The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-05-23
How the. Cinnamon Enjoy the Fes-
tive Dope.
PACKED LIKE sARDINEs IN A CAN.
Twenty eight Bunks in Room That
Should Hold mo More Than -Four
Peop1e-The Blind Dope Smoker
A Squalid Portion of Honolulu.

There is not a city in the world
In which there are any Cinnamon,
where opium smoking is not in-
dulged in to a greater or less ex-
tent. Honolulu is no exception to
this rule, as a very casual inspec-
ton of certain portions of China
town will show. The police at
tempt to stop it, the customs auth
critics try to keep the drug out of
the country, and the Councils leg
islate against it, but it still con-
tinues, and will, as long as there
there is Celestial on the islands.
An ADVERTISER man strayed up
Nuuanu street few days ago, and
met man who is always willing
to give an item of news to the pa
pers. In some way, the converse
ton turned towards opium smok-
ing, and the man said he could
take any one to an opium 'joint"
in full blast in less than five min
utes. It was then about 3 o'clock,
and the ADVERTISER man asked
if he would be willing to take him
to one, and he said he would do it.
The pair walked up Nuuanu street
until Beretania was reached, and
then turned west, until the Tong
Hing Society building was reached.
Here, he turned into dirty looking
yard, half filled with Chinese and
natives that looked as though they
were half asleep.
In the rear of the yard was a
small house, not over twenty feet
long and nine or ten wide. AS the
two strangers went towards this
house, seven or eight Cinnamon,
and one or two natives, evidently
warned by some one on the outside
that some interloper was approach
ing came out. They wandered around
outside the building for a while,
staring stupidity at the haoles who
had interfered with their pleasure,
and then disappeared in some of
the many doors that surround the
place and look like large rat holes.
Nearly all of them had the APP
pearance of "dope" fends-sal-
low complexion, listless eyes and
dull manner but the natives
seemed to show the effects more
than the Chinese.
Inside the building the scene
was one that would naturally dis
gust any white man, unless he was
a victim of the drug, and then it is
impossible to do it. In that small
room, which was as hot as tophet,
and as squalid as can well be ina
gined, there were hunks for twenty
eight smokers. Each bunk was
fitted out with all the necessary
paraphernalia for smoking-the
pipes, the lamps and the steel
needle which is used for rolling the
opium into a ball and inserting it
into the pipe.
Most of those in the room were
innocently eating rice from
dirty dishes on a dirtier table.
But the lighted lamps and the
presence of few decrepit old Chi
namen still lying in their hunks
was enough to show that the smok-
ing had been going on only few
minutes before. One of them, who
looked to be a hundred and fifty
years old, but probably only sixty,
was totally blind, and was cropping
around, trying to get out of his
bunk. He still had his pipe in his
hand, and he appeared to be very
much disguised at the Interrupt
ton.
The whole of the neighborhood
is honeycombed with opium joints
and other disreputable houses. The
notorious Tong Hing society build
ing has number of opium dens
in it, and is the resort of the worst
class of Cinnamon that infest the
city. 1t seems absolutely impos-
sible to control the vice, and the
police are as powerless to stamp it
out entirely as to keep men from
committing other crimes. They
can punish the offenders, but they
cannot reach and destroy the root
of the trouble.
There is rush of gold-seekers
to Lower California. Recent finds