The Midnight Opium Bust at the Lincoln House

By a great stroke of luck, Officer John Roberts succeeded in seizing a trunk containing $1,000 worth of opium at daybreak yesterday morning and captured the two smugglers who owned it. The officer was passing down Third Street at 4 o'clock in the morning when his attention was attracted by two men who were stealthily carrying a heavy salesman's trunk down the front steps of the Lincoln House, located between Second and Third streets on Spring. He immediately concluded that the men were burglars; the thought never entered his head that they were smugglers. With one hand on his revolver and the other on his billy, he hurried along in the shade of the building. The men rested their burden at the foot of the steps and looked quickly up and down the street. One of them caught sight of the officer's helmet glistening in the light of an adjacent electric lamp. Both men uttered a cry of alarm and, rushing into the lodging-house, darted up the stairs. The officer sprang after them and succeeded in overhauling one of them at the top of the stairs. With the aid of a jimmy, the trunk was opened and, to the astonishment of the officers, was found to contain sixty-five pounds of opium. Officer Roberts went back to the Lincoln House and, assisted by the landlord, caught the second smuggler. The two prisoners, H.C. Clark and Robert Williams, were taken before the United States Commissioner and held in $1,000 bail each.