Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-01
THE CURSE OF CHINA.
What England Has Done for the
Celestials.

Mr.. Francis H. Nichols author Of re-
cent volume entitled Through Hidden
Shensi." gives a graphic account Of his f1f-
teen hundred-mle journey from Picking to
Sian, undertaken to investigate famine con-
ditions for the proper distribution of a re-
lief fund. Mr. Nichols, trusting in Prince
Ching's safe conduct and in the promise of
the emperor to protect foreigners, made the
journey unmolested and came to have a
high regard for the people among whom he
Travelled, and a respect for their civilization.
Il appreciated" he says, 1.-The seeming alb
surdity of a modern's attempt to pass the
torch of an imported civilization to a land
where it's own had always burned. 1 began
to look upon Homeric literature as recent,
and to regard as experimental a theory Of
government that began only with Magma
Charta."
Mr.. Nichols graphic description Of those
opium villages" which present q COM
pleteness of misery unknown to western
civilization Is as follows:
Such village, whose wretchedness and
degradation | inadequately describe, Is
known throughout the surrounding country
as an opium village. No matter how
cheerful and gay my escort of Shensi police
might be. they always became silent, and
their faces grave and serious, whenever we
passed a place of this kind They almost
invariably kicked their ponies ribs vigor-
ously as We approached 1t, and rode through
at a gallon. The shi jang was very loath
to talk about opium villages. The subject
was evidently dstasteful to him. He would
usually shake his head evasively when I
| asked him about them, and his answers as
Wang translated them, were invariably to
the effect that they must all die sure
There is no hope for them Opium has got
them
But from missionaries in Shensi and pro-
vincial officials I obtained some further
account of the havoc wrought by opium in
the northwestern provinces Of China. Every
year a number Of the mountain settlements
succumb to the blight OH the land and sink
into opium villages The entire population
becomes addicted to the habit simultaneous
ly The drug is introduced into village
Some one delighted with the sensations
which follow his first SIN oke tells his neigh
bors. They all experiment with it. They too,
are all charmed with the happy Oblivion
| it gives to cold and fatigue and the dull
| monotony of their lives. Men, women and
children begin Systematically to smoke
they become its victims. Their fields are
neglected; they cease to care for nourish-
ing food; the only interest they have in life
Is the fatal fruit Of the poppy; they cease
to be recognized as human beings: they are
only jewellers in an "opium village" From
that time their doom is sealed Their VII
lage is Stunned as far as possible by every
one. and they are referred to as a company
of the lost, very much as though they were
| already dead. By degrees all that they
have In the world is spent to satisfy their
cravings for opium. Either as direct re-
suit of Its use or because of the exposure
and neglect incident to it, they die, one by
one, until what was for centuries a dwell
ing place of peaceful, contented husband
men becomes only Shapeless mass of
crumbling walls and roofless houses desert
ed and untenanted, where no sound of hui
man voice breaks the mountain stiffness
and where the bitter Mongolian winds of
winter sweep unchecked through the wrecks
of homes