The Sunday Search of Olympia's Chinese Gardens
A newly sworn customs inspector found opium hidden among vegetables and buried in boxes, arrested one man, and left the city's Chinese market gardens under guard.
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.
Two seizures of opium were made yesterday by John McClelland, who returned on Saturday with his commission as customs inspector, under the newly appointed collector, Andrew Wasson. He was endorsed by Governor Ferry and many others, and the collector stated that his recommendations were stronger than any yet brought to his notice. Mr. McClelland no sooner returned than he set to work. Early yesterday morning, accompanied by his brother George, he visited the garden of Hong Yek, near the gas works. He found three Chinese men there and placed them under guard, in order that they could not give the alarm to the others. He spent about one hour and a half in overturning things, and finally discovered fifteen cans of opium hid away among sacks of vegetables. The Chinese man, Jim Mough, made every inducement for his release, but he was taken to the county jail. Keeping the other two Chinese men under guard he proceeded to another garden about three miles east of here, and found a half-dozen Chinese residents whom he placed in the house. He then commenced another systematic search covering three hours, and unearthed 48 cans of opium, two tea boxes packed with cigars and a large box filled with what are supposed to be smuggled dry goods. The opium was packed in boxes and buried. Nobody claimed it, and consequently no arrests were made. Collector Wasson was telegraphed to, and replied that he would come in person or send a deputy. The trial of Jim Mough was fixed for 6 o'clock this evening.
“He spent about one hour and a half in overturning things, and finally discovered fifteen cans of opium hid away among sacks of vegetables.”
The raid reflects an era when Chinese residents were treated as a suspect population and their businesses were routinely swept up in vice enforcement. The casual racial language of the original is part of the record; so is the way drug policing fell unevenly on immigrant communities, a pattern with clear echoes today.
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