Thoro are a few opium palaces at the Eandsomaly farnished with richly cushioned jerts und in the large cities which are a¢
couches of rosewood and marble, and to these the wealthy resort. 'To the whole number, however, they are not one in ten-thousand. For the' 9,999 a heavy curtain in front to Breeze drives away the volatilised drug—is event the ingress of air—for a slight
ign of aden. The room is dark and filled with sickening fumes, and around the wall on beds covered with a strip of matting lie the wretched sons of Han. To go into the room has the same effect on the Westerner as mal de mer. These dens are suspected as the haunts of bad characters, '20 each one in Sonchow has upon the door a broad white circle to indicate the place to the police.
Efforts in years past have been made in many cities by honourable mandarins to close these dens. This has a salutary effect, for though the smoker may use the drug in his home yet the temptation to those the have not the habit fixed and to those who "trent" is taken away. The leader in this, in Kiangsu, was the late Governor Ten, a Martin Luther, who closed the thousanda: of dens, and on the door of seech private residence had registered the numbers of opium smokers within, so that it could be seen that there was no increase.
The people were seized with terror and many threw away their pipes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.