The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-06

contract and proceeds with the Guilt
walton. determined to mix COW dung and
charred bran If possible in his next years
yield.
The Indian ryot is not permitted to con-
slider himself coddled in the very least
bit BY her majesty's government, never
theless he has sense enough to mix with
his crude opium sugar molasses, even
the juice Of stramony, ounces ana vari-
Gus other plants in order to make excess
i'm weight and yet retain the necessary
20 per cent. "spssitude," which Is about
what the government agents require or
him.
All the opium from all the various In
dian districts generally arrives a. Cal
cutta and is there stored in the masni1-
cent government ware houses or godownS
until il is exposed for sale at public auc-
ton the price being regulated by the
price in China. AS you see II exposed TOT
sale in chests made OF mango wood, the
opium is in small balls, and the chests
contain usually two compartments sepa-
rated by a tray. each division again di-
vlded into twenty small compartments
containing these balls, carefully rolled
I'D in dry poppy leaves, and these chests
are only opened to prospective pui-
chaser a very snort time, for the drug
deterioates rapidly upon exposure TO the
air. These chests contain from about 10
Ia I50 mounds of crude opium according
ia the quality and district from when
the drug comes-malwa being the hnest
product and patna pushing 1t as good
second The celestials prefer ana pay
more for malwa, and curiously enough
n IS the only opium grown outside OF En-
elish jurisdiction, although lndlah' OF
course.
I.c us now suppose that my old friend
All Foo. the tailor at Shanghai, who was
a frugal soul and yet who dearly loved MS
nine has received notice of fresh snip
ment of first chop malwa "apien' at MT
Ferajee Boramjee's goodwin. me Farsees
trv 10 control as much as possible tine
middle man trade between India and
CHINA. All Foo sees no reason why ne
should nav four times as much for pre-
nared ''black smoke" as for the crude
stuff so together with his friends ne pur-
cbases say forty-five pounds OF gum ana
asks me to watch him make 1t into smoh-
able smoke.
He cuts the various balls he has pur-
chased in halves and turns out the in
sides; this inside portion he puts to one
side. but the opium TO which the "llWa
or covering of poppy petals has aonerea
he puts into a brass vessel and adds plht
of AQUA fontalis, spring water, and puts On
= slow fire. | asked If the fact that the
vessel was of brass had anything to DO
with the excellence Of the preparation and
he assured me very earnestly IL had; this
didn't believe however. After tins stun
had simnnered three times and two more
hints Of water had been added he strained
~ res .lting mass and had about pints
Of fluid. He then added the inside Of the
cake and boiled the whole for an hour, i'm
pressing upon me the exceeding impor-
lance Of each separate step. When the
whole mass was reduced TO paste ne
~pread II out into couple Of pans with
q common case knife and exposed it to the
fire for two or three minutes at a time
in order TO drive OF as much water as
possible. He then covered the whole with
liz pints Of water and left 1t 70 soak all
night. explaining to me that the moisture
being driven off by the heat was not really
water. but deleterious property of the
"apien."
The next day we filtered this entire mass
and added six pints more to the dregs and
Uttered. Now comes the delicate part
called "seething." We took half our til-
trate ana bolied brisltly, sprinkling the
mass. which foamed up like milk does.
with cold water from time to time 50 as
not to boil over, and SKINNED the froth
with feather into separate vessel.
After half an hour the second portion of
the hltrate was added and the whole
boiled until 1t was reduced to about five
pints, when ii is filtered for the last time,
and the last step commences, /. e., boil
ing Il until it becomes about the consis~