The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-06
SMOKING The BLACK SNOSE.
Poppy Culture, Opium Making and the
Abuse Of the Drug.

He who smokes the black smoke shall
truly dream dreams and die poor. but he
who contents himself with cow dung ana
tobacco shall dream no dreams. but he
shall possess much cash and his end shall
not be the end Of a dog" Nevertheless.
the poor heather Chinese IS not TO be
blamed altogether for using the black
smoke Left TO himself he might possibly
never have abused the dawning knowledge
which he possessed Of its facinat.ng prop
critics, but he owes what abuses now exist
absolutely and entirely 10 his British
ne-ghoor IN India, backed by her Most
CHRISTIAN Maiesty's government.
me real history Of opium in China IS
the history OF British rapac.ty and greed:
story as nauseating IN its primal petty
fascaEty, and criminal in its entirety, as
the euects OF the drug itself Is upon the
eNper mental beginner and final de-
psuchee. England grows IN her Indian
empire more than sufficient opium to
supply the whole world. and no country
produces Ike quality. Cur.ously
enough although the Chinese cultivated
the afuyung' and used the resulting
aplen incidentally, the percentage of
smokers as compared with the vast popu-
IaLoh was really Of no account until about
lhe hrst quarter Of the present century.
ABOUT th.s time England commenced to
get ia her artistic work Now. as we all
Know, Br.ton is either d trader or he is
nothing. Lord Roseberry. who IS a born
d-plomatist. is an eXempl.tcaton. so that
lnd-a, growing thousands of acres of pOp-
pies a government monopoly for which a
suitable market must be- found east its
sinister eye upon far CathaS. The Celes-
tials, however, AT this time, had no treaties
with any country, and what legitimate
a-ff a..
world was through the thirteen Hong
merchants at Canton The end is easily
seen clouded though it be to-day with the
heaVy fumes of the Papaver somn.fera.
- ma protested weakly against the
growth OF a plant which she felt she could
not withstand when smuggIed into her
( borders by rascaly and unscrupulous for
elgners. The British government. having
7 lhls opium monopoly. naturally did every
Jhing IN Its power 10 aid men who were at
I once Its subjects and its best customers.
/ ana dertded the Celestial protests that evil
would surely follow the fracture of the
/ rule; DO unto others as vo would have
EN- do unto you" "Noi Nov said old
1 Pam and his then governing crowd
we know a trick worth two of that
+ Besides. that's a Christian rule, and vog
I are not Christians-the rule which fits Won
[ fellows best is DO others or they'll do
/ YOU and forthwith they promptly did"
! N'A~ -%ttAAabtE (NlltStt started the OnlUm
( war by bombarding Canto and finally
/ opened up the seven ports which bv sub
| sequent commercial agreement became
4 what nave since been termed treaty ports
/ SIR Henry Pottinger being perhaps the
| unconscious prototype of that other fam
! Gus BRUSH hero, slave to duty, Cant
4 isecse of the "Mantlepiece "Tt vtas
I his duty and he did" and so profestins.
/ the Chinese had this fascinating drug
/ FORCED upon him, and il he hits the pipe''
/ with more iluercy than other nations. he
/ may reflect that II was TO a greater or
less extent the action Of a most Christian
government that forced upon him this
mixed blessing. '''''
/ AS have said, the very finest qualities
/ OF opium are grown in India. aItbouoh
Iersia ana Turkey grow a fair oualitv
/ Inc turkish opium, however Is NOT 10
! the cultivated taste of a habituaI C,binoen
/ smoker, and is used mostly bv tbe nm,
/ speakable Turk himself to further corrnrt
his vile tobacco by various seductive a.
mixtures. Persian and Turkish ori,,r,
/ answer sufficiently we'll to use rnedicinalI,,
ana me aIkaloid in the form of sulphate Of
morphia can be- OF course readily, oh
tanned from this inferior production The
/ true Celestial fumeur looks, however ~
the valley OF the Gauges, about the vicin
! lily of the regal city of Benares and its
neighboring sister. Behar, for his h1xu-
! rlous material for dissipation. and il il
! interesting to see the vast tracts devoteS
/ entirely TO the cultivation of the gaudv
/ poppy
The indian ryot always selects his ponnv
/ Ielu as near his house as he well can. SO
| that he can cultivate it with the prea+ast
/ ease for he is a lazy beggar.
The tields ars always about half an moro
/ IN size, carefully fenced in, highly ma
nured and the soil prepared in very much
! the same manner as we would prepare
tobacco beds. 1t is then cut an into
numerous squares, very much as we
check corn on the side of a hin the
small burrows composing these cheeks
being used for irrigation, for the cron
Is 100 valuable one to depend on tho
weather, and the poppy moreover. grows
better In the dry season, and so in each
of these small fields you see a tank sunk
III one end, and the poor ryot and his
wives and his children and OK and his
ass e''S, an working to keep these burrows
full of water at the proper periods
The poppy seed is sown in Novep,ber
and for period of about five weeks dur
ing February and March the inspissated
juice is collected Everyone has seen a
poppy, after having blossomed. 20 to seed
as we would say, taking on a large bulbous
head in place of its former blossom, C,,,ts
are made at sunrise in this capsule. and
the next morning the emulation is scraped
on and put into the vessel hanging at the
ryot's side just In the same manner as orr
+ local pine trees are boxed" for turpentine
After the ryot has obtained all the in
spssated juice he has "a right to expect
from mis- mornings visit, he goes to work
and squeezes this resulting mass as dry as
| possible, for the crude gum has consider
able percentage of water This driving
process continues for about month when.
the fields being bare ana blighted and the
year. gum sufficiently dry, it is carried to
the district collectors goodwin" or store
house, and, being kneaded into a mass of
uniform consistency, is rolled into balls
about the size of an orange and carefully
covered with d coating of poppy petals
called "liwa." Why this petal covering
should be called lwa have never under
stood. for liwa, as every smoker knows
means opium paste.
The poor cultivator has a pretty hard
time Of il with the government, for while
his feld-or the governments field, to be
more accurate-is in bloom, an overseer
goes around and makes a probable esti-
mate OF the yield Of the crude drug, which
the ryot IS forced to deliver OF a Ger
tain cOnsistence, and woe to the man
who does not turn in the estimated uuan-