The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-06-30

cANApArs c2IuM BUSINESS.
An Industry That Depends Upon the United
States For Its Gunnnrt.


States For Its Support.
s Tho manufacture of opium is one of the
most profitable industries of British Co
lumbia, as it employs some 400 or 800 men
in making charcoal, which is used exclu-
sivcly for cooking purposes, in addition to
the cooks and other employees. The Cana
dian license for tho manufacture of opium
is $500 year. The government, in addi-
ton to providing employment for large
number of people, and besides bringing
into the country great amount of money
from tho United States, derives a neat lit
tie revenue each year, all at the expense OF
tho United States.
The development and manufacture Of
opium is an interesting study. The Chi
ncsc arc the greatest consumers in the
world Next to that race come tho Bur
ness and the inhabitants of the strait of
Malacca, the latter consuming opium to
tho value of Ell, 900, 900 annually. The
cultivation Of the poppy, from which
juice is extracted and subsequently re-
duced by boiling until it becomes a liquid
resembling molasscs, when it is termed re-
fined opium, is carried ON in many parts Of
Asia, Persia, Turkey and some pcTts Of
China. The chief district is along tho
Ganges river, India, and embraces an area
GOO miles long by 200 miles in width and
is divided into two districts, Behar and
Benares. Tho cities of Patna and Gazepore
arc the principal depots or shipping points,
where the factories for making crude
opium fire situated. The producers arc re-
quired ts sell their product to the Indian
government, which in turn supplies the
great Chinese importing houses. Before
the fields of India were developed opium
camo from Turkey and Persia and was
used for medicinal purposes for the reason
that it contained moro than 10 per cent OF
morphia, quality that is too rich for
smoking. Opium used for the latter pur-
pose contains about 6 per cent.
Tho method by which opium is manu-
featured is interesting to observe, although
a sickcning odor pervados tho atmosphere
and will cause novice to become deathly
i'll. Tho balls of crude opium are slit open,
moistened with water and boiled to
paste. This paste is dried, remoistenod
and again boiled, after which it is strain
cd. IL goes through this process several
times, each time being carefully strained
and all foreign substance removed until it
has rich brown color.
The drug is boiled in large, hemispher-
ical brass pans about 2oinches in diam
etcr. The other utensils consist of a BAN
boo filter, sprinklcrs, strainers and pots
When it is properly boiled down, it is
scaled up in brass tins containing six
ounces each. The factories in China can
manufacture better quality of opium for
SO. so less apound than the factories on tho
Pacific coast. A good opium cook in
China is paid $40 month, and at Victoria
$40 month. A days work consists of re-
fning az balls of crude opium, each ball
making five 5 tael cans of prepared
opium. For each additional ball refined
it is customary to pay the cook 30 cents.
The evil habit of opium smoking has
obtained such power over the Chinese and
some classes of white people in the United
States that it is a physical impossibilfsy to
wholly stop the importation and use Of the
drug, and tho next best measure, it seems
is to adopt some legislation that will check
tho growth Of the habit and at the same
time not defraud the government of a rev
enue that 1t is justly entitled to receive
and which heretofore has mostly gone into
the private purses of the smugglers of the
Pacific northwest. Seattle Post-1ntelli
gepces,