Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-09-24
OPIUM CORRUPTS CHINESE,
Placed Among the First Two or Three
Biggest Sins of the Great
Empire.

The effect of opium smoking on the
Chinese is demoralizing They place
it among the first two or three great
sins, yet after living among the peo-
pie Is years, | unhesitatingly assert
thst it is not so demoraliZing as III
coholic liquor, writes DR.. j. Fl. Nc
Cartney, in Good Health" Opium
smoking is the twin sister of prosti-
tuition, the position occupied by the
drink traffic in this country.
1t leads man to squander his prop
erty for that which is not bread, and
in this way brings suffering upon his
family. One thing can be said in its
favor, however, as compared with alco-
hOlic drinking-the smoker does not
beat his wife or children, neither does
he commit murder while under its in
fuence. The greatest harm is that
which he brings upon himself. 1t
makes a man who is dishonest more
dishonest You seldom meet with an
opium smoker upon whose word you
can depend. Very few, if any, who
smoke will acknowledge that they do
smoke, although they may have all the
breath, his peculiar complexion, the
stain upon the fingers. This condi-
ton tends to make any record which
we take among Out-patients in the dis
pensary unreliable.
The majority of Cinnamon smoke be-
cause they have been invited to do 50
by some friend, and for fear refusalwill
offend they take their first pipe. Many
smoke because they have been rec
commended to do so by a physician or
some friend for the cure of some dis
ease-bOwel trouble of some kind,
bronchitis, or malalia. Some physic-
ians have gone so far as to claim
prophylactic qualities for opium
against malaria. The almost univer-
sal testimony from these patients is
selves victims of the pipe, the second
condition being worse than the first.
Business houses have rooms fitted up
for prospective purchasers, making
their sales through the pipe instead
of the glass, as in our own land. l
have yet to meet the first Chinaman
who attempts to defend the pracice
of opium smoking, which is quite 4
contrast to those in our so-called
Christian country who try to Justify
the liquor business.
Read what Mr.. Tong Kiai Son, one
of the Chinese members on the Opium
Commission. says upon this subject:
Go with me, gentlemen of this COM
mission, over that broad and once fair
stretch of western China, where the
ravages of the curse have been most
evident-the provinces of Szechuan,
Yunnan, Kweichow, Kansu, and Shen-
sian area comprising a large pro-
portion of the Is provinces. Visit the
dismal and wretched novels, which,
were it not for opium, would be happy
homes; see the emaciated, depraved
multitude of victims to this vice; OBJ
serve the abject poverty,-and notice
for the cause of it all the wide fields
once covered with waving gold of rip
ening grain now given over to the cul-
tivation on the poppy
The effects of opium smoking upon
the body are those that one would nat
uarally expect AS the secretiOns dry
up, and the bowels become inactive
mot moving more than once a week,
and | have frequently met with cases
where they moved as seldom as two
or three times a month";, the patient
invariably becomes cOnstipated to an
extent one would hardly think posi-
BILE.
A chronic bronchitis is produced
which is difficult to deal with, and
loss of appetite and other symptoms
which would follow constipated con-
dition The patients rapidly lose flesh
and become physical wrecks.