THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER
THE first man to enter the Opium Refuge in Hwochow, as patient, was
named Fan of the village of Southern Springs. He came from a once
wealthy clan, now reduced through opium smoking to comparative poverty.
He had not yet reached the stage of positive want, but that condition is
never far from the habitual heavy smoker, and should he continue a few
years longer, beggary will be the ultimate fate of his wife and family.
The temptation was at his very door, for all the best-watered land
surrounding Southern Springs was given up to poppy cultivation. During
the time when the plant was in flower, the village nestled amidst some
hundreds of acres of exquisite iridescent bloom. The beauty was
shortlived, even as the seeming prosperity of the grower, and but a few
days later Southern Springs stood amidst bare brown fields of dry poppy
heads, scarred by the cutter's knife, exuding in thick drops the
poisonous juices--a striking picture in the eyes of all men of the fate
awaiting the smoker, who, lulled by the insidious charm of the
fascinating drug, would finally be the only one unable to see himself a
hopeless, helpless, degraded wreck.
At the close of three weeks' treatment in the Refuge, Fan returned home
a new creature, restored in body and mind, and with a heart renewed in
hope. In his own immediate family were several members, victims as
himself of the deadly drug, and amongst these was his nephew, adopted
into the family on the footing of a son since death had robbed him of
the last boy who might pay the filial sacrifice of tears and
lamentations at his tomb. Moreover, his wife's keen intelligence and
strong will were gradually being subjugated by a growing apathy, result
of her secret habit. On these two Fan urged a plea to give the Refuge a
trial, and his nephew, impressed by the evident good result in his
uncle's case and the assurance that the treatment had induced very
slight suffering, pronounced himself willing to try the experiment; his
wife, on the other hand, repudiated with scorn any such suggestion.
Another few weeks saw the young man return to Southern Springs loud in
praise of all he had seen and heard in Hwochow. He recounted all his
experiences, every detail of the treatment, the number of pills
swallowed, and the care with which the strength of the pills was graded
from the powerful "Pill of life" to the lesser "Pill of strength" and
the final "Pill of restoration."
He also knew by heart a number of verses from the New Testament, and
could sing hymns written by Pastor Hsi on the subjects of salvation and
the sin of opium smoking, several of which numbered twelve verses in
length.
All this caused much stir in the village, and became the general subject
of conversation when the men were home from the fields, during the
twilight hour devoted to social intercourse. He was referred to as a
competent authority on all matters relating to the ways and habits of
those "foreign devils" who went to and fro between the various stations
which they had opened, and even penetrated into the villages amongst the
homes of any who were rash enough to risk having them under their roof.
Both uncle and nephew had secretly entirely changed their opinion
concerning the foreigner and the Christian doctrine which he inculcated.
Fear had given place to confidence, and one or other would frequently
walk the four miles to Hwochow on a week day, or better still on Sunday,
to sit an hour with the Refuge-keeper, whom it was hard indeed not to
trust, and who always had some good matter to unfold and kind, earnest
words with which to help a man in the hour when his old vice threatened
to ensnare his soul afresh. Little sympathy was to be gained at home.
Mrs. Fan still took opium, endangering her husband's and nephew's
principles as they returned, weary from work, to a room reeking with the
odour so attractive to them.
She was a woman of no ordinary character, exceptionally intelligent,
strong-minded and wilful, capable in every duty which falls to the
woman's share in the home; by nature hard working and ambitious, in
physique of a pronounced Jewish type. Not easily led, and impossible to
drive, she flew into such a passion when her husband ventured to tell
her that two lady missionaries had arrived, and were prepared to
receive women as patients in the Hwochow Refuge, and gave such rein to
her tongue that he, poor man, was thankful to escape beyond earshot of
her loud recriminations and curses.
If his words were silenced we may believe that his actions were speaking
louder and more effectually, for influences stronger than the woman
realised were even now at work, preparing to overturn all her
preconceived prejudices and hatred of Christianity and its followers.
The climax came more suddenly than could have been anticipated,
revealing to herself and others the extraordinary change of viewpoint
which had been silently working during weeks of apparently unchanged
opposition.
On returning from the fields one evening, Fan found his wife in an
unusual state of activity, whilst the three little girls who constituted
his family formed a tearful group on the _kang_. With characteristic
abruptness Mrs. Fan delivered the information: "I am preparing to go to
the city Opium Refuge." Scarcely able to credit her statement the
husband stood aghast, and she explained: "It is no good, the children
are taking it too."
A terrible statement, yet true, for whereas she knew that she had often
pacified the tiny baby's fretfulness by puffing a few whiffs of the
smoke into its mouth, she had that day made the discovery that, as soon
as she herself lay down to sleep off the effect of her dose, the two
elder girls would seize on the opium pipe and share all they could get
from it, so that already, unknown to herself, the craving was well
developed in them.
To the Refuge they must all go, and the next evening saw a cart at the
door into which were being stowed various bundles of clothing wrapped in
blue-and-yellow cloths, each bundle having attached to it a small piece
of scarlet cotton to ensure luck on the journey. Flour and millet for
food, and other necessaries were piled up behind the cart, and the
children were packed inside and told to keep quiet, for they were
leaving at night to avoid the jeers of the villagers. The father sat
upon the shafts, the mother cross-legged inside, and after an hour's
drive the city gates were sighted, and soon the party was welcomed at
the Mission House.
A very few days in the Refuge served to largely alter the tenor of Mrs.
Fan's mind. The woman who took charge of her was a kind,
confidence-inspiring body, with nothing of the "foreign devil" about
her. She would hear no harm of the missionaries, and flatly denied that
children were enticed on to the premises to be done to death by foul
means, or that the foreigner's blue eye could see corpses in their
coffins, or that magic incantations were used by means of which all who
drank their tea must become their followers.
All these questions and many others relating to the personal character
of the strange beings were asked during the long night watches when
sleep evades the opium patient, and the nurse helps to while away the
dreary hours by satisfying her curiosity. Then at dawn the longed-for
dose of medicine is administered, after a prayer that the "medicine may
heal her body, and the blood of Jesus cleanse her soul," and she may
settle to a doze which daily becomes more natural and peaceful as the
body returns to a normal condition of being.
Mrs. Fan saw that much was introduced by the foreigner in the wake of
Christianity which her alert mind recognised as being all to the
advantage of women. Even the old Refuge-keeper could read a little, but
she was quite dull and slow, whereas without much trouble Mrs. Fan
herself could master quite a number of new characters every day, and a
few hours had been enough for the initial lesson of reading the large
print rhyme:
"There is but one true God, the Heavenly Father He,
Who feeds and clothes and pities me.
The only Saviour, too, who can my sins forgive,
I trust and hearken to His word, Jesus my Lord and Saviour.
Jesus loves the sinner, Jesus pities me,
He gave His life, He washed me clean, He verily hath loved me."
It was quite evident that a certain amount of education lay within her
own grasp, and quite unlimited possibilities were open to her three
daughters. The sinfulness of binding up the feet of girls was touched
upon, and a strong determination took form in her mind that her girls
should be among the first who would have natural feet in the
neighbourhood, in spite of the lurking fear that all three might be left
as old maids upon her hands if no man might be found bold enough to risk
the disgrace of a wife with normal feet. A short length of white cotton
material was procured, and the three little ones were soon free of
compressing bandages, each wearing a pair of calico socks and little
red-and-yellow shoes, ornamented on the toe with a grinning, whiskered,
tiger's face.
These girls were all destined to lives of signal usefulness in the
Church. Two of them labour still as teachers and evangelists among their
own people; the third was early prepared by intense suffering and deep
wrongs to be removed by death to the realm where the "wicked cease from
troubling and the weary are at rest."
THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL
"Happy the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
"A white bird, she told him once, looking at him
gravely. A bird which he must carry in his bosom
across a crowded public place--his own soul was
like that!
"Would it reach the hands of his good genius on
the opposite side, unruffled and
unsoiled?"--WALTER PATER.
"To radiate the heat of the affections into a
clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it,
but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or
the pressure of hand or lip--this is the great
martyrdom of sensitive beings--most of all in that
perpetual _auto-da-fe_ where young womanhood is
the sacrifice."--O. W. HOLMES.