The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-10
PIPE DREAMS
AND SUDDEN
DEATH
What Became of Human
Derelicts on April
Eighteenth.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31.-What
became of the derelicts that drifted
about on the human tide that ebbed
and flowed through Chinatown and
swirled along Barbary Coast, devotees
to, the extract of the poppy and hemp,
opium smokers and morphine and CO.
coaine fends. classified by the police
under the general term "hopheads"?
There were more than 1000 of them in
the districts named in the early part
of last monitor was it last year or
ten years ago? Where did they go, or
did they go? 1t is known that many
Of them left the city. but it is possible
that some are there yet-that will be
known when debris filled cellars are
cleaned.
The police say that up to within
few months before April 18th there
were at least 500 domfciled in the old
Baltimore House. cooped four or five
or more in a room, from where they
would forage for few dimes with
which to buy smokes" This money
3hey would either beg or borrow or
acquire by sneak-thievery, shoplifting
or filching junk. None had the nerve
for burglary or footpad work. Their
nearest attempt to robbery was to fol-
low drunken man until in a stupor
in some alley or stairway.
Continued raids on the part of the
police eventually drove them from the
Baltimore House, and they Joined the
others of their kind that skulked along
in the shadows of Chinatown after the
lanterns were lighted. Gaunt. emacl-
ated hollow-eyed and sallow- faced d.they |
SUNK along the walls, heads down and
"hunched," glancing furtive- |
1y from side to side. They had a caste. |
too. but it was never heard of save !
when those dregs of society We're STIR
red by a police club. The users of |
morphine and the smokers of opium |
would not associate, would not mix"
and neither would recognize the user of |
cocaine nor admit that he had any
rights they were bound to respect. The
Intrusion by one caste on another was
occasionally the cause of puny fights
that We're more noise than anything |
else.
SOME WOKE UP.
After their expulsion from the Balti-
more the smokers found quarters in st.
Mary's alley and along Stockton and
Pacific streets, on the fringe of China
town. Few lived along Barbary Coast,
the life was too strenuous and they
voyaged there only after the lights had
dfnmed and revelers had reached an
advanced stage of intoxication. Then
in the gray dawn they would stink
back to their dens as do predatory
animals after the nights raid. They
were holed up at 5:13 o'clock on the
of April 18th. Long nailed
yellow fingers had exchanged dope
for the coin they had brought 'home"
they had crawled to their hunks, and ,
from there had drifted away on a pur ,
pie cloud to fields Elysian, where !
Nymphs wove garlands and danced :
along river banks, where Bacchanals ,
urned on fountains of sparkling vim
age in every shady dell, and where 8
very lofty tree was an aeolian for the
,iay of soft zephyrs-and it didn't cost +
cent. Then they woke up-some of
hem did. The breeching broke, a
rawhead pulled out, a cylinder head $
lew off, or something-anyway their
loud burst and they awoke to look
ut on Chaos and
: Flames shooting syward
From a riven hell
Imagine, if one can, the dream and Y
hat awakening; probably some of them =
id not become fully awake; there We're y
Id walls in Chinatown not constructed q
DR. the security of the tenants. Those y
f the dreamers that did awake had no q
bought Of their personal effects. they Q
bought only of the days that might 4
ass in which they would be obliged to &
hink. Of the days and nights in which 4
heir memories might be compelled to X
-ork ard they be without the means of a
forgetfulness. With this Z
hought they raided the stocks of their
lndlords, secured what they could, =
nd thus armed went to meet their fate. =
Many of them escaped to Oakland 2
18th the Chinese. and are said to be =
overfne in or near the camps of the 9
Iongols on that side of the bay. One 0
Lrge party was sent to the upper bay, 8
resumably Vallejo. Two newspaper O
len can vorlch for the fact that they q
ere sent away. It was early Saturday q
lorning after the fire, the flames had q
orked down to the wharves, had X
ads one last desperate charge and <
cen repulsed by the fire fighters. on x
ne OF the wharves was a long line OF (
aunt men who looked like they were =
III in" Through the drifting smoke y
le head of the line could be seen up y
ear the gangway of a steamer The y
20 newspaper men, probably more y
looking than any man in Q
he line. imagined it was chance for q
,mething to eat. They had been go O
g night and day with little sleep and 4
Continued on Page 81 q