The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-16
CHINA'S ANHOPIUM OF
CRUSADE
BY Frank @. Carpenter
~ Frank @. Carpenter

mat no less than 2,500 officials, more
or less prominent, connected with the
service in Picking either
nave broken or are endeavor-
ing to break off the use Of opium.
some OF these are habitual smokers,
VINO have tried SO hard to quit tina
they have died in the attempt. Take,
Tor instance, Wen Hal. He was one
OF the highest scholars of the empire,
and was connected with the grand
secretariat. To hold his job he signed
a declaration hat he was not an
opium smoker, and then stopped
using the drug. He died a few months
ago. Tsai Chang, another noted Of
nclal, was cashiered for smoking. He
is i'll in consequence, and it is said
will not recover. Chi Chang, the act
ing governor Of the province of AMI
wal, died the other day for the same
reason. and there are many other old
smokers who are said to be i'll.
According to the new laws, which are
more or less evaded, the smoking of
opium means immediate dismissal.
Government detectives or censors have
been instructed to shadow the officials,
and those who claim to have broken
off the habit are rigidly watched.
Just the other day a private secretary
of one of the cabinet ministers was
found to have several ounces Of opium
on his person., and a eques for his
was CC11l l. LII
one Of the papers his morning I see
a dispatch stating that Prince Chung,
one Of the imperial opium commits
~sioners, has just denounced twenty
high officials who have lied is to their
use of the drug, n that he demands
their dismissal. Last October two
Of the imperial princes were
ordered to resign their posts that they
might give their entire time to the
eradication Of their craving for the
drug, and at the same time. as an
act of mercy, three months of extern
sion were allowed to certain civil and
military officials who had not obeyed
the imperial edicts.
The crusade is being extended even
to the ladies Of the palace. They
have been warned that they must
stop smoking, and certain of these
noble danes, who have been secretly
selling opium to their friends, have
been told that if they continue they
will be imprisoned.
Among the Viceroys.
The work of stopping the evil among
the clerks outside Picking has been
delegated to the v%iceroys and govern
ors. There are twenty-five provinces
in China, and the work in each Of
these is going on rapidly, or the re-
governor. In Szechwan. a state in
the far west bordering on Thibet, one
of the new district officials invited all
Of his subordinates to a dinner. He
Toasted them we'll, but, as they were
about to leave, he closed the door,
saying he intended to keep all with
him under lock and key for the next
three days to earn whether they were
free from the opium habit. He knew
those who were would show nervous
ness; and in this way he could learn
how to enforce the new laws.
It is believed that many of the
viceroys are still secretly smoking;
have asked h prince regent to
call a meeting at the capital Of all
the vicerOyS, governors generals
of the army who have reported that
they have broken off the habit. When
they appear they will be subjected to
a test to show whether or not they
have lied. Since this one viceroy has
asked for some time for some Of his
officials, and Others have established
opium hospitals and cures.
Closing the Dens.
In nearly every province of China
there has been a general closing of
the opium dens. In some cities a
back-door business is still going on,
but the public smoking has become IN
popular and dangerous, and the chief
opium used is now behind closed
doors. In Shanghai all the ems in
the native town have been shut, and
fully half Of those in the foreign con-
cessiOns wiped out. The foreigners
propose to clean out the evil in their
part of the city by 1910. In Wuchang
the shutting up of the dens has con-
siderably diminished the arrests for
and one Of the policemen says
this is largely because he does not
know where to go to look for Grim
inalS.
In Foochow there were $40 dens at
the time the edict was issued. They
were all closed on the first Of the
fourth month of the year following
and are still shut. The same is true
of Ichang, although the shops for the
sale of opium are still open. Kashfns,
which for years was one Of the worst
opum-smoking places in the province
Of Chekiang, has abolished its opium