A Railroad Clerk's Side Hustle: 150 Pounds of Opium Land in Tacoma
M. M. Perl, chief clerk to a Northern Pacific superintendent, imported prepared opium from China aboard the Kingston—while federal agents seized a rival shipment under an 1881 treaty.
Tacoma, March 20.—Special. A shipment of 150 pounds of prepared opium from China, consigned to M. M. Perl, arrived today from Victoria on the Kingston. Perl is chief clerk in the office of Assistant General Superintendent G. W. Dickinson of the Northern Pacific railroad, and is engaging in the business of bringing opium from China and selling it to dealers in competition with the Victoria smuggled opium.
The treasury department recently returned 200 pounds of opium seized here on a Northern Pacific steamship consigned to a Portland Chinese merchant. The seizure was based on the treaty of 1881, which provides that Chinese in this country may not import opium. The shipment has been sent back to China and will be reshipped to some American here.
“Perl is chief clerk in the office of Assistant General Superintendent G. W. Dickinson of the Northern Pacific railroad, and is engaging in the business of bringing opium from China and selling it to dealers.”
Opium was legal for some merchants but barred to Chinese immigrants under an 1881 treaty, and enforcement fell unevenly. A Northern Pacific clerk with connections could import openly while a Portland Chinese merchant's shipment was seized and sent back. The episode is an early lesson in how drug policy and racial exclusion can travel together.
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