Oh HEAVENS no. But… well, y' know, they were much like “crack houses” in the parts of a modern American city where taxis won't take you: They're not legal, and the cops might even know where a good many of them are, but shut one down and another opens the next night, and meanwhile you've kicked up a ruckus and it's not worth it.
There was another risk, too, at the time: What was called “slumming.” Sergeant McCloskey raids an opium den and runs 'em all in… and among them is Judge Brewster's wayward son… and officer McCloskey will be lucky to be walking a beat in Hell's Kitchen for the next five years.
It just wasn't worth the risk, unless matters became so flagrant that the local Decency busybodies complained. City politics - it swirled constantly up and down and around.
ok this may sound like a very stupid question, but why is it, a lot of opium den pictures I see, people are almost always on a table, or up in a high place?
… я спустился вниз. При свете мигающей керосиновой лампочки, висевшей над дверью, я отыскал щеколду и вошел в длинную низкую комнату, полную густого коричневого дыма; вдоль стен тянулись деревянные нары, как на баке эмигрантского корабля
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MIght be worth noting that the British had promoted opium use among the Chinese as a way to make rebellion more difficult by crippling a segment of the population with an addiction. As for people sitting high off the floor. I think part of it was just to get paying customers off the floor, not always the nicest of places to be in urban settings (especially for those that were slumming. They probably paid extra). Also, I've seen other photos where smokers were stacked (sort of like the miners in the other post) in sort of bunk bed arrangements simply to maximize use of the available square footage. Just business.
Also wanted to mention the Steely Dan song "Time Out of Mind", the chorus speaks of 'chasing the dragon' a song about manipulating others.
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Top picture, the woman on the far right is holding one, and I believe there's another on the table under the feet of the three sitting aloft.
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Oh HEAVENS no. But… well, y' know, they were much like “crack houses” in the parts of a modern American city where taxis won't take you: They're not legal, and the cops might even know where a good many of them are, but shut one down and another opens the next night, and meanwhile you've kicked up a ruckus and it's not worth it.
There was another risk, too, at the time: What was called “slumming.” Sergeant McCloskey raids an opium den and runs 'em all in… and among them is Judge Brewster's wayward son… and officer McCloskey will be lucky to be walking a beat in Hell's Kitchen for the next five years.
It just wasn't worth the risk, unless matters became so flagrant that the local Decency busybodies complained. City politics - it swirled constantly up and down and around.
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Many years ago a buddy of mine had a dog who somehow got to chewing the cigarette butts out of the ashtrays in the house.
When he quit smoking the dog about went crazy.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Twisted_Lip
… я спустился вниз. При свете мигающей керосиновой лампочки, висевшей над дверью, я отыскал щеколду и вошел в длинную низкую комнату, полную густого коричневого дыма; вдоль стен тянулись деревянные нары, как на баке эмигрантского корабля ( ... )
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Also wanted to mention the Steely Dan song "Time Out of Mind", the chorus speaks of 'chasing the dragon' a song about manipulating others.
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