New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-06

drug-our dismal life among the natives
and now ultraviolet Parisians are &C
curing the habit from us
Yet another characteristic smokery'
lies hidden la a dark passage at the back
Of a shop somewhere not remote from the
Rue des Petits Champs-in the busy GEN.
ire of Paris. The vice is not cloaked
here by any pretence Of good manners or
better class social life. The place is run
by the lessee on purely hard cash prin-
cples of srasping greed-until some day
the police scent ii and close up the shut
ters II you wish to see the den from
curiosity you must be guided thither by
one Of the initiated. Then a whispered
word, a sign and a nod will suffice. You
pass the door at the back and follow
narrow passage leading to the basement.
At the bottom you face the usual heavy
tapestried curtains. DR. them aside
and enter. The fir. thing that strikes
YOU is a copper colored haze and people
in different attitudes-some lying. mo-
tionless, others sitting on their mats
preparing the hell brew to the desired
consistency In liliputian cups. The
pungent smoke laden atmosphere is
waited in your face, filling your nostrils
with that peculiar odor familia" TO those
who have visited opium smoking resorts
in the East. In the dim half-light OF
the smokers lamps you can watch these
victims of a health destroying passion.
Men and women lie there indiscrimi-
pately with unbuttoned collar or cor
sage opened Some are sunk in the pro-
found torpor after the trance, their bam-
boo pipes having slipped from their
limp and lifeless fingers. Ashen pale,
they lie inert, with open eyes gazing va
cantly upward. Now and then the
deathlike stiffness is startled by deep
sigh, a gasp or an exclamation muttered
low and often incOherent. Others wear
a joyous smile upon their features, their
mind etherealized. having taken wings
far away to wonderland.
All sorts Of people huddle together
here-artists of the Paris stage, notori-
Gus courtesans, merchants and business
men. They only know one another as
smokers and rarely converse-opium and
conversation are antipathetic. Draw
the curtains together and steal away
noiselessly. In a moment you breathe
again the cool night air in the streets
after the drowsy vapors of opium have
made your head heavy.
Smoking is also a pastime in bohemia
both in the Latin Quarter and at Mont
martre, where the "rapins" and their
hoir
yeteens and brigand hats, do meet in
sundry studios and smoke the :1orphetic
calumet, 10 stimulate. perhaps, the in
spirations of their genius. University
students have formed in strict private
small cosmopolitan groups 10 spend
Quiet evening in smoking the poppy
But apart from all these there are
other resorts where the practice is car
ried on such as hydrOpathic establish
ments, and, possibly most curious OF all
low class saloons sordid novels in the
outskirts of Paris, redolent of absinthe
as well as opium. Such dol existed
lately, and maybe still remains near
the walls of the city at La Chappelle, In
the midst of factories and second hand
furniture rag anu OLu llOll Sil'PS' AAA'S
den was frequented by ex-colonials and
sailors, well-to-do men of their class,
now working IN the vast beehive to the
north of Paris. who have brought the
Ia bit home with them; but they unfortu-
nately make proselytes.
The quite oorer category cannot smoke
opium in Paris. The owners Of these
"smokeries" themselves have 10 pay
from $50 to $50 the kilo, according to the
kind. and at their risks in obtaining the
drug by messenger. The best Smyrna
is dear, and the cheaper sorts of Turk
ish and Egyptian are declared to leave
a bitter, burning taste in the mouth.
However, these returned "coloniaux,'
out-at-elbow, unable TO resist the crav-
ing, purchase for a few sous the burnt
residue Of the smokers, which they swal-
low, with results that can be mag
lned c. l. B.