'Poor me, poor me, my head is so bad. Them two come in after ye. Ah, poor me, the business is slack, is slack! Few Chinamen about the Docks, and fewer Lascars, and no ships coming in, these say! Here's another ready for ye, deary. Ye'll remember like a good soul, won't ye, that the market price is dreffle high just now? More nor three shillings and sixpence for a thimbleful! And ye'll remember that nobody but me (and Jack Chinaman t'other side the court; but he can't do it as well as me) has the true secret of mixing it? Ye'll pay up accordingly, deary, won't ye?'

She blows at the pipe as she speaks, and, occasionally bubbling at it, inhales much of its contents.

'O me, O me, my lungs is weak, my lungs is bad! It's nearly ready for ye, deary. Ah, poor me, poor me, my poor hand shakes like to drop off! I see ye coming-to, and I ses to my poor self, "I'll have another ready for him, and he'll bear in mind the market price of opium, and pay according." O my poor head! I makes my pipes of old penny ink-bottles, ye see, deary — this is one — and I fits-in a mouthpiece, this way, and I takes my mixter out of this thimble with this little horn spoon; and so I fills, deary. Ah, my poor nerves! I got Heavens-hard drunk for sixteen year afore I took to this; but this don't hurt me, not to speak of. And it takes away the hunger as well as wittles, deary.'

⯎ ⯎ ⯎

It is usually said, that the Dickens’s novel contains not one, not two, but the whole three mysteries: The mystery of Drood’s disappearance, the mystery of Datchery Identity and the mystery of The Opium Woman. The first two mysteries has already been discussed in my previous articles, so now it’s time to solve the last one, the mystery of Princess Puffer. Who is she, where is she coming from, what does she want from poor Jasper the choirmaster?

What is known to us about the old proprietress of the opium den? It’s clear from the novel, that she lived in the same court with Jack Chinaman and ran an opium den just like he did. It’s very unlikely, that Jack might tolerate rivalry, especially so closely located. It more probable for Puffer’s den to be nothing but a branch of Jack Chinaman’s opium network, taking into consideration that their prices were the same.

In the last chapter of the novel Jasper after coming out of a hybrid hotel on Aldersgate Street, near the General Post Office, sets off Eastward to the East End of London, to miserable streets, a place, where London Chinatown was located back in the Victorian Era. This route matches Jack Chinaman’s (a character from the novel) real address. Jack was based on Ah Sing, Christian name John Johnson—6, New Court, Victoria Street.

We can find New Court on the map of 1878 to the right of Public Garden in the middle.

It’s know that Dickens visited Ah Sing’s den (under police escort) for better understanding of the sensation of opium dens in 1869.

Dickens's American friend, Mr J.T. Fields, has recorded that, during his stay in England in the summer of 1869, he accompanied the novelist one night (under police escort) to some lock-up houses, watch-houses, and opium-dens, it being from one of the latter that he gathered the incidents which are related in the opening pages. "In a miserable court," says Mr. Fields, "we found the haggard old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny ink-bottle. The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of this wretched creature in 'Edwin Drood' we heard her croon as we leaned over the tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something hideous in the way this woman kept repeating 'Ye'll pay up according, deary, won't ye?' and the Chinamen and Lascars made never-to-be-forgotten pictures in the scene." We also have Dickens's statement that what he described he saw—exactly as he had described it—down in Shadwell in the autumn of 1869. "A couple of the Inspectors of Lodging-houses knew the woman, and took me to her as I was making a round with them, to see for myself the working of Lord Shaftesbury's Bill." Relative to his sketch of opium-smoking, Sir John Bowring (who had been British Ambassador to China and Governor of Hong Kong) pointed out to Dickens what appeared to him an inaccuracy in his delineation of that scene, and sent him an original Chinese sketch of the form of the pipe and the manner of its employment. While thanking him for the information, the novelist replied that he had only chronicled what actually came under his own observation in the neighbourhood of the London docks. Sir John's comment upon this is as follows: "No doubt the Chinaman whom he [Dickens] described had accommodated himself to English usage, and that our great and faithful dramatist here as elsewhere most correctly portrayed a piece of actual life."

Dickens placed the scene of Jasper's opium-smokings in a court just beyond the churchyard of St. George-in-the-East, Stepney. The Rev. Harry Jones, rector from 1873 to 1882, mentions that the old crone was known as Lascar Sal, and was living at the time he wrote (1875). The John Chinaman of whom she was so jealous in her trade was George Ah Sing, who died in 1889, he resided at 131, Cornwall Road, St. George's-in-the-East, and at the inquest it transpired that death was due to the rupture of a blood-vessel accelerated by destitution. When the novelist visited him, he kept an opium-den in New Court, Victoria Street, E., which used to be a house of call for Chinese seamen coming to this country and others who indulged in the use of the drug. The particular den described in the story was pulled down some years ago to make room for a Board-school playground, while the bedstead, pipes, etc., were purchased by Americans and others interested in curious relics.

Ah Sing’s wife, Hannah Johnson, a tailor from Somerset, resided (just like The Old Puffer) in the two rooms on the opposite side of a court in New Court:

In the novel, the mistress of Jasper’s opium den refers to another den “run by Jack Chinaman t’other side of the court”. Mrs Johnson, meanwhile, is listed on 1870 Census records as living at numbers 2 and 3 New Court, off Victoria Street (roughly on the site of the modern-day Dellow Street in Shadwell), while her husband Ah Sing rented numbers 6 and 7, on the other side of the court. Mrs Johnson, it should be pointed out, claims that her rooms were a boarding house rather than an opium den, while cheerfully admitting her husband’s lifelong trade. Mrs Johnson’s boarders were generally “coloured men … seafarers … and generally Lascars”.

Thus, we’ve learnt The Old Puffer’s approximate address. The exact address will be revealed latter in the article. As for now, let’s try to answer the question: ‘Why was she a Puffer?’

Dickens never reveals the old woman’s name throughout the story. Moreover, she is never called an old woman, for Dickens she is just ‘a haggard woman’. It’s readers’ imagination that makes her so old. It’s known, that ‘Lascar Sally’, a famous mistress of an opium den was no older than twenty six, however she looked as if she was eighty. Puffer might as well appear to be a young woman, slightly harmed by alcoholism, opium addiction and lung cancer.

Deputy is the one who calls the mistress of the opium den, Puffer. But how did Deputy know, that Puffer smoked opium? Had he ever seen her smoking? Was he able to tell opium from tobacco while it was smoked?

Puffer had been in Cloisterham twice, but only on her second visit she takes a room at ‘Travelers’ Twopenny’, where Deputy used to work as a man-servant by the time:

‘I’m man-servant up at the Travellers’ Twopenny in Gas Works Garding,’ this thing explains. ‘All us man-servants at Travellers’ Lodgings is named Deputy. When we’re chock full and the Travellers is all a-bed I come out for my ’elth.’

Puffer doesn’t spend any money on a room on her first visit, she is rather occupied with her pursuit of Jasper, ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’, as she calls it. She is so exhausted with that pursuit Edwin finds her crouching on the ground near a wicket gate in a corner at the Monks’ Vineyard. Puffer lookes ill and probably suffered from abstinence syndrome. Puffer promises Edwin to leave for London right away (Note: omnibuses set to London from the corner of Travelers’ Twopenny on Maidstone Road), if he gives her ‘three-and-sixpence’, and will trouble no one, getting back to her business (opium).

If Puffer only had her pipe and some opium to smoke, she wouldn’t be crouching under the bushes by the road, suffering from withdrawal pains. It’s hard to believe she would. She needed ‘three-and-sixpence’ to buy a quarter pint bottle of opium made of brown glass labeled as ‘Laudanum’ in a chemist’s shop. The price of that good was exactly 80 US cents, which was three shillings and three pence, according to the Victorian Era exchange rate of 4.75 US dollars per pound.

Thus, if Puffer left London with the last omnibus on the Christmas Eve (she is supposed to have enough money for omnibus, otherwise she would have taken more money from Edwin), she couldn’t meet Deputy that day, and it was impossible for him to know she smoked opium.

On her second visit, again she begs, now Datchery for ‘three-and-sixpence’. She tells she needs money for medicine that does her good, and then being honest with Datchery admits it is opium (or Laudanum). After getting the needed amount and the necessary information from Datchery, who tells her she could find John Jasper singing at the Cathedral in the morning, Puffer takes a room for night at Traveler’s Twopenny and the last penny she spends on ‘early wash’, which means taking a bath.

Datchery then meets Deputy to get information about his new lodger, just few minutes after she leaves, Datchery has time enough only to get his hat from the house. Where did Deputy get information about Puffer you might ask? Was it an interview or was it a friendly talk? Neither of it. He was simply standing by, while the proprietor of Traveler’s Twopenny was registering her name and permanent address in his log book. Dickens put that information for his readers processed through Deputy’s delusional and foolish consciousness:

‘Puffer,’ assents Deputy, with a shrewd leer of recognition, and smoking an imaginary pipe, with his head very much on one side and his eyes very much out of their places: ‘Hopeum Puffer.’

‘What is her name?’

‘’Er Royal Highness the Princess Puffer.’

‘She has some other name than that; where does she live?’

‘Up in London. Among the Jacks.’

‘The sailors?’

‘I said so; Jacks; and Chayner men: and hother Knifers.’

It’s obvious from his last sentence that he was talking about Jack Chinaman, while ‘hother Knifers’ is nothing but Deputy’s another misspelling, which is meant to be ‘hotel for night’, both give us the idea of Jack Chinaman’s lodging.

The name of the street where Jack Chinaman’s hotel for night located was also unbelievably misspelled by Deputy. Instead of ‘Princes Square’, which is next to Victoria Street, Deputy with the power of his imagination proposed that Puffer herself was nothing but 'Er Royal Highness the Princess Puffer’.

Then why did Deputy called his new lodger Puffer, if he’d never seen her smoking? Simply because of her Last Name Puffert, which is a charactonym, just like some other names in the novel: Rosa Bud or Rosebud, Chrisparkle from ‘Christ’ and ‘sparkle’, Grewgious from ‘grew’ and ‘egregious’ and few more. Giving names, that are descriptive of a trait or quality was popular amongst authors of that period. As for Mrs. Puffert’s first name—it was a old-fashioned puritan name Hopeful.

Thus, we have finally found proprietress’s full name and address:

Hopeful Puffert, Jack Chinaman’s hotel for night, Princes Square, East End, London.

Translated by Lucius Tellus