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86 THE WHITE SLAVE MARKET
to-mollow he makee go. Ha, ha, ha !
grinned ;
" "
ha, ha, ha !
" she
So, I thought, this is evidently the custom
to spend the whole night under the influence
of opium, and then stagger home, like a
drunken man, whilst the early rays of the
rising sun were dispelling the dense vapours
that hovered over the waters of the Yangtze
River at beautiful Shanghai !
What I had seen was sufficient to give me
a good idea of the iron grip in which the
cursed opium pipe holds its victims.
The old woman came to me with the information
that, for "kum sia" (a present),
she would show me the house and how others
smoked the drug.
Though, as I said, I was really quite sated
and sick with the sight before me, yet I
wanted to see the natives indulging in their
favourite vice.
I followed the old woman, and she led me
through a maze of passages until we reached
a carved door. She then gently tapped, and a
grinning Chinese hoy of some sixteen years of
age opened the door.
They had a few hurried words in whispers,
and then the old hag motioned me to follow
her. On entering I noticed that the room
was as well fitted as the one in which I had
left my friend the same display of costly
furniture, except that the general arrangement
plainly showed a woman's hand.
We passed into the inner room, and
almighty Heaven! on the couch, with the