The Portland daily press., 1899-10-19
OPIUM JOINT.
Police Found One In Port
land.
Started On Free Street
On Small Scale.
Drugs and ParaphenaIia Found In
The Room.
Was Run By Two Young
Men.
Who Had Begun To Invite Ac-
quaintances In.
Was Run By Two Young
Men.
Who Had Begun To Invite Ac.
quaintances In.

Tuesday evening young man went
into the police station and entered a com.
plant against two men who were oon.
Quoting an opium joint in house ON
Free street, near the corner of Centre.
Beth Deputies Firth and Chenery hap
pened to be in the station at the time
and they at once hastened 10 the scene.
When they arrived at the plaoe, the men
who had the opium were greatly fright
ened, but made no effort to escape. The
deputies made close examination Of the
room and in one of the drawers of bu-
reau found jar that contained about
two ounces of opium. This drawer wa
locked. but the deputies pulled out the
drawer which was above and In this way
secured the opium and three or four
long pipes. They also found pan which
was ussd for depositing the ashes of
the opium. There was another jar that
had been placed on shelf near by and
In this jar were about two pounds Of the
ashes. Ashes of Opium are called "sec-
onds'' for the reason that they Can be
sgain smoked and enjoyed by the fiends.
The men had kept the fact of their hav-
Ing opium in their room pretty quiet.
so that the boarding house keeper was
entirely ignorant Of 1t. These men had
engaged rooms at this house about a week
ago ana had then explained that they
were agents here of Moods Sarsaparil-
la" and that they intended to remain
in this city for some time.
After the two deputies had seized the
opium. pipes, pan and ashes, they ordered
the two men to appear at the POLICE sta
tisn ON the following dag. Accordingly
yesterday the men went 10 the station
and wers subjected to a private hearing
BY the authorities. The .ohsps admit
ted that thsy had teen keeping opium in
their room, but pleaded hard TO be re-
leased. Marshal Sylvester told them that
II they would promise TO at once leave the
oily, all would be we'll. To this arrange
msnt the men at onoe consented and
during the afternoon they went away.
1--WE haze little doubt" said Deputy
Firth In speaking Of the affair last eve
ming, ''that these men had invited, dur
ing the last few days, people to go up in
nothing serious occurred from this, al
though had 1t teen allowed to continue,
trouble would have been sure to have fol-
lowed. 1hese men would have Induced
their visitors to enjoy q quiet smoke and
then the first thing that the strangers
knew would have been that they would
have been drugged and that the men
uu0tYtd haua fhHofrtyh oHak
and robbed them. This is the first In
stance that know of in Portland where
other parties than Cinnamon have at
tempted to run an opium joiat-and I
think this house on Free street would
have turned out to tie an opium joint be-
fore long If we had not stepped In and
interfered right at the start. The party
who lodged the complaint with us on
Tuesday night had been asked by the
men to 60 up into their room and had
then been invited to smoke. He rsfussd
to smoke the drug with them, however.
lie did not care to appear in court
against them and therefore as we had
no other witness. we of course could not
have made a case OF nuisance against the
men,"
Que Of the men told the deputies that
he was from Buffalo, N. Y. and the other
said that he hailed from . town in Mas
saohusetts.
The police officers say that at nearly all
of the Chinese laundries Ia the city, the
proprietors smoke opium, but that the
Celestials do not care to take the chance
of inviting any outside people in to ''en-
joy" a few hours.