The morning news., 1889-03-28
STRANGE SIGHTS IN CHINA.
The Largest and Most Gorgeous Opium
Palace in the World.
From the Neto York World.

Palace in the World.
From the Netc York World.
SHANGHAI, Feb. 20.-I visited last night
the biggest opium den Of the world. 1t is
situated on the edge of this great cosmopoh-
tan city of Shanghai, in which Chinese
rowdes from all parts of the empire con-
pregate, and where the Chinaman has
learned to play billiards, to drink whisky
and to practice the refinements Of western
as we'll as eastern vice. The palatial sa-
looms of New York, the barroom of the
Hoffman house and the gilded palaces of
Gin in San Francisco have cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars. This
oni11m den of the Chinese has likewise
eaten up a fortune and it is more
like palace than an opium-smoking joint
for pig tailed Celestials. Three stories high
and covering what would be nearly half an
American block, its entrance is lighted with
the electric light and its interior is furnished
in the most extravagant Chinese fashion.
The ceilings are of richly carved wood and
the finest of Chinese lamps, each of which
cost hundreds of dollars, throw soft light
over the hazy smoking crowd within. The
painted walls are inlaid with curious marble,
the grain of which is such as to give the
idea of landscape sketches, and the finishing
of the rooms is in carved teak-wood, which,
oiled and colored, shines like ebony.
There were, perhaps, thousand smokers
in this opium den when | visited it last
night, and l pushed my way into it
through throng representing every class
of Chinese life. There was the pompous
mandarin in gorgeous silks beside the half
naked coolie in ragged cotton. There were
loose women and desperate-looking men
quiet, intellectual scholars and wealthy
Chinese merchants. All stopped under the
electric light to buy little pots Of opium as
thick as molasses, and each holding about
what could be crowded into the
smallest of our American individual
salts. The coolie and the man iariu were
charged the same for their opium, but they
paid different prices according to the rooms
which they occupied and the pipes which
they used in smoking. The cheapest cost
about 10 cents a smoke and the dearest was
sold for not much more than 10 cents. The
pipes. however, were different. They were
about 2 feet long, with big round bowl
set into the handle. The mandarins smoked
pipes Of ivory, some of which were elabo-
rately carved, while the coolies were salts
fed with plain pipes of wood. The receipts
of this opium den are said to be more than
81 900 day, and | am told it is always full
Passing the electric light you en- er hall
after hall filled with haZy fumes OF sickly
smelling vapor through which the rays of
gorgeous lamps struggling find their way,
and cast a weird, ghost-like air over the
smokers resting below. The smoking COM
partments are divided into cells open at the
front and separated from one another by
gorgeous carvings Of teak-wood, which, col
ored with the smoke Of thousands. has
turned from rich brown into an oiled Jet.
Each cell accommodates two or more peo-
pie, and the most of the men / saw smoking
were in couples. On each side of little
glass lamp the men lay on red cushions,
sometimes dropping their feet upon chair
l. A.
about a foot square and foot 10 &.
The most expensive of the compartments
had cushions of fine velvet and the frames
of some couches were inlaid with mother
of-pearl and jade. In some of the private
rooms | noted women smoking with the
men. They were not, was Told, the wives
of the smokers, and it is no more creditable
for a Chinese woman to smoke opium than
it is for an American girl to drink whisky
Opium smokers always lie down while
smoking. They bend themselves spoon
fashion as they manipulate the opium, draw
it into their lungs and blow it ou5 of their
no strils. In some cases | noted large rooms
in which private parties seemed to have
assembled for an opium smoke together,
and l passed through every hall of this
large opium joint and did not see a bit of
disorder. Your opium smoker is different
from the drunkard. The opium calms
instead of excites. | was treated with
politeness everywhere, and the drowsy
sleepy crowd did not seem to care that
stopped and looked at them.
This is, however, only one of hundreds of
opium shops in Shanghai. / visited another
den upon leaving this zig one and | found
it nearly as large. 1t is said that China
uses $500, ,000,0 600 worth of opium every
year, and it is rightly called the curse of the
people. Opium is now grown in every
province in China. The seed Of the poppy
is sown in November and its juice is col
lected in February and March. The opium
is gotten by cutting the capsule Of the poppy
flower with notched iron instrume t at
sunrise, and by the next morning drop or so
of j ice has oozed out. This is scraped off
and saved by the grower, and after he has
a vessel full of it, 1t is strained and dried.
1t takes great many poppies to make a
pound of opium, and it goes through num-
ber Of processes before it is ready for the
market. In liquid state it looks like a
dark strawberry jam, and when prepared
for shipment it is put into chests, each
of which contains about forty balls of
opium. These balls are rolled in
dried poppy leaves, and here in China the
duty on opium is so heavy that the
Gus ,oms officers watch these chests very
closely. AT Shanghai there are a number
Of large ships which look like floating
swimming baths or naval training ships in
which the opium passed upon by the GUS
toms is stored, and by which method snug
Cling Is somewhat prevented. The Chinese
are the greatest smugglers in the world, and
it is only by the aid of foreigners that they
are able to have good customs services.
And their receipts from foreign customs are
nov four times as great as they were sew
eral decades ago.
The Chinese are naturally opium smokers
put 1t is due to the foreigner that the drug
has become national evil. The officials
and the emperor saw the danger before it
came, and they tried to keep the opium out
Of the country. The English, however,
who were bringing in large quantities from
india, were making too much money out
OF 1t to let it go, and one of the most
disgraceful pages of history is the recot
OF how John Bull, philanthropic and
moral as he pretends to be, forced China to
take poison which its officials knew would
degrade it's people. The Emperor OF China
at the start taxed the consumers of opium
and threatened them with death. Opium
smugglers were seized aad} sortured, and
the native dealers were executed. The
Chinese, however, could do nothing with
the foreigners, and they tecame the Snug
glers.
The government then appealed to the for
elgne s, and one Of the government COM
mssioners asked the English merchants to
give up their opium that it might be de-
sroyed. They gave up 10000 chests worth
Sll,OOOO0O. China refused to pay for it on
The ground that it had not authorized its
Commissioner. ~ JapnapI A. and that ba