Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-01
CnINAMEn DENY OPIUM SALES
FOUR Hailed INTO COURT AND
GO FREE ON BAIL.
Demand Jury Trials-Police De-
clare Few White People
Have Habit.

Four Cinnamon, living In the lower part
Of Pennsylvania avenue. arrested last
night by Detective Armstrong Of the sixth
precinct, charged with selling opium, in
violation Of the new District pharmacy
law, were hailed into Police Court today.
Each entered a plea of not guilty and
demanded trial by jury. All are at lib
erty under $500 bonds each.
The accused celestials are: Moy Sing
merchant, 314 Pennsylvania avenue,
Moy You. merchant, 31S Pennsylvania av-
enue; Lee You. merchant, $40 PennsyIva-
MIA avenue, Lee Queng, merchant, o4t
Pennsylvania avenue.
Another Chinaman. Lee Sing of $40 Penn
sylvania avenue. succeeded in eluding the
police last night. He will probably be
arrested today.
Police Trace Opium.
Police of the sixth precinct, directed by
Sergts. Curry and Murphy, have been
making an investigation to discover to
what extent the opium habit has spread
beyond the oriental colony. A few white
men and women addicted to the pipe
were located
Under severe cross-questioning it was
ascertained that their supply Of dope"
was obtained from Chinese merchants
In Washington in small quantities, rang
ing IN price from Is to 50 cents.
The police proceeded to entrap China
men under suspicion into sales of the
drug, to make positive evidence on which
prosecutions could be based. They sue
ceeded In this. and yesterday the COM
plants were filed, followed by arrests last
night.
In applying for warrants Detective
Armstrong exhibited playing cards on
which had been smeared quantities of
ene raw opium of an inferior grade,
caned ny Chinamen pen yen." mixture
w per cent ground yen seed.
Inc sales, according to Armstrong. were
made through stool pigeons, who pur-
chased the stuff for~25 cents in each in
stance. The dope is dipped out of the
small tube in which the Cinnamon buy
1t and smeared on the back Of a play
inging card, which, in turn. is wrapped nj
waterproof paper. The purchases, the
police say were made Saturday and Sum
gay night py men who succeeded in win
ming the confidence of the Cinnamon.
Deny Sale Of dope"
All or the accused Cinnamon deny abb
solutely that the dope in the possess
sion of the police was sold by them. One
Of the quartet in Police Court this morn
ing intimated that if the police obtained
''pen YEN from his establishment, it was
procured from a person to whom lie has
at times given sufficient for several days
smoking. This person. he intimates, is a
confirmed opium smoker.
The police deny emphatically that there
is extensive opium smoking in Washing
ton by persons other than the local Chi
nese and ridicule the assertion that there
are several dens in different parts of the
city.
There is opium smoking among the
Chinese. of course, said one of the police
OF the sixth precinct this morning. land
there may be a few men and women,
some Of the latter who are married to
Cinnamon. who use it, but there are not
many. AS to dens in this city, where
white men and women go to smoke the
stuff, 1t is nonsense.
"A stop was put to this sort of thing
about two years ago. when We raided sew
erai places of this character and charged
those whom we caught then with va
grancy and the Cinnamon with running
disorderly houses. Since that time China
nanen have not cared to run such re-