Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-04-05
LUCKNOW OPIUM DENS.
DEGRADATION TO WHICH HUMAN
BEINGS ARE DESCENDED.

DEGRADATION TO WHICH HUMAN
BEINGS ARE DESCENDED.
al have been in gin palaces at
the hight of their business. ] have
seen men in the various stages of
delerium tremens. have visited
many idiot and Iunatic asylums
but never have I seen such horn.
BILE destruction of Gods image in
the face of man as saw in the
government opium dens at Luck
now" writes correspondent In
India. "To my dying day ! shall
carry the recollection of the face OF
handsome young woman OF Is or
10 years, sprawling on the sense
less bodies of men, her fine brown
eyes fiattened and dulled with com
ing stupor, and her lips drawn
back from her glistening white
teeth. Another girl Of the same
age was sitting in group of newly
arrived smokers, singing some lewd
romance, as they handed round the
pipe. went from room to room
and counted 81 persons of both
sexes in various stages OF opium
stupOr. Green hands could get
drunk for a penny or less, but by
degrees more and more opium is
needed, and the Gallons keeper of this
hideous den sho we'd us men whom
$50 drops of thick opium, mixed
with tobacco, hardly snfliced to in
toxicate. | came out staggering
and faint with the poison laden at
mosphere.
"After few minutes walk, my
guide said 'Here is another opium
shop; will you 60 in ? could not
believe there was more than one
such abomination in Lucknow, and,
mastering my disgust, entered a
second. 1t was even worse, and
more squalidly beastly than the
first. Again | went from room TO
room, and counted on the ground
floor alone III human swine OF
both sexes, noticing among them
bonny little lad Of 6 or watching
his fathers changing face with a
dreadful indifference. Having
counted III, / was asked to 60 up
stalrs, where there were many more
customers. had had more than
even my strong stomach could
stand, but / was told that there
would be probably 80 more. Il
was three in the afternoon when |
visited these places, and | am told
that after dark the ATTENDANCE is
doubled. / have felt the effects Of
the fumes ever since, and the slight
headache produced will probably
last for two or three days. In the
city Of LucknOw there are 80 dis
tilleries of native spirits, sol liquor
shops, q opium shops, and - for
bhang and other intoxicating drugs.
An opium sOt is the most hopeless
OF all drunkards; once he Is well
into the clutches of this iiend,
everything gives way to bis fierce
promptings. lie only works to get
more money for opium. Wife, chill
dren and home are all sacrificed to
this horrible last.
"The receipts of the government
of the northwest province aud
Dude from opium, bbans and other
Intoxicating drugs is no less than
G77,OOO, and IS steadily on the IN
crease. It will give your readers
some idea OF the way which this
horrible traffic in intOXlcants is
being stimulated, if I give The
average revenue for the northwest
province and Oude from all lntox-
icants for the three years 1889 so,
as compared with 1885 CO. In the
former case, It's yearly average was
f2S4 900, in the latter it had run
up to G546, 600, showing a doubled
consumption within seven years.
Every day I spend IN India brings
fresh proof that the government
are stimulating the sale of intoxi'
cants to the very verge OF decency,
for the sake Of the cheaply collect
ed and rapidly increasing revenue
which it furnishes