Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1883 — Opium Smoking. [ARTICLE]

Opium Smoking.

bis low, miuioal wsy. “i sometimes smokee till Ino can sleepee. Then I walkee about, and then I smokee again* His grave, still manner suggests that he lives somewhere nearly midway between the world of reality’ and the land of dreams. Even while he is speaking, he retires io a small dark room at the back of his shop, and sinks down with legs crossed, on a low bed. The appliances for opium-smoking are already there, just as he has left them some time before. They consist of a wooden tray, a lamp, a small receptacle for opium, a piece of strong wire, and a pipe. The latter is a cumbrous implement, somewhat resembling a flute, with a cupshaped piece of wood fitted into the mouthpiece. The lamp is diminutive, and is covered by a sort of inverted glass tumbler with a small round hole at the base. Resting his head upon a K‘” >w, Shy Lee draws the tray towards and begins to prepare his pipe. The process is long and tedious, but apparently productive of a deep and solemn delight. Shy Lee proceeds slowly, carefully, and with a solemn smile. A little of the opium is taken up on the end of the piece of wire and held over the lamp, where it half burns and half boils, as if it were resin. Then a little more of the opium is taken up and similarity treated. When it is burned sufficiently, he rolls about on the bowl of his pipe, still attached to the wire, until it has been converted into a small cone. This he inserts into a perforation in the wooden cup already mentioned, withdraws the wire, and flattens the opium with his finger He is now ready to smoke, and holding the bowl of his pipe over the light of the lamp, he sucks at the mouthpiece with a vigor unknown to ,ordinary smokers, at the same time expelling the smoke through his nostrils. Twenty seconds or so, and he again goes through the same labor of preparation, with the same smile of enjoyment. As he consumes one little cone of opium after another a film comes over his eyes, and he stares with set features; but he is still sufficiently conscious to be aware that some courtesy is demanded of him, and so he dreamily prepares another pipe and hands it to his guest.— New York Herald.