The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-27
CAKES OF OPIUM.
THE DRUG Is PREPARED IN INDIA
FOR THE MARKET.

Pounds of the stun ON the Head.
The stun Is Pat In Vats-Great
hustle by the Men and Women
During the Mixing and other Pro-
cesses-Wcighing Out the Opium.
Some of the Employees Are Very
Expert Operatives-The Cake AS Ii
Reaches the Examiner-When the
Opium lis Ready for Export.
From the Baltimore American.
Having passed the main gate and the
guard, the visitor finds that he has only
penetrated the outer shell of the citadel
and that another formidable line of
Notifications, consisting of ratings
covered with wire netting and domi-
mated by a second gateway, has still
to be surmounted. Before the irresis-
tible authority of his pass this barrier
falls, and he is at last in the Utmost
shrine of the worlds opium house.
Skirting some lofty buildings, the ex-
plorer arrives at large courtyard, in
which about 1900 earthen jars are
lying arranged in patches of 100 each.
These jars contain the opium as it
contents, having just undergone a
rigorous examination by the superin-
tendent, are now being carried away,
one by one, by train of brawny, half
naked coolies. Each one of these con-
tains a maund of opium, equal in
weight to 90 pounds aVoirdupois, but
the men poise them on their heads and
trot away as unconCernedly as party
of ants hurrying to their nest with
hrntN RnrnTinld
We follow the men through doorway
on the left into a. room in which, for
a few seconds, 1t is not possible to
make out what Is going on, so con-
fusing to the sight is the abrupt change
from the white glare of the courtyard
10 the twilight of the lofty chamber.
1t is soon, however, discovered to be
quadrangular in shape and its central
portion is seen to be occupied by
number of stone cisterns or watts, with
walls raised about five feet from the
floor. Between every group of three or
four of these watts runs a narrow alley
at right angles to the passage around
the edges of the room. To the unin-
itiated visitor the scene is one of in
describable confusion. MIN carrying
jars of opium run in different direc-
tons; others empty-handed, run back
to the courtyard; women with basins
u
the alleys and disappear; a jangling
sound as of falling metal weights
mingle with a continuous dull splash
ing as of stones being thrown into
we'll; the high pitched tones of the
women run through the hoarser rumb-
lies of the mems voices, while now
and then the strident tones of some
person in authority cut across this
chaos of sound
se .s-f, -, G..5 IoA
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
that the drug has any attractions for
them Each of them. we notice, who
carries an. opium, jar halts a moment
at the doorway where he receives di-
rections to what particular vat he has
to take his load. There a gang of men
await his arrival, part of them seated
on the fiat walls of the vat, while the
others help the carrier to remove the
load from his head. The latter 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 into the
watts, thus producing the dull. splash
ing sound aforesaid. Climbing up the
steps alongside the walls of one of the
watts (marked as holding 1,500 maunds
or over 1900 hundred weight we find
il 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 were informed that
most of the watts we see in the room
will be filled and emptied several
times before the seasons work is con-
Guided. To step into one of these watts
would be as dangerous as stepping into
a quicksand; yet they have daily to be
entered by men whose duty it is to re-
move certain quantity of their con-
tents for the days work. The diff
Guilty is overcome by means of a board
plank on which the men stand as on
q raft.
Outside the vat, on the quivering.
spongy surface of the contents of which
these men are floating, a number of
women stand, each with a 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 basins, which are instantly bur
ried off to be weighed at a neighbor-
ing scale and then taken by the near
est alley to the check scales, where a
crowd of impatient fellow carriers sur
round a weary-eyed assistant who is
so busy that he has scarcely time to
breathe. The jangling noise of weights
and scales is caused by the operation
we have been watching. and the ap-
parent confusion existing in this part
Of the factory now ravels itself into
order and methodical work. AS fast
as the men at the check scales weigh
off a tagar of opium Gas the brass
basin is called the woman to whom
il belongs hastens with 1t to an adjoin-
ing ROOM where four oblong shallow
stone cisterns occupy each of the four
corners leaving a eross-shape passage
in the middle. In each of these watts
stand three or four muscular coolies,
whose brawny limbs, shining with
sweat, look as II 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 sledgehammer,
striking the teeth of their weapons
deep into the masses of opium and
dragging away portions of It, which
they deposit in different directions
around them.
This furious battle is only one Of the
processes by which the opium is prop
erly mixed. When the men with the
rakes have worked at II sufficient
time their place Is taken by another
set Of men, who leap into the watts,
and, selling hold of a series OF long
cords hanging from the roof trees. com
mence a slow procession through the
adhesive substance I'm which they are
standing knee deep. The men are Of