"Why did you say that opium-smoking was so dreadful?"
"You shall hear all about it, and then judge for yourself. The opium-smoker, whilst engaged with his pipe, thinks of, and cares for, nothing else in the whole world besides, and generally lies down to give himself up to its more full enjoyment. Holding his pipe over the flame of a small oil-lamp beside him, he lights the opium, and then gently draws in the vapour which proceeds from it. Sometimes people smoke in their own houses, and sometimes they resort to horrid places regularly set apart for opium-smoking. In Hong-Kong, where we are going, there will be many an opium-smoker who will buy this drug in quantities when he cannot even afford to purchase clothing.
FAMILY SCENE—AFTER DINNER
"If a man make a practice of smoking opium at stated times, even should these times not be very frequent, he so acquires the habit of smoking, that if, when the pipe be due it is not forthcoming, he is quite unable to do his work, and wastes all his time thinking of and longing for his pipe. The habit is sometimes acquired in less than a fortnight. Opium may first be taken in a small quantity to cure toothache; the small quantity leads to large quantities; the large quantities, or even small ones taken regularly, lead at last to the man becoming an habitual opium-smoker: and this means that the victim's health becomes injured, and that he is unfit for any work. If he then leave off his opium, he becomes ill, has dreadful pain, which sometimes lasts till he smokes again; he has no appetite for food, cannot sleep at night, and looks haggard and miserable. Sometimes if opium cannot be procured by him he dies.
"And these men make themselves slaves for life to this horrid drug, knowing before they touch it what it will do for them.
"Opium-smoking makes rich men poor, honest men thieves, and poor people even sell their children to obtain the drug."
"And can't they be cured, father?" Sybil asked.
"Medical aid has been brought in to help them, but it generally fails; and every now and then we hear of an opium-smoker becoming a Christian and then overcoming the vice, but this is also very rare indeed. And what does this teach us, children?"
They thought. "Never to acquire bad habits, I suppose," said Sybil, "for fear they should grow upon us."