Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1889-05-04
VILE OPIUM DENS.
What IA British NJ. +. Saw In the City Of
Lucknow, China.


81 have been in East-end gin palaces n
on Saturday night. l have seen men in i
various stages of delirium tremens, !
have visited many idiot and lunatic d
asylums.' writes Mr.. Caine. M. T.. i
from Lucknow, 'but have never seen
4 such horrible destruction of Gods
image in the face of man as saw in the
government opium dens Of Lucknow.
To my dying day shall carry tho
recollection OF the face of II handsome
young woman of eighteen or nineteen
years, sprawling on the senseess bodies
Of men, her fine brown eyes hattcned |
and dulled with coming stupor, and her |
lips drawn back from her glittering
white teeth. Another girl of the same
! age was sitting in II group OF newly
arrived smokers, singing some lewd ro-
. nance as they handed round tho pipe.
5 / went from room to room and counted
: n.nety-seven persons OF both sexes in
$ various stages of opium stupor. Green
9 hands could get drunk for penny or
a less. but by degrees more and more
:, opium is needed, and the callous keeper
y OF this hideous den showed us men
9 whom one hundred and eighty drops Of
i thick opium, mixed with tobacco.
9 hardly suliiced to intoxicate. l camo
= out staggering and faint with the
st poison-laden atmosphere.
x after few minutes walk my guide
Of said Here is another opium shop; will
a. you go imp | could not believe there
was more than one such abomination In
5, Lucknow, and. mastering my disgust,
or ! entered second. 1t was even worse
I'd and more squalidly beastly than the
first Again ! went from room to room
1g and counted on the ground floor alone
$, 1T human swine of both sexes, noticing
as among them a bonny little lad OF six 0
ep seven watching his fathers changing
* face with a dreadful Indifference. HAY
he ing counted II. was asked to go NJ
tly stairs, where there were many NOR
ne customers; had had even more tina
L. my strong stomach could stand, but
ais was told that there would be probabl
he fifty more. 1t was three in the after
et noon when | visited these places, and
* am told that after dark the attendant
un is doubled. ! have felt the effect
lily the fumes ever since, and the sligi
ion headache produced will probably la!
lad for two or three days. In the city
l.. Lucknow there are thirty distilleri'
his of native spirits, POI liquor shop
ast twenty-four opium shops, and ninet.
lch two for bhang and other intoxicatir
uc- drugs, An opium sot is the most hop
air less OF all drunkards once he is VIC
the into the clutches of this iiend, ever
the thing gives way to his fierce proml
mp ings. He only works to get mo
was money for opium. Wife, children al
aek home are all sacrificed to this horrit
the lust.
, of 'The receipts of the government
in the Northwest Province and Dude frd
bell opium, bhang and other intoxicati
,an drugs is no less than f67, 900, and
md steadily on the increase. 1t will gi
his your readers some idea of the way
A by which this horrible traffic in intoxical
the is being stimulated if | give the ay
,ous age levenue for the Northwest Provir
in a and Dude from all intoXicants for
lust three years lS7S-9-SO, as compared W
,er4 1SS5-6-7 In the former case its yea
lger average was I2S4,o In the latter
ntie had run up to f546,0OO, showing
and doubled consumption within se'
n if years. Every day | spend in In
'ank brings fresh proof that the Goyernm
his is stimulating the sale of intoxicants
rely the verge of indecency for the sake
Until the cheaply collected and rapidly
out creasing revenue which it furnishe
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