Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-04-15

.
The Mercury resents the
epitbei, gross aud wllful e,ag
geration," ~ applied TO men quite
as disiuterestcd ~ the lecturer
aud who have lived Tor
five, ten, twenty, or bfti
years, 10 regions tra'ersed by
him. II questions the statement
that Mr.. Fraser took careful note
10y The way although scarcely
blaming him "for not having seen
the hssbless, hollow yed, tattered
opium wreck, always beseeching
for more opium" The Mercury
says: "One does not have TO 90
out Of the foreign Settlement at
Shanghai to 6ud such victims of
the pipe. A single morning any
day in the week at the Mixed
Court would have shown him
more than one poor wretch with
glittering eyes, pasty complexion,
emaciated frame, aud tattered gar
meuts, who had been driven to
theft to satisfy his craving" As
to opium smokers who have in
dulged in the costly habit for
thirty and forty years, and who
are still in fair health, the paper
says: "Those who are sufficiently
well-to-do to purchase the
drug without denying themselves
the neces Saries of life do not al
ways suffer to any considerable
extent. But to assert, therefore,
that there are no wretches in Chi
ma suffering indescribable misery
from opium smoking is as unrea
souable as to affirm that there are
no poverty stricken druukards in
Great Britain because there are
men who drink all their lives
without going to exc ass."
Mr.. Fraser's statement about
coolies who carry great burdens
on long tramps, and that through
out their lives, the Mercury DIES =
cribes as "rather tall talk from one
who coufessedly saw them but five
} months and who probably saw no
one coolie more than a few days."
| Here, now, Is the testimony given
by the Mercury as to the actuali-
ties OF opium using in China,
right where that paper has been
printed for more than half a cen
fury:
ave do not profess to he ex-
pertS on the question of opium
smoking, but we have conversed
= with hundred of smokers in their
! own laugh age and have found a
bare half-a-dozen who defended
it. Almost all have condemned il
as costly and injurious to heal b
most of them have d scrIbed
? the craving as irresistible and de,
] clare it imp sslble to break the
: habit. We have known a few
, men of exceptionally strong will
who have freed Themselves from
this terrible slavery, aud many
more who have attempted it AND
= failed. One case that has beer
8 impressed upon the memory il
that of a man who had smoked fol-
many years and reduced himself
to beggary aud to extreme ems'
8 citation of BODY, who was caution
2 ed against attempting to give uE
the pipe, but who nevertheless
, abandoned it, tn ugh the effort
caused his death. In two instances
J we have known men in well to, dc
r circumstances who have gradually
fallen iuto slavery and been re
Y duced to such extreme povert,
and loss of self respect as to sci
their wives and daughters TO OBJ
tain the means of satisfying tn
t craving, These, it will b" said
{ are rare cases. Very probabl,
v they are, hut they came t, u
}. quite incidentally aud not as tt
> hose who were IN king particular
g inquiries into the question"
T De Quincey's Confessions
nnou ba mana a rtiotio knf than or