The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-19

over oil Americans and their pron
efty In China. Consequently. An,
establishment which the China.
authorities had reason to think ~
owned BY Americans would mn -
molested by them.
1t was news to Consul Adam.
however, that any hotel in Chanrss
was owned by Americans. He mad.
q surprise visit to the place Ana
bore away the sign, together with
evidence that opium was being sn,d
on the premises under the ALLEGED
projection Of the American IA,
Then, in cooperation with the M.
tive police, he broke up seyer,,
similar establishments, all ~
them claiming American owner.
ship. One of the raided places vac
an opium den in which the rdrur
was being smoked by addicts. ThI.
place actually few the American
nag on its Flagstaff.
Adams followed this with an.
other coup which Just about broke
up the opium traffic in Chanes
Learning that a certain American
agency there, then in charge Of 4
Chinese superintendent, had r..
ceived a large quantity of opiun,
he enlisted the support of the ne.
tive police and raided the estab.
lishment, discovering a secret room
in which was stored nearly a ton
of the drug, worth at retail sale 4
fantastic amount of money. Thu
consul seized this and stored il A.
the consulate. It was then his duty
to turn it over to the Chinese goy.
eminent; but civil war was in
progress, and he could not deter
| mine which faction should be a..
garded IS the government. He
soon received anonymous threa,s
Of death, and appealed to the com
mander of the American gunboat in
the harbor, who sent a guard Of
bluejackets to the consulate to pro-
tect the opium and Consul Adams.
too. Several months later order
was restored at Changsa, and the
consul turned over the precious
contraband to the government in
power. The opium was then pub
licly burned.
How China Got Opium.
While Americans usually asso-
ciate opium with China, that is not
the place where the drug Original.
ed nor the place whence comes the
greater part Of the present supply
in this country. The Caesars Of
Rome knew opium as a medicip.
The white poppy, from whose seeds
it comes, was first grown in Asia
Minor, and that district today is
the principal source of the opium
used in the United States. Ddring
the dark ages the use Of the drug
spread across Asia, reaching China
about the year 1000.
All during those centuries, how
ever, opium was eaten, and the ef-
feet Of the morphia was conveyed
to the nerve centers of the addict
through the digestive organs As
long as it was taken in this form,
the drug never became menace
to civilization, for it's victims were
few. Even in China it was used
principally as medicine.
+ Then came the discovery by the
} Chinese that the drug was much
more effective when inhaled as
smoke. That came after the dis
covery of America and incident
ally, of tobacco. Tobacco smoking
: spread from America to Europe
. and from there the English, Span.
ish and Dutch sailors took the
habit and the weed itself to Chini
BY the year 100 the Chinese had
become tobacco smokers.
The Chinese thereupon begal
, mixing opium with their tobacco
> and the opium habit spread rapid
: ly. being firmly established in Chin
: by 1900. In the early part Of th'
: last century American and Britisl
sailing ships found it as prohta5l,
: to smuggle opium into the poorl.
t guarded Chinese ports as 1t was I,
r take slaves away from the Africa
: coast. In 1880 the United State
: and China agreed by treaty t
e abolish the traffic both into Chin
t and into the United States; an,
: since then the American consul
q in China have been kept busy up
q holding our part of the agreement