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DON—No. VI.JM DEN.V Child of the Jago,” etc., etc. Illustrated by L. Raven-Hill.'1'wo rooms upstairs were used for smoking, the one at the ; being a sort of “ snuggery for privileged customers. The plan ]rocess were simple. There was a bedstead with a mattress on it. on the mattress a pillow or two. (hi this the customer sat. or IT or lav. as lie chose or couldn't help. Hut as a matter of fact it was . so often as might be expected that a customer would grow comatov perhaps they were well seasoned, perhaps they were moderate smokes-. It was not an uncommon practice to smoke a cigarette between u pipes of opium.The preparation of a pipe of opium took a deal longer than the smoking. There was a tray with a common little lamp on it. or perhaps a candle, and a little thing like a flattened scoop from a cayenne pepper-box, lying beside it, and the pipe was a lumbering thing, as thick as a stout walking-stick and more than half as long.- o «with a bowl that was no bowl, but a metal pan with a little hi!•• in it.John had different little jars and pots for his. “stuff, andalthough he swore vehemently that it was .alia—same—same/' it isprobable that the less educated palates were put off with an inferiorpreparation. He would dip his pin into a small pot and lift out asticky little clot scarce bigger than a pea, and this he would turn am!twist over the flame of the lamp for some little time tdl it had frizzledand spluttered to the proper degree. .Then it was dabbed upon themetal pan, over against the little hole, and the,, smoker took the pipe.He crammed the mouth piece between his teeth—it was a large mouthpiece—and brought the pan near the flame again, so as to set up afresh sizzling.*So much for preliminaries. The mere smoking was over in about four puffs. Hut they were puffs, indeed- a long, deep draw, a retention of the smoke within for a few seconds, and a thick, drysmelling whiff. Much dexterity was needed in the handling of the little clot of opium, and it must not be allowed to over-frizzle in the preparation, nor to go out in the smoking.Hut one pipeful was not all, of course. Pipe followed pipe in the case of a regular smoker, and there, as likely as not, the man sat, apparently as wide awake as if he had but just knocked the ashes out of a pipe of tobacco. It depended on the man’s habit. A single pipe would do for a novice—“do for'” him probably by way ot making him violently sick rather than by sending him into a doze. A pipe lt;! opium is not to be recommended to1 an inquirer who “only wants to try for once.And so two or three men would lounge on the mattress—-it was theo «sort of mattress that seems to warn you to stand a yard or so oil ilt;»i hours together, chatting perhaps at first, then brown-studying, and at last dreaming : and giving to the imprisoned air of the room-- slulh enough to begin with—an unpleasant, giddy quality that discouragm a long stay, even if the mattress had not also been similarly persuasio-. Hut the Chinamen, in general, were less given to excess in opium than the I.ascars and Malavs. Once or twice a Malay has gone dangerous.;. Irantic with bad opium in Pimehouse, so that it grew necessan ■knock him over with a poker.As to the games played downstairs—these were not to be seen by insiders at all. Hut no doubt there was the sort of maniac knucklebom the name of which I forget, and there certainly was Jan-tan. 1 his ait is an intricate bewilderment, encompassed by means of a heap ol bum and odd bits of brass, wood, iron, and other substances of varied sha:flung out of a box.Amazing computations are made from the se.aps, which s to have all sorts of changing values, in virtue of, or in spite ot, t shapes and material. No mere European can understand t mysteries, though at periods in the game there is an operation w seems intelligible. This is when the scraps are scraped away from heap with a stick, four at a time, till an odd number is left. H i are left, the players who have backed that number laugh aloud, grab the other players’ stakes ; if the remainder is one or two, ano. section has the laugh and the plunder. Sometimes you may see Jtv.-on board a steamer in dock, when discipline is lax and the China.. are off duty.
Newspaper Details
London West End
London, Middlesex, GB
Wed, Jul 05, 1899
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Dongfeng T.
TX, USA 03 Jan 2020
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