The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-27

long and crowded han the first sensa-
ton is one Of bewilderment. A thou
sand men are around us, all working as
II their lives depended upon the rate
at which they could turn out their
task. Again 1t strikes one very forci-
bly, that, If the poppy god sleeps his
workmen are unusually wide awake.
A number of iron cages occupy the
central portion of the room, in each
or which sits a placid weighman,
weighing out opium as calmly as the
rat bunniah in the bazaar weighs out
ms doles of adulterated flour and wee
wheaton grain. To each cage there is
little door, at which, platter in hand,
stoops an eXpectant sprite. The help
CT opium Is deftly tilted into the plat
ter and the sprite is off and lost in
the long line of similar brown imps,
all standing before their masters the
cake makers. The movements of this
sepia squire guide us to where the
cake makers sit, arranged in two long
rows on the opposite sides of the room,
Upon the walls over each mans head
Is white circle with his number in
black painted on it.
Let us stand before No. 1, who. pre-
sumably, from his number, is the doyen
or the craft and see what his deft in-
gers are making. He himself is a man
In the prime of life, with shapely head
ana fine aquiline features; a small
we'll trimmed black mustache curls
nercely over his lips, his large ewes are
lull OF intelligence, and his long, slen-
Ger myers move swiftly ana almost
mechanically about his work. He is a
Brahman of the Brahmans, and is
courteously addressed by all men of
inferior caste as "MaharaJ Great
hlng) when they speak to him. He
Is sitting on a low, sloping stool,
stripped to his waistcloth, for 1t is
May and the temperature of the room
IS unspeakable, although it is only
ABOUT o'clock in the morning. Great
BEADS OF perspiration stand on his back
ana little streams trickle down his
shoulders to hts elbows. We our
selves, though our progress has been
ielsurely swalk, are hopping our
toreheads as we go along. But Ma
hadeo Maharaj. as he is popularity
known is too absorbed in his work to
pay much attention to the heat.
lie bends down to a tray before his
feet in which lies brass cup. Near
the edge of the tray is a platter with
pot of opium on it. A small cup full
of some liquid substance, which we
are told is opium, is on his right. and
on his left is a pile of what looks not
unlike number of pancakes. but
which are really wrappers made of the
petals of the poppy flower: Hooked on
TO the edge of this tray is a little tin
boX full of paper tickets bearing his
number. Before him his assistant
kneels, reverently holding one of the
wrappers in his hands. Mahadeo
shoots one glance at us out of those
keen eyes Of his and then sets to work
with complete calmness. He has played
before bigger audience ere now, for
the great Lord Sahib who rules over
Bengal, has watched him making cakes
Tearing the leaf his assistant hands
MIN to convenient size. he deftly ar
ranges it in the brass cup and smears
1t over with liquid opium. Bit after
DIT ne ADDS. his fingers moving like
the needle of a sewing machine until
nice, soft bed of leaf has been made
Then in moment he turns the opium
INTO IL and, drawing up the edge of
the leaf covers 1t up, and, in a man.
ner which battles description, makes in
few minutes a perfect sphere. which
he shakes out of the cup on to the
palm of his left hand and adorns with
one of the little tickets from his tin
box. He then hands the cake, as the
sphere is called, to his attendant. who
receives it carefully in the palms of his
joined hands. for it is yet soft and
pulpy, and bears it away to the ex-
aminer.
The examiner has not much trouble
with this cake, which is symmetrical
in shape and of the correct weight. 1t
is once more handed to the sprite, who
takes it off to a large box in which a
powdery looking substance resembling
fine bran is kept, and dusts half OF il
with this. Next, fitting II with a little
earthen cup from a stack of these
articles, he carries II out into the large
ne-paved yard we crossed when on
our way to the malkhana or storeroonl.
Here he deposits it in front OF a metal
plaque bearing the wOrkman's number
and hurries back to see that his mas
ter's wants are properly attended to.
The cake of opium is in shape much
more like a 30-pound round shot or
some large fruit than a cake. The
name has, however. become so welded
with the history of the manufacture
that, although inappropriate, IL cannot
now be changed. A cake of opium
then, when mature. is not unlike an
overgrown wood apple in appearance
and color. The outer surface is gray
ish and smooth. When cut open the
likeness to a fruit of some kind Is still
more striking. for the layers Of leaf in
which the cake is wrapped then pre-
sent the appearance of a rind about
half an inch thick, while the opium
resembles the pulp of the fruit
It is not until the winter begins, or
some six months after manufacture,
that the cakes are considered mature
enough for export. They are then
packed in large wooden chests, made
in the northwestern provinces of
mango wood and are sent to Calcutta,
where they are disposed of by monthly
sales, to the opium merchants, and,
through them, find their way to China
and the Straits, the market for all the
opium made up in this form. That
which is used in India itself is manu-
featured differently. being first dried
in shallow trays in the sun till it
reaches certain degre of hardness
looking extremely like cakes of trans
parent soap.
"THERE's NO PLACE LIKE HOME"