the box pretty we'll filed, and
then jumped the town. When it was
discovered how he had put every one
in the hole, men started after him, pre-
pared to take him dead or alive, but he
escaped, and when next heard of was
in New Orleans. where he had taught
several of his friends to smoke the pipe
From New Orleans some one carried
the pipe to Vicksburg and Hot Springs.
In Hot Springs it is still used every dav.
In St. Louis one friend whose name is
known to every man in the State of
Missouri has joint fitted up like a
palace, and invites every smoker who
passes through his city to hit the pipe
with him. They all know him through
one another. Here in Cincinnati there
are probably one hundred confirmed
fiends, and, while they are in different
stations in life, they all know one an
other, and when a new fiend arrives in
town, with or without money, he is
sure to find place to smoke. Now
will tell you that know of a business
man who smoked so much that he lost
a good situation. Almost every troupe
that plays here in the fall and winter
season has more or less fiends in it.
In Louisville and Baltimore
there are opium joints, as we'll as in
Boston. Within radius of one half
mile of the Enquirer Office there are at
least twenty-five rooms in lodging
houses used as joints. 1t is low. dirty,
beastly habit, and there is only one
cure, and that is to throw away the
pipe, suffer for long time. and may be
forever
Reminding Of u Flame.
They tell us that ''Tis better to have
loved and lost, than never to have loved
at all, " which is probably correct, but,
how infinitely better than this, it must
be to have loved, lost, found, and loved
again. Such has been the blissful en-