The Detective Who Could Smell a Crime
A keen-nosed Tacoma detective tracked an opium den by its scent, leading to the arrest of two men and the confiscation of 'elegant' pipes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The remarkable ability of James Milone, city detective, to detect the odors of burning opium resulted in the capture last night of Asa Porter and A. J. Philip, and the seizing of two Chinese opium pipes and a full equipment of smoking paraphernalia. The men were occupying a room in the Swope hotel, a rooming house near Opera Court and Thirteenth Street. Milone, together with his partner, George Ashby, were walking down the court, when suddenly the former stopped, sniffed a few times, and exclaimed, 'There's a hop joint some place near here.' Following the scent like a trained hound, the detective led the way to the Swope hotel and directly to the door of the room occupied by the two men. For some time the men would not open the door, but when the detectives threatened to burst their way in, they withdrew the bars, and the officers entered. The room was full of smoke, and with little difficulty, the detectives found a pipe and a quantity of opium. After taking the men to the central station, the detectives returned and found another pipe and full smoking paraphernalia. One of the pipes taken in the raid is the most elegant affair of its kind ever confiscated by local officers. Porter and Philip are being held on the charge of smoking opium.
“There's a 'hop joint' some place near here.”
This raid highlights the era's aggressive policing of vice, often used as a pretext for criminalizing individuals based on their habits or heritage. Opium laws in the early 20th century were heavily racialized and tied to anti-Chinese sentiment, setting a precedent for 'law and order' tactics that often disproportionately targeted minority neighborhoods.
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