Show CHINAS CURSE OF OPIUM people who become confirmed smokers tae jave te ten years year on an average seven tenths of the people of china are opium smokers and two millions of them die annually from its effects said a chinese missionary recently who has spent twenty two years of his life in the flowery kingdom this habit is rapidly growing 1 I he went on itis it ib confined to no class or sex but men and women officials and I 1 coolies coi fies use it alike As soon as opium smoking fing becomes a confirmed habit with a chinese coolie he kno knows ws that he has about ten years to live that seems seem sto to be the average I 1 consider it easier to reform a sot in the gutter one of your lowest type of drunkards than an opium smoker place them behind iron bars if you like and after being imprisoned a short time they begin to beg and plead for opium they rave like maniacs and their sufferings Buffe rings are terrible to behold they act like wild men the opium vice is ruining china the people know it and the government knows it but they take no action in twenty two years it has increased fifty per cent fertile fields that were once used in the cultivation of rice are now growing the opium weed the provinces in northern china where the terrible famine occurred a few years ago and where thousands perished for want of food had been for years given over to the production of opium instead of food grains when food was short the people found they could not live on opium so they starved to death A parallel to td thin the suffering during that famine is hardly equaled by any event in the history of the world human beings died in the streets of villages and on the roads people turned cannibals some dug up roots and others were found on the roadside where they had d died biting the bark off the trees the dead were not buried for the living had all they could do to take care of themselves now today to day rice is one third higher in price than it was a score of years ago because the crop has fallen off opium shops are everywhere you yon maybe may be traveling along with your chair coolie when the first thing you know he will put you down and leave you r sitting in the streets while he goes in to take a smoke |