FEMALE OPIUM SMOKERS IN PHILADELPHIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1107, 19 May 1883, Page 3

FEMALE OPIUM SMOKERS IN PHILADELPHIA.

Mrs Kate Chisom is the proprietress of the only opium parlor in this city. She resides in a small, unpretending' brimt house on Mount Vernon street. A silver plate on the door bears her name, but there is no other indication that the house is inhabited. The gre-n blinds are always kept closed, and the door is only openad for the patrons of the place, who silently come and go. Mrs Chisom is a pale, refioed loo' ing woman of about 35 years, and her appearance does not indicate a victim of the opium habit. As far as could lie seen in a hasty inspection of the three first rooms on the first floor, the interior of the house is furnished with a luxury rarely attempted in a house of the kind. The walls arc rich in gilding and decorations ; on the floors ars heavy Turkish and Persian rugs ; statuettes, pictures, and bric-a-brac are scattered aboyt in every direction. ‘ The rooms used for smoking are upstairs,’ said Mrs Chisom, yesterday, ‘ and of course I cannot let you see them ; but you can judge by these that no expense has been spared in fitting up the bou°e.

I came to Philadelphia on the 15th of last February, and I am quite satisfied (hat I shall do very well here. My customers are constantly increasing, and among them are some of the wealthiest ladies in the city. ’ On being questioned about her antecedents, Mrs Chisom told a story of an adventurous career,

‘ It was in New York that 1 first learned to smoke opium,’ she said. ‘I was taken by a friend to an opium parlor on Eighteenth street, kept by a Frenchwoman called Madame Fanlan. Mansfield, Monraland, and ether notorious women were regular patrons of the place. No men were admitted, and the rooms u-ere fitted up with Oriental luxury I often remained there a week at a time without seeing the outside world. Women prominent in society came there also, but, as a rule, they did not smoke much ; the novelty of the thing alone seemed to attract them. It soon became too expensive for me to continue to go there, for her charges were enormous. About this time the idea of having a place of my own suggested itself to mo, I had a number of friends, and money enough left to furnish a few rooms. So I opened an opium parlor in Sixteenth street. My place soon became popular. Many of Madame Fanlan’s customers came to me, and my success was assured. I would be there to-day had it not been for the treachery of one whom I befriended.’ < Among the frequenters of the Frenchwoman’s place was a young actress, then playing a leading part in one of the New York theatres. She was very beautiful, and quite the rage among the gilded youth who affect things theatrical. She lame originally, I think, from England, and of all the opium-takers I had ever seen she was the worst. She was completely infatuated with it, and whenever she could escape from her duties at the theatre she would come to Madame Fanlan’s and smoke. A short time after I had opened my place she came to me, broken it health, and in abject poverty. I pitied her, and took her in; and gave her a home, and she proved an ing'rate, and I soon regretted my kindness to her. In order to obtain money, she informed the husbands of some of my best patrons that their wives came to my house to smoke opium. Of course this greatly injured my business in New York, but it taught me a lesson I have not forgotten,’ Mrs Chisom claims that many of the frequenters of her place on Mount Yemen street move in good society, and reside in the fashionable quarters of the city, and she seems to consider herself a public benefactress in offering a quiet retreat to women victims of the opium habit, where they can indulge in safety and comfort.