The Winslow mail., 1916-08-25

horrible, darksOme street, where lights
are few and shadows many. 1t is not
nice place to visit alone. The houses
are of the two-story kind, broken here
and there by dingy shop fronts. On
the left is the haven of the Americans.
1t is run by Chinese whose name is
known to every American opium fiend
from New York to San Francisco For
years it has been the mecca of pipe
hends visiting London. The interior
is as dingy as the exterior. Several
rooms are lined with rude hunks and
the dim light of the oil lamps shows
filthy paper and faded cheap chrome
or two.
The Chinese who runs the place is
OF uncertain age. He might be sixty,
seventy or one hundred. With soft
felted slippers he pads about from
room to room giving to each customer
his proper degree of attention. He
never forgets a patron and in some
mysterious manner keeps in touch
with all their movements and happen
ings. How he does it no one has been
able to fathom because he has never
been known to leave the narrow pre-
cincts of his own narrow street. Per-
haps it is because his world comes to
him. Yet, like some Chinese Moriari-
ty, he seems to be the center of a
web whose fibers never loosen
Haven for Expatriated Crooks.
tfMhnrn fc r.
one night.
"Oh, he South Africa, Joburg this
week, next week Cape Town"
What's become of S.?'' mentioning
the name of man who had been cut
ting a suspicious dash around the
West end hotels.
You no hear? He went back New
York. Pinched, forgery; doing three
year stretch. He gave me bad check
-forty-two dollars
Another venture, and the informa-
ton was promptly forthcoming that
the man was dead, and so, question
after question about various American
dope fiends, from crooks to actors and
actresses; this man never was at a
loss to tell whether they were living
or dead, we'll or i'll, poor or prosper
GUS. In the present state of affairs
this queer character looms large in
securing opium for the ring.
But the clientele in the older days
was small. Now it is large It began
to grow when the Rosenthal murder
caused many New York gunner and
other criminals to emigrate to London.
These undesirables brought with them
their usual theories about gaining
livelihood. Save that they found that
gun play was dangerous in London,
and that knitting was much safer, the
majority of them found London sim
pier than New York. The women upon
whom they preyed were not as cum
ming as their American sisters and
were apt pupils in the art Of robbery
under the influence Of drugs, so the
expatriated crook simply gave him
self up to life of ease, with very
little necessity to resort to violence
except in an occasional fight with
those of his kind.
The drug habit spread rapidly
among the women. From opium smok-
ing they quickly passed to cocaine
snuff1ng and ether drinking, until now
it is rarity in that class to find any
body not addicted to some drug.
But with the war came new de-
velopment of the traffic. China, India
and Egypt, where the authorities had
been suppressing the opium and hash
ish habit. offered an illimitable field
of operations. The film-tin idea was
hit upon and the ring got to work in
short order The results were amazing
in their success.
Women Taught to Smoke Opium.
The restriction of night clubs In
London, where for two years women
of the better class had been following
the craze Of ragtime, raised demand
for some other sort Of palliative for
the depression of war, so the ring"
came into play again. Houses in Soho
and flats in inconspicuous parts of the
West end were taken and fitted UP In
luxurious style, and the same methods
of touting which were so successful
when the "chemin de fer'' craze was Ia
vogue in London were again employed.
Parties we're made up to see an
opium joint, The mere suggestion of
the Orient was enough to appeal to
women suffering from abnormal de-
preston after the excitement of gam
bling and night clubs. They went to
see. The furnishings Of the place with
their attractive divans and suave at
tendants were attractions in them
selves. The operation of transform.
ing the pasty opium to a puffy choc.
olate and then rolling it into g. little
pellet ready for smoking was in itself
a process of interest.
"Just try one Whit" After muir
murlngs and objections and the usual
rigmarole about it being harmful an
swered by the stock phrase, why, I
have been smoking it for years and it