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Sez he, "I'm most a-mind to buy one, smokin' is gittin' so fashionable, and lady-like. Mebby you'd better have one, Samantha." I looked at him witherin'ly, but he didn't seem to wither any. But a bystander spoke up and sez, "These are the pipes of opium-smokers, who have given up the vile habit. They wuz collected in Japan and presented to that noble worker, Mary Allen West."
A separate compartment has been walled off for the treatment of opium-smokers who desire by forced restraint to break off the habit.
The only reason which has led me to adopt this daring disguise is a simple one. Although I believe 'The Pidgin House' to be open to ordinary opium-smokers, it may not be open on 'lodge nights. Do you follow me? Very well. I have the golden scorpion which I suppose to be a sort of passport."
There reigned an exquisite, an almost stifling atmosphere, which made one forget almost instantaneously all the fastidious horrors of life; there I breathed a sombre sensuality, like that of opium-smokers when, set on the shore of an enchanted island, over which shone an eternal afternoon, they felt born in them, to the soothing sounds of melodious cascades, the desire of never again seeing their households, their women, their children, and of never again being tossed on the decks of ships by storms.
But effects may be felt, though we cannot represent them by figures. Go with me some evening through the Chinese quarter of our city; note the faces of the loungers in every door-way and at every corner. Watch the expression, or the want of expression, in these stolid, brutal, repulsive faces of opium-smokers and gamblers. Then step over with me to the Chinese mission-house two squares away.
The presence of the crouching figure had created a sudden semi-silence in the den, which could only mean that some of the supposed opium-smokers had merely feigned coma and the approach of coma. Nayland Smith lay like a dead man, and trusting to the darkness, I, too, lay prone and still, but watched the evil face bending lower and lower, until it came within a few inches of my own.
The Council of State at once drew up regulations designed to carry out this decree. They were among others: That all opium-smokers be required to report and take out a license. Officials using the drug were divided into two classes. Young men must be cured of the habit within six months, while for old men no limit was fixed.
Perhaps no more of the Pipes," and she thought he showed involuntary disgust of the opium-smokers. "But other subjects of mine who must be catered to. Oh, dear, yes! Being a king is not all it is cracked up to be, I assure you." For some reason Ruth felt more alarm because of this last statement of the poor old man than of anything that had gone before.
But a member of the Emperor's cabinet, or Grand Council, tells me that 95 per cent, of the public officials who were formerly opium-smokers have given up the habit, or have been dismissed from office.
A few mats were strewn about the floor. Opium-pipes, tins, and a pack of cards were on this box. All the bunks appeared to be occupied. Most of the occupants were lying motionless, but one or two were noisily sucking at the opium-pipes. These had not yet attained to the opium-smokers Nirvana. So much did Gaston Max, a trained observer, gather in one swift glance.
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