The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-29
OPIUM CURE IN CHINA.
A Missionary Writes of It's Effective
 ness-Decrease in Sales.

All "AA S'i t4OiS ol tie cure OL Lue OpluHl habit in China, the Rev. W. E. Horley, missionary, says:
 During the last few weeks the Chin- ese have emphatically proved that they are desirous of breaking off the opium habit. About two months ago the mem bers of the Chinese Young Mems As sociation, in connection with our Kuala Lumpur Mission Hall, heard the good news that there had been discovered in the jungle of Negri senlbilan the leaf of a ereeper which would cure smok- CTS of the opium habit, and they be- came enthusiastic in getting the new medicine. Some of them had read the Chinese translation of the life of Pas tor Hsi, and as they perused the pages of that noble Christian life and read how he opened scores of opium refuges in China and cured thousands of opi- um smokers with his medicine they
 (the preachers especially felt that here was an opportunity to do some thing themselves
 Upon visiting the Chinese towkay, who had introduced the medicine in seremban with good effect, I found
 that the leaf had been discovered in
 Jelebu by young man who was an opium smoker. He had been told by friend to take the leaf of certain plant growing in the jungle and to boil
 it and drink the medicine. He did SO, and found that he could break off his
 opium habit. He told others about it,
 and when the Seremban towkay went
 to Jelebu to collect his house rents he
 was told of the medicine, He ordered
 his mining coolies to collect the plant for him, and then introduced 1t into
 Seremban. We asked him to let us have
 some of the leaf, and he sent us twelve
 sacks at once, The Chinese preachers
 and young men enthusiastically took
 up the matter, and the medicine was
 prepared at the mission hall. The
 news spread, and hundreds day came,
 until the mission hall and street out side became blocked with people. The demand was more than the supply, and we had to engage two coolies to help prepare the medicine. Never shall I for get the touching spectacle of these men eagerly asking for help; of children coming asking for the cure of their fathers; of wives for their husbands. Malays and Bengalees also came; Chin csc miners, merchants, scholars and shopkeepers came in their thousands, some bringing empty whiskey and
 brandy bottles, other "square-face" gin bottles, for we told them that we could supply the medicine free if they would bring their own bottles. Never have witnessed such crowd of applicants. We supplied nearly five hundred persons a day, which would mean thousand bottles of the medicine. Other places in the town began to supply medicine, un-
 til two thousand men per day were sup | piled with 1t. Men came by rail from villages thirty and forty miles away, and in the streets every second man was carrying a bottle. Depots have
 now been opened in every large town
 and village by the selangor Antt-Opium Society.
 T made inquiries of many who were taking it, and they all said, with one accord: Since taking the medicine we
 have never taken any opium. One man l who came second time for the medi- cine said that he had been a smoker | for twenty-elght years, but that he bad l broken off the habit and now he had come for a supply of medicine for his wife. He had found 1t so good himself l that he wanted her to take 1t also. They
 had together spent on opium S1.4O a day | could multiply testimony after testimony if had the time to do so | T made inquiries at the opium shops
 and found that eight retail shops were
 taking nearly $1,OOO week less, and
 that one wholesale shop was taking $1,- | 39O a day less. From good sources | have learned that there was a decrease
 in the estimated government sales of | opium from October IS to November 15 | lass of thirty chests. This would mean l about $44000 decrease in monsy-cer- tainly striking proof that the medi- cine has done good. There are proofs enough that there are not so many l smokers as formerly. A landlord c1rne l and told me that if this went on he should have to reduce his rents, and quite number have spoken of giving up their licenses.
 Some one has suggested that per- haps the patients would not be able to l give up the medicine and that it would ! take the place of the drug, but have 1 discovered that such Is not the case Being informed that in a. certain shoe shop in Quala Lumpur there were five l employees who had broken off the habit
 I went and saw them. learned that three of them had discontinued the | medicine for over a month, after talk ing it for over two weeks, and that the 1 other two employees had also broken off the opium, though still taking the med tc,ne, as they had begun taking it o1uch later than the others. The towkay ot the shop was delighted that his o,n-
 ployes had broken off their opium hab- it. and showed me with great satisfac- ltion enc of his employees whom he said
 used to be thin and siokly when he
 look the drug, but who is now fat and i well. could give hundreds of similar
 testimonies from men who have stop, lced both the opium habit and the med
 tc re.
 ! "Op!un smokers have brought their lamps and pipes to the mission hall and the anti-opium society is proof thai Tthcy have broken off the drug, and MT