The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-04-27
The Most Gorgeous Opium Palace In
the World.

I visited last night the biggest
opium den of the world. 1t is sit
uated on the edge of this great cos
mopolitan city of Shanghai, in
which Chinese rowdies from all
parts of the Empire congregate, and
where the Chinaman has learned to
play billiards, to drink whisky, and
to practice the re6nements of west
ern as well as eastern vice. This
opium den is three stories high,
covering what would be nearly half
an American block. Its entrance
is lighted with the electric light.
The ceilings are of richly carved
wood, and the finest of Chinese
lamps, each of which cost hun
dreds of dollars, throwing soft
light over the hazy smoking crowd
within. There were, perhaps, a
thousand smokers in this den when
visited it last night. 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 individ-
ual salts. The coolie and the man.
DARN 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 cheap
est cost about ten cents smoke,
: and the dearest was sold for not
!, much more than fifteen cents. The
pipes, however, were different. They
were about two feet long, with a big
round bowl set into the handle,
The mandarins smoked pipes oi
ivory, some of which were elabor
!. ately carved, while the coolies were
!. satisfied with plain pipes of wood
: The receipts of this opium den are
said to be more than one Thousand
. dollars day, and / am told it il
;, always full.
Passing the electric light you en-
: ter hall after hall filled with hazy
: fumes of sickly smelling vapo
! through which the rays of gorgeou
! lamps struggling find their way
= and cast n weird, ghost-like air owe
: the smokers resting below. Th
>, smoking compartments are divides
=, into cells open at the front and sep
) arated from one another by gorg
6 eous carvings of toak wood, which
! colored with the smoke of thous
- ands. has turned from a rich brow
- - to an oiled jet. Each cell accom-
y :, modates two or more people, an
~ the most Of the men l saw smokin
were in couples. On each side of
h little glass lamp the men lay on re
,e cushions, sometimes dropping the
an feet upon chair and resting the
nr heads on blue pillows, each about
NJ foot square and a foot long.
lv The most expensive of the con
II partments had cushions of fine We
r. vet and the frames of some couch
n were inlaid with mother-ofpea
in and jade. In some of the priva
pr rooms noted women smoking vii
ID the men. Opium-smokers alway
We lie down while smoking. They Der
e. themselves spoon fashion as the
manipulate the opium, draw it I'M
their lungs and blow it out of the
r's nostrils. In some cases 1 note
on large rooms in which private pa
se ties seemed to have assembled f
,e, an opium smoke together, and
ID, passed through every hall of tn
/, l large opium joint and did not see
RS bit of disorder. Your opium SIN
id. ker is different from the drunken
ire The opium calms instead of'excite
lg- / was treated with politeness ever
where and the drowsy, sleepy CROW