The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-04-02
CALCUTTA SLUMS.
WHAT THEY REVEALED TO A PARTY
OF VISITORS.

The Opium and Gambling Dens and Dance
houses-Depraved Human Nature In Its
| Worst Form-A Nightly Scene In One of
the Coffee Houses.
The too great zeal of native servant
was the unexpected means of enabling the
writer to crafty his wish to sec something
of the darker side of that great city on the
banks of the Hughli. where it had been Or
dained that he should dwell for a time,
and these experiences are given In The
| Scotsman. An interview with q most
charming and reasonable inspector, and
| the soothing effects Of drink cooled by
more conventional means, led to his offer
ing to conduct us around the slums.
| After some delay in mastering forces we
started to explore, forming dignitied pro-
cession. AS advance guard native police
man armed with a lantern, which we
found was much needed next, two in
| quirers into things, escorted by two in
spectors, and the rear brought up by three
more natives. One of the party who had
been in a state of unrest, bewailing the
fact that he had not armed himself with q
large stick-what unknown perils he was
prepared to brave who shall say-was
| First, then, through absolute darkness,
where we blindly followed the swinging
light ahead between rows Of native huts,
4 the caves of which on either side almost
| overlapped, so closely were they packed, to
| miserable den where some habitual smok-
ers were easily distinguished, gaunt and
| hollow checked. Our entrance seemed to
/ cause no surprise. Perhaps listless glance
1 would be thrown in our direction, but
] what change when pipe was ready and
| handed to a smoker!
| There was something terrible in the ca
gerness with which they inhaled the smoke.
1t is tedious process. Each pipe holds
but drop of opium, which, when prepar-
ed, Is in soft, sticky state. This, held on
| the point of a wire over a flame till 1t
swells to several times it's natural size and
takes light, Is pushed into the little clay
| bowl, which, inserted in straight stem
| of bamboo forms the pipe Three or four
| powerful draws exhaust the charge The
| seasoned smoker will smoke several Of
these pipes before he falls asleep. Having
seen how it was used it was interesting to
| come on one of the shops where the pre-
| pared opium Is sold. 1t was the property
| of some very amusing and friendly China
| men. Possibly the friendly spirit they
| showed was aroused somewhat by seeing
| with whom we were.
Evidently the customers, of whom there
was no lack, were viewed with distrust as
| they were only admitted to cagelike in
| closure In front Of the counter, from which
| there ran up to tho ceiling stout wooden
| bars. These people buy the pure opium at
the government auctions and then prepare
| and retail it to their emacated customers,
| to whom, needless to say, no credit is CIV
| en-. The worst feature of the habit is that
| the victim will stop at nothing which may
| enable him to get the drug. Evidently we
| were in the Chinese quarter of the town,
| for we were taken on through many turn
| ings Of squalid streets, to where some Of
| these lovers of roast pig were gambling.
Our arrival seemed to alarm some of them
probably new hands-who thought they
were doing something very wicked where
as the habitues knew that this mild form
of betting-the stakes are very small--was
| winked at by the authorities. Their chief
game was extraordinary for the remarka-
BILE skill shown by the croupier. A num-
Der of cowries were thrown on the table,
perhaps couple of hundred or so, and
partly hidden by an inverted saucer being
placed over as many as it might cover
that one might have as little idea of the 40
tual number as possible. The shells were
then rapidly raked away in lots of three.
and the players bet whether three, two
or one would be left When perhaps half
the number had been removed in this man.
ner, the saucer was lifted to get at the rest
Strange as it may seem, the moment this
was done, although there might still be n
large number of cowries left, both around
and under where tho saucer had been, the
bank ut once stated what number would
remain and actually began to pay winperA
Or course tho raking was not Interrupted,
and we could thus see if the bank was cor
rect, but in tho four games we watched
they were never wrong. Long practice
must have given them u sixth sense 1t
was not canny.
In the course Of our wanderings we WIS.,
tied three coffee houses. These consisted
of mere open sheds of great size, in which
on forms scattered about the most villain
Gus looking men Of all kinds were sitting
or squatting drinking the innocent bev-
erage from which tho places get their
name. The policeman said that one Of
these shops was generally safe draw for
any criminal they might want. 1t would
certainly have been far from pleasant to
have had to enter such place by oneself
In the center there were invariably one or
two nautch girls dancing OF the dances
perhaps the less said the better. We passed
on down a long, broad street, curiously
quiet and orderly, turned sharp to the left
| through dark gateway and found our
| selves looking through a window on ST.
| lent shape lying OH stone slab - the
morgue. One could not help being struck
by tho very orderly appearance of the
| streets, and, remarking this to one of our
guides, we learned that here, as elsewhere
over India, the prestige Of the ruling race
has great controlling power. AS fact,
the chief trouble the police have at night
Is when some sailor, maddened with the
vile liquor he has bought in some native
grogshop, breaks out. We were to have
startling example Of this. We had just en-
tered curious sort of music hall frequent
ed by very rough customers, when we saw
. sailor, who had evidently been having
some sort of dispute, suddenly pull out q
knife and go for man. They seemed to
be ready for this sort of thing, for before
he could do any serious mischief two po-
licemen were on him, and the arm that
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