2
THE BATTALION.
arrived in the suburbs of Chinatown without coming in con
tact with anything happening worth mentioning, we pro
ceeded to the heart of the business district, where very few
white men had been in a long while. It must have been
about nine o’clock when we went into a place that looked
like a saloon, and drank a cup of tea and smoked a pipe of
opium. The place was crowded with well dressed Chinese
men and women who were playing some strange game that I
had never seen before. It was played with small glass balls
and was very interesting. The pipe of opium that I smoked
had a very delighful effect on me and I would have smoked
another pipe but Mr. Adams would not let me. As soon as
we were out on the streets again Mr. Adams informed me that
the place was one of the most famous gambling concerns of
its kind in the world outside of China. The detectives had
been trying to trap its owner for ten years, but had been
baffled in every move. Two or three doors further down the
street, we went into another opium den. There was a great
difference between this one and the first. Here we saw a
number of men and women lying around on the floor in a
stupefied condition, caused by smoking opium. From here
we went through several trap doors and down into a gloomy
subterranean passage for a short while, and finally came to a
flight of steps which led out onto a housetop. The people
here were well dressed. Mr. Adams told me that several de
tectives had very mysterously disappeared from this house
top and had never been heard ol since; therefore we did not
resist the temptation to move on.