The only light in the room is that furnished by three candles: two sot in tin mugs, the third on what we once a. wooden slipper, style, "The candles strychnine, dissolved in water, which the addicts take from time to time by means of crude. hypodermic syringes, ordinary Chinese porcelain spoon ig used as a container for heating the deadly drug, As the eyes get accustomed to the gloom, eight men are discerned lying the easy attitudes of narcotic stupor, They crawl and squirm from time io time, but even when lying stil their rage fail to hide the horr= {ble marks on their skin inflated by the hypodermic needle, It becomes apparent that they all have hundreds of these marks, on legs, chest, abdomen and arms, and in some cases tha spots have become infected: one man is covered with sores of this kind, They do not alt use the same needle, but no attempt is made clean the instruments between in-lections. There two types of ordinary eye-dropper or pipette and one (more expensive) made of cop The drug is dispensed by a youngish man who keeps the place in the absence of the owner. This man pot much better dressed. than hia clients, "He is himself an addict and develops that he gets his rice and four packets of heroin a day for his fervics, He sloeps in the, roam, which operates as a narcotic den da; and night, The others are beggars and thieves, that {s, petty thieves, In one corner fof the room some junk is lying which has been picked up somewhere by tone of the men, perhaps at a second: liliand shop, without the owner's Knowledge, perhaps out of a garbage the candles, but the others are not interested in anything but the drug.
Twelve Coppers Only One of the latter, an old man with tattered beard, 15 about to make Purchase. He pays twelve coppers for hal a small packet of heroin: strychnine. 'The price of the whole powder is 22 coppers, it develops, Dut one-half is enough' for an inject: tion. The keeper carefully "counts and tests the coins og he receives them, With unsteady hands the grey-deard goes about mixing the drug with water in a spoon, then heats the mixture over one of the candles, The purpose of heating the substance ts t0 et a belter solution, The rest of the Procedure is too loathsome to watch: the old man has some dimeully In finding a suitable spot on his scarred body. The sheer horror of the whole scene becomes unendurable, We leave abruptly, As we retrace our steps and emerge from the maze of alleyways we ere confronted with two foreign beggars the open street. One is asleep. or in a stupor, on the kerb, The ether, obviously an addict, asks for alms, We hurry on, paying no attention,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.