The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-25
FEAR NOT
POLICE.
Opium Fiends Can
Smoke at
Will.
NATIVES ARE FAST
BECOMING SLAVES
Many Believe That the Drug Will
Prevent the Spread Of
Leprosy.

THERE is joy depicted on the count
enance of many of the Chinese in
habitants of Honolulu. No more
will the slaves of the opium habit |
be compelled to indulge in their favor
lite vice in secret. Deputy Sheriff Chill |
lingworth no longer inspires fear in the
hearts of the Joint keepers" and all
on account of the recent decision of the |
Circuit Court.
For six months past the police OF
this city have been fighting the Chi
nese, and even the natives, in their use
of the deadly drug, and not without
success, for an average of at least five
cases were heard each week and rarely
did any one charged with having OPT
UNI in possession" escape conviction
Conviction cost each culprit $50, and
the police treasury was increased by
the sum of nearly $1,000 per month;
ST., 900 a year went long way towards
the maintenance of the police depart
ment, but now this is a thing of the
past and Deputy Sheriff Chillingworth'
friends will wait in vain for confiscat-
ed opium outfits, while the citizens of
Honolulu will be called upon to make
up this loss to the police treasury.
There is no law by which man or
woman, or even a child for that mat
ter, can be made amenable to the
courts for smoking or eating opium,
and now that the only charge which
could be preferred has been removed,
/ the police are rendered powerless.
The evil which will exist is farther
reaching than it at first sight appears.
! Chinese are known the world over as
lopium smokers: white people often ac-
-: ~
| natives of these Islands it is fast be-
coming a necessity.
| Laboring under the impression that
| the use of the drug will prevent lep-
rosy, they fall willing victims to its
use. Before the recent action OF the
court every one was compelled to re-
| sort to the vile dens maintained by the
Chinese in order to satisfy their crav-
ling and the fear of detection kept many
| a. person from becoming an opium
slave; but now that they are enabled
| to sit quietly in their own homes and
smoke with impunity. the numbers adj
dicted to it's use will be terribly in
creased.
On q visit to one of the most notori-
Gus dens in this city yesterday, the
many devices that the willy Mongolian
has resorted to in times past to carry
on his trade in opium were exposed and
lit is little wonder that the police have
had their hands full and that the dive
keeper now sits on the lanai and ruhs
| his hands In glee.
AS the house was approached Chi
nese women and children would poke
| their heads out of the windows and
doors of neighboring houses and
warning cry went up for those who
were inmates of the structure in the
rear where the drug was smoked.
| The opium house is two-story
building about Is feet wide and 20 feet
in length, the lower part of it being
occupied by Chinese families. The en-
tire upper floor is one big room, and
| this is used for the benefit Of the pro-
prietors many customers who SIT
around on the low couches and smoke
until they fall into insensibility.
| Entrance to the upper floor is gained
| through a door that is nothing more
| than a narrow slit in the wall, and
through which even thin man has TO
enter sideways. This door is construct
ed of one and one-half inch lumber
as are all other doors leading into the
room.
When the lookout" above has care
fully scrutinized one through his small
lpeep hole, if he has decided to permit
one to enter, there will be noise OF
wooden bars being withdrawn from
their fastenings, and one will find on
passing the door that he is in small
entrance and that only a few feet up
the narrow stairs is another door SINH
lar to the first. Passing that he looks
above and to all appearances the foor
lis solid and just as he is about to urn
back the floor will open and he VIII De
ADMITTED to the smoking room. But a
ltrifling space is left between these par
iriers, as from repeated visits OF the po-
lice the Chinese have found that 1t IS
to their advantage to leave but httie
Iroom in which an axe might be swung.
Everywhere on the walls are marks
of axes and hatchets that bear silent
testimony to the frequent raids or the
police and the method that they are
compelled to employ to gain an en-
trance All around the room are low
touches covered with mating and sew
eral pairs of men are to be seen reclln-
ing on these with the Layout be-
tween them. Four small windows open
into the room and these are heavily
barred with iron.
In one corner is a pipe that leads ln1o
the room below, and it is into this tha'
they hastily throw the precious opium
when the police appear.
When asked what he thought OF the
decision of the court the proprietor OF
the den replied that his business was
ruined and that every one was no"
smoking their opium pipes at horne.
Already the price of opium has drop
ped from $40 per tin to Sc, and the IN
dications are that it will go still lower
High Sheriff Brown and DEPUTY
Sheriff Chilingworth are not lncilheo
| to censure the Judge for his OPINION
h,,t ~ q, 4ho;r con1,ic+ioY, that the law