AmAp°,i,r'i87h9arm"}   Opium  Smoking  among  the  Celestials.  209 
OPIUM  SMOKING  AMONG  THE  CELESTIALS. 
By  Rich  V.  Mattison,  Ph.G.,  M.D. 
As  one  passes  through  the  Chinese  quarter  of  San  Francisco  he  cannot  help  being 
sharply  impressed  with  the  immense  traffic  in  an  article  which  is  seemingly  part  of 
the  very  life  necessities  of  this  curious  people.  We  seem  scarcely  to  pass  a  shop, 
whether  devoted  to  the  sale  of  clothing  or  drugs  or  groceries,  but  what  we  find  a 
notable  proportion  of  the  business  to  consist  in  the  sale  of  opium.  We  pass  the 
shop  of  the  merchant,  and  while  one  assistant  is  counting  out  the  gold  for  a  bill  ot 
exchange  on  the  Flowery  Kingdom, we  see  another  weighing  carefully  a  small  portion 
of  the  much  coveted  drug.  The  jeweler,  surrounded  by  the  precious  bracelets  of 
nephrite  and  phrenite,  lays  aside  for  the  moment  the  curious  golden  circlet  he  is 
filing,  to  catch  up  the  balance  and  poise  upon  the  pan  the  little  horn  cup  a  moment, 
and  ag^in  return  to  his  employment.  The  grocer,  surrounded  by  the  many  dainties 
of  Mongolian  gastronomy,  stands  under  the  rows  of  varnished  fowls,  balance  in 
hand,  dispensing  the  drug  with  the  most  imperturbable  gravity  and  solemnity.  As 
we  stand  by  the  half-open  doorway  on  one  of  those  beautiful  summer  evenings  so 
common  to  Pacific  climes,  a  young  celestial  enters  the  shop  to  return  in  a  moment 
laden  with  his  store  of  dreamy  forgetfulness,  the  absorption  of  which  transports  him,  in 
imagination,  to  his  native  land,  where  riding  in  a  gorgeous  palanquin,  with  maidens 
to  fan  him  and  coolies  to  fly  at  his  slightest  wish,  he  passes  into  his  dwelling  by  the 
KinSha-Kiang,  or  the  river  of  the  golden  sands,  where  his  wife,  with  the  feet  of  a 
mouse,  brings  his  tea  in  golden  cups,  and  so  he  passes  iuto  the  arms  of  Morpheus 
(or  Morphia's  meconic  embrace),  his  couch  covered  with  scarlet  and  silken  curtains 
with  fringes  of  golden  strands,  only  to  awake  finding  himself  lying  coiled  up  on  a 
hard  board  shelf  covered  with  matting,  his  head  upon  a  block  5  for  now  transported 
by  the  magic  lamp  of  a  private  detective  we  are  in  the  classic  precincts  of  an  opium 
den.  To  reach  it  we  have  passed  through  many  dark,  subterranean  alleys,  through 
courts  of  filth  and  squalor  and  wretchedness  to  any  other  than  Mongolian  eyes. 
On  either  side  of  the  room,  which  is  about  sixteen  feet  square,  are  accommodations 
for  twenty  or  more  smokers — shelves  rising  in  tiers  like  the  bunks  of  a  steamer's 
cabin.  In  the  centre  is  a  small  table  covered  with  the  shells,  bowls,  cups,  lamps 
and  other  paraphernalia  of  a  first-class  opium  den,  sustained  by  liberal  patronage. 
It  was  early  evening,  scarcely  midnight,  and  at  our  right  inclined  a  strong,  sleek, 
almond-eyed  native  of  a  foreign  land,  well  known  to  our  guide  as  one  of  the  most 
inveterate  smokers  of  the  city.  Immediately  in  front  of  him  was  a  small  saucer- 
filled  with  lamp  oil,  and  inverted  over  it  was  a  tumbler  in  the  bottom  of  which  (or 
the  apex  as  it  was  placed)  a  small  hole  was  drilled,  through  which  protruded  a  piece 
of  wick — this  being  lighted  constituted  the  lamp.  By  its  side  lay  an  oyster-shell 
containing  a  quantity  of  a  dark  colored  extract,  and  on  either  side  a  long  wiie 
exactly  like  the  knitting  needles  of  our  grandmothers,  excepting  that  one  extremity 
ends  in  a  small  spoon.  The  pipe  is  naturally  of  interest.  The  most  usual  style  is 
that  having  a  shaft  of  bamboo,  resembling  somewhat  a  flute  pierced  laterally 
at  each  extremity,  at  one  of  which  is  fitted  a  small  metal  cup  in  which 
to  receive  the  bowl  of  the  pipe  proper.  This  bowl  is  of  earthen  ^ox  metal, 
and  is  about  three  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  convex  on  both  its  upper  and  lower 
