The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-11-25
OPIUM DENS IN new YORK.
SLAVES OF THE DEADLY DRUG IN
LAE CHINESE QUARTER.


Thousands "Hit the Pipe" I'm Mott
street ana vicinity-vne Chinese
Dens Where Hundreds Cengrsgate.
Nearly All arc Opium smokers.
Thsidea that opium smoking has been
stamped out In the Chinese quarter of the
city centering around Mott and Pell
streets, is as erroneous as 1t Is absurd,
say the New York Journal.
NO one who In familiar with that
strange section OF the town believes for
moment In the stories OF the evil being
eradicated, and, in fact, q casual visitor
10 the place can get all the evidence OF
the existence of the crime that he wants
In nfteen minutes tour of the place.
or course, there is little more red tame
about getting into q Chinese opium den
than there is in getting into saloon
after hours. You have to know the pro-
prietor or the employees, or be introduced
py some responsible person, the same as
Is necessary to secure an entree to one OF
the large uptown gambling houses.
An idea OF the extent Of opium smok-
Ing, as IL Is now carried on in the Chi
nese quarter, can be gained from these
facts.
Living In this city there are about
7,oo0 Chinese. In Brooklyn, Jersey City
and other near by towns there are In all
about 5000 more, making, in all, in the
neighborhood OF II, 300 who, on Sundays
and In the evenings, visit Mott street for
the purpose Of gambling or otherwise
dissipating.
Statistics show that about sixty per
cent. OF the lower class OF Chinese, like
our laundrymen, smoke opium and are
more or less victims of the fearful habit.
This shows that there are over 1000
Cinnamon In and around New York who
shit the pipe"
All this hitting {" Is done in the neigh
borhood OF Mott and Pell streets. Aside
from the Chinese fiends, there are more
than a thousand white women and girls
In Chinatown who smoke opium. These
latter are the depraved creatures sup
ported by Cinnamon. These facts, con-
sidered in conjunction with the one that
probably less than one hundred buildings
shelter all the Chinese and the white
women OF Chinatown, show on its face
that opium smoking is carried on in
sboutevery building inhabited by Chinese
Of all the opium smoking places in the
Chinese quarter the cluster of tenements
known as Nos. 8 and IL Pell street are the
and two rear ones, and, at a conservative
estimate, there are at least thirty distinct
joints in the four buildings.
The houses are said to be the property
OF woman named Maggie Moran, who
has won for herself quite n reputation in
the Chinese quarter. People who are
most familiar with these places say that
the four houses are occupied by about 120
Cinnamon and 300 white women.
The average joint is presided over by a
ehinaman and two or three white girls.
AS sarule there are but two rooms toa joint,
and both of these are fitted up with either
hunks or mattresses on the floor.
Bunks used to be the rule but the
shrewd Cinnamon discovered that these
fittings attracted the attention of the po-
lice and interfered largely with the con-
duct of the business. Now mattresses
and, in some instances, bed are used.
In proportion to the number of build
ings it contains, there are probably more
opium joints in Doyers street than any
other place in Chinatown. Doyers street
is not more than q hundred and fifty |
yards long, extending from the Bowery |
in curving direction to Pell street, |
where il ends.
Opium smoking is carried on in nearly |
every house, and, in fact, the business |
there is worked to such degree that the
have adopted the plan of the
Baxter street croshfers, and have stationed 1
" touters on the outside, whose duty il
is TO guide the "dope "seeking visitor
to the joints.
OF course, the touters do not cry out
the fine qualities of their hments,
ss is done in Baxter street. They have
far easier and safer plan. They are all
- ficnds, and spot at glance the man or
woman who is looking for Joint. Fiends
recognize one another almost in
stinctively, and a stranger in town, ac-
to hitting the pipe" can
sasily be accommodated in Doyers street