tive new arrivals in these resorts of vice. Many of the inmates
were young girls, fourteen or sixteen years old.

Less numerous than these houses were the opium dens, scattered
throughout all these streets. These haunts of the drug that enslaves
were long and narrow rooms, with a central passage and a long, low
platform on each side. This platform was made of fine hardwood, and by
constant use shone like old mahogany. Ranged along on these platforms
wide enough for two men, facing each other and using a common lamp, were
scores of opium smokers. As many as fifty men could be accommodated in
each of these large establishments. The opium was served as a sticky
mass, and each man rolled some of it on a metal pin and cooked it over
the lamp. When cooked, the ball of opium was thrust into a small hole in
the bamboo opium pipe. Then the smoker, lying on his side, drew the
flame of the lamp against this opium and the smoke came up through the
bamboo tube of the pipe and was inhaled. One cooking of opium makes
never more than three whiffs of the pipe, sometimes only two. The effect
on the novice is very exhilarating, but the seasoned smoker is forced to
consume more and more of the drug to secure the desired effect. In one
of these dens we watched a large Chinese prepare his opium. He took only
two whiffs, but the second one was so deep that the smoke made the tears
run out of his eyes. His companion was so far under the influence of the
drug that his eyes were glazed and he was staring at some vision called
up by the powerful narcotic. One old Chinese, seeing our interest in the
spectacle, shook his head and said: "Opium very bad for Chinaman; make
him poor; make him weak." Further along in this quarter we came upon
several huge Chinese restaurants, ablaze with light and noisy with
music. We were told that dinners were being given in honor of
revolutionist victories.

In all our night ramble through the Chinese and Malay quarters of
Singapore we saw not a single European, yet we met only courteous
treatment everywhere, and our curiosity was taken as a compliment.
Singapore is well policed by various races, among which the Sikhs and
Bengali predominate. An occasional Malay is met acting as a police
officer, but it is evident that such work does not appeal to the native
of the Straits Settlements.

On our return to the hotel we crossed a large estuary which is spanned
by several bridges. Here were hundreds of small boats moore