Opium Smoking

It is a litlle over 100 years since the Chinese learned to snioko opium. The pernicious habit has spread with ilanaing rapidity, unlil now the Avliolc nation lias become enslaved to au insiduous drug tbat la responsible for the physioai, mental and moral ruta of million-s of human beings every year. Opium is becoming a terrible curse In San Francisco. One cannot walk a half dozen yards In Chinatown without being conscious of ita presence. lts sickly fumes come pouring fortli from basement and cellar, as through the cieffs of' Gehenna. In factory, store and office, in the homes of the ricli and the sijnalid shaaties of the poor, the air is yellow with the snvoke oí ■■dcviL's dirt." Much of the smoking that goes on is in private houses and stores, tont there are, on Spo.ford aliey, Waverly place, Bartlett and Washington alleya, and other places Bcarea of public dens where opium is sinoked night and day. Probably the majarity of the Chinese ;rí' more or loss aildicted to its use. Chinese assert that 30 per cent of confirmed sots have what the Chínese cali yui, or the craving. When a man gete that hé is ered hopeleesly eathralled. Home is deserted, family negíected, business torgottem, and the man is au otter wreek. ïhp most Bsrious pliase of the opium habit is that it has eecured a hold upen the lower and more depraved classes of whites in this city. It is no uutommon thing to see young men and women stealing into Chinatown at niglit, entering an opium &hop a ml procuring half a dollar's worth of the lethal drug. No one can look at their bent shoulders and discolored (aces without seeing how opium is stamping upon them its indelible mark. It is -vhen the opium habit becomes fixed and the era ving intense that the greatest lnjury occurs to the system. At regular times during the day there come griping pains, whieh become indescribable agony if the viotim is unable to get hls pipe. These pains subsidie with the first whiff of opium and are followed by the most delightful sensations. AVhen a man reaches this stage it is almost impossible to cure him. It is exceedingly doubtiul whether there is any kuown remedy to cure an opium sot. The Chinese have medicines in abundance. One cannot walk down a bloek without seeing a score of advertisements oí pretended inf ilüble cure. The usual opium cure is a course of puls which eontaln more or less opium and are taken in gradually decreased doses till, it i.s claiimed, the taste for the drug has gone. In the majority of cases the patiënt is only changed from an opium smoker to an opium eater.