The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-21
AMONG THE OPIUM VATS.
THE STORY OF 4 TISIT TO THE CHIEF SEAT OF M4NUFA CTURE
Of the Indian Drug.

| va
 railings covered with wire netting and | dominated by second gateway, has ! still to be surmounted. Before the ire sistible authority of his pass this bar rier also falls before him, and he is at last in the inmost shrine of the worlds opium house. Skirtlng some lofty I buildings, the use of which will be ex- plained later on, the explorer arrives at a large courtyard, in which about 1 twelve hundred earthen jars are lying arranged in patches of hundred each. These jars contain the opium as it comes in from the districts; and their contents, having just undergone rig orous examination by the superinten- dent, are now being carried away one
 by one by train of brawny, half na- ked coolies. Each of these jars con tains a maund of opium, equal in weight to eighty-two pounds aVolrdu- pois, but the men poise them on their ! heads and trot away as unconcernedly as a party of ants hurrying to their nest with booty from neighborlng cornfeld. We follow the men through doorway on the left into a room in which for few seconds it is not pos sible to make out what is going on, so confusing to the sight is the abrupt change from the white glare Of the courtyard to the twilight of this lofty chamber. It is soon, however, discov- cred to be quadrangular in shape, and 1 its central portion is seen to be occu- pied by a number of stone cisterns or vats, with walls raised about five feet | ba PatWpnn QrOllD of three or four of these vats runs a narrow alley at right angles to the passage around the edges of the room. To the uninitiated visitor the scene Is one of indescribable confusion. Men carrying jars of opium run in different directions; others, empty handed, hur- " back to the courtyard; women with basins of opium on their heads race down the alleys and disappear; jan gyilng sound as of falling metal weights mingles with a continuous dull splashing as of stones being thrown into a well; the high-pitched tones of the women run through the hoarser rumble of the mems voices, while now and then the strident notes of some person in authority cut across this chaos of sound as the lightning flash pierces the heavy gloom of storm | cloud
 | It Is somewhat surprising to find that nothing but hustle and activity reign in the very heart of the Sleep Gods stronghold Hundreds of thousands of pounds of opium lie stored in this room, but there is nothing in the quick movements, bright eyes and healthy | faces of the swarming coolies to show l that the drug has any attraction for them. Each one of them, we notice, who carries an opium jar ,halts mo- ment at the doorway when. he receives directions to what particular vat he has to take his load. There a gang of men await his arrival, part of them seated cn the fiat walls of the vat while the others help the carrier to re- move the load from his head. The lat ter also hand up full jars to the men seated on the walls who proceed to scrape out the contents with their hands and throw the opium in masses l into the vats, thus producing the dull splashing sound aforesaid. Climbing up the steps alongside the walls of one 1 of the vats (marked as holding two ! thousand one hundred maunds, or over i fifteen hundred hundredweights), we find it is full to the brim of soft ma | hogany colored substance, which here and there has begun to harden into a glistening crust. This substance is opium. and we are informed that most of the vats we see in the room will be filled and emptied several times before h1 bc tc opcIldp6 TO step into one of these vats would be as dangerous as stepping into quick sand' yet they have daily to be en- tered by men whose duty 1t Is to re- move a certain quantity of their con tents for the days work The diff culty is overcome by means of broad plank on which the men stand as on a rast.
 Outside the vat on the quivering, spongy surface of the contents of which these men are floating, number of wo- men stand, each with brass basin in her hands, eagerly waiting her turn to have it filled. The men scoop up the opium with their hands and fill the ba- sins, which are instantly hurried off to be weighed at neighboring scale and then taken by the nearest alley to the check scales, where a crowd of impa- tient fellow carriers surround weary eyed assistant, who Is SO busy that he has scarcely time to breathe, The jan gling noise of weights and scales is caused by the operation we have been watching, and the apparent confusion existing in this part of the factory now unraves itself into order and me- thodical work. As fast as the men at the check scales weigh off tagar of opium Gas the brass basin is ealled) the woman to whom it belongs hastens with it to an adjoining room where four obong shallow stone cisterns oc cupy each of the four corners. .leaving cross-shaped passage in the middle. In each of these vats stand three or four muscular coolies, whose brawny limbs, shining with sweat, look as if they had been cast in bronze. They are armed with large wooden rakes, which they wheel around their heads and bring down as a boilermaker uses a sladgehammer, striking the teeth of their weapons deep into the masses of opium and dragging away portions of it, which they deposit in different direc- tons around them.
 This furious battle IS only one or the processes by which the opium is prop erly mixed When the men with the rakes have worked at it a sufficient time their place is taken by another set oe ,,,o,, r-bp loan ipto tho yatS and