Connecticut western news., 1886-07-07

l OAS A
 opens the front door and sends out for the breakfast material. These comprise rice, fish, pork, bread, and vegetables. The lodgers next put in an appearance, crawling out of their hunks, still drowsy with sleep or sleep-giving drugs. A pail of water and a coarse rag in the kitchen soon restore the circulation of the body and fit one and all for the morning meal. This is made of the articles de- scribed, but cooked in ways very differ ent from those employed in civilized circles. The rice is plain boiled, the fish boiled or stewed and served with an ar omatic sauce in which ginger, cloves, and red pepper are prominent factors; the pork and vegetables are chopped into thin pieces and sewed together. The drinks employed are hot and cold tea, and sometimes minute quantities of strong arrack or rice brandy. After breakfast many of 4thes3saesrs depart for their daily work. Among these early birds are cigar-makers, clerks, peddlers, and shipping runners. Those who re- main are usually seamen, merchants, gam ! blers, and agents. These after their re- past light cigar or cigarette, opium ol hasheesh, and take "solid comfort" for an hour or more. Those who have liter ary tastes lie down in their hunks and read, for, strange to say, most orientals assume recumbent attitude when read ing or studying; those who desire ex- citement resort to dominoes and other games of chance, while the majority simply smoke and ''swap stories." At noon second meal is served similar to breakfast, but including besides soups and stews, in which macaroni and yer micelh are chief features At o'clock dinner is given. It is like its predeces- sors in the articles served, on'y there is more of them and all are more highly spiced and seasoned. House-cleaning and bed-making occur usually between | breakfast and lunch, and are very prim- itive in character. The beds as described | are hunks or shelves covered with white Canton mating and the pillows wooden footrests. The man of all work simply sponges off bed and pillow alike with sponge dipped in water contain ing little chloride of lime or eau de | javelle, and allows the heat of the room to dry them off This novel way of making beds has one advantage. It | disinfects room and inmate and destroys whatever vermin there may be about. In the evening the guests resort, one after one, to narcotics, and at midnight nearly all are sound asleep.
 No sight is more impressive or fearful than one of these living rooms at 10 or 12 p. m. The dark floor and ceilings, the gloomy and grimy furniture, the single lamp, fickering and smoking on the table, the silence, and everywhere the hunks, each containing man court, ing s1umber through some narcotic drug make up strange picture. You enter the apartment and each inmate turns towards you-tho Javanese fercely and swiftly, the Hindu curiously and slowly, and the Cochinese with the lethargy of death. Every face belongs to an unfamiliar or unknown race; every article is a sealed book. A word from the proprietor and the eyes leave your face and resume their former occupa- tions.
 Here and there at times are attempts at ornament. The black statue of Rama, worshipped in Ceylon, the bronze image of Buddha, the allegorical portraits of Health, Plenty, and Strength of Confu- cius, the crucifix of European faith, and even the sharks and tigers teeth of the Malay, are attached to the wall or dis played on some fragmentary mantelpiece
 The proprietor of one of these places said: ''It dosen't cost much to live.
 can board man for $1.7 week-per haps even less. don't make mucl money on my board, but do on to bacco, opium, and hasheesh. My folk drink very little; not so much a 10 cents day. When they go off on { spree' they order a fashionable din her and eat all they can hold. Then the. smoke five shells of opium [about tw' ounces] and sleep for twenty-four hours
 How many houses are there hk
 mine? No one just like it or so good, bu
 about thirty in the same business" Fiv
 other proprietors made the same remark Chicago, Ne~ York.