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Old gun found in Chinatown wrapped in news of the day
"Gambler's gun" found in 1918 newspaper
Rob Shaw, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007
The headline on The Daily Colonist that day in 1918 screamed: "Over Ten Thousand Prisoners Captured" and detailed a surprise Allied attack against German forces in the First World War. But the real story for readers today is what someone in Victoria's Chinatown decide to wrap inside the Aug. 9 edition.
A gun. More precisely, a 32-calibre, five-shot, Iver Johnson "Saturday night special" -- the kind of small arm known back then as a gambler's gun. It came tumbling out of its Colonist wrappings onto the desk of Alison Trembath a little over a month ago.
As the new owner of Dales Art Gallery at 537 Fisgard St., in Chinatown, she'd decided to do some renovations to the historic building's first-floor ceiling. It was there she found a carefully hidden piece of history.
A worker noticed the package above some wooden ceiling tiles. "I started unwrapping it going, 'What's this?,'" said Trembath. "And there it was, this remarkable gun. I had just finished a month and a half of restorations here, so it was very exciting finding such a nefarious gun. I don't see many guns in my life."
The gun was not alone. There were Chinese business ledgers from an era when gambling parlours and opium dens were a fixture in Victoria's downtown core. Although, to be fair, the business at the time was registered as a grocery store called Wing On Cheong and there's no indication it had any sort of criminal ties.
Trembath called Victoria police.
"It's an interesting historical find for Chinatown," said Const. Rick Anthony, an officer with a strong historical interest who examined the item with the department's history expert, Sgt. Jonathan Sheldan.
"People in that day and age were hidey-holing guns away and who knows what else is stored in the attics and behind the walls of these buildings down here in Chinatown."
A gun stowed away in a ceiling with some business documents is a suspicious find, no matter what the year. It may have been hidden for "quick access" by its owner, said Anthony. "The fact the ledgers were found with it sort of speaks to it as a secret hiding place for somebody, for some reason."
Police did try to research who might have owned the gun, and see if it was involved in any criminal activity.
"But going that far back, it is very difficult to trace it or track it," said Anthony, a history buff who travelled to Europe this year with Det. Lawrence Hemstad to research Victoria police officers who died during the First World War.
"We have done some looking into [the gun]. It doesn't come back with any history. It hasn't been involved in any crimes. We actually believe it has been up there the whole 80 to 90 years, maybe even longer than that."
Trembath, who renovated and reopened the gallery two weeks ago, also found an ancient letter behind drywall near an old window. The letter, in Chinese, is about family gossip, she said. Trembath said she plans to ask the Chinatown community for help interpreting the finds and determining their cultural importance.
Meanwhile, Anthony said he's having the gamblers gun put through the proper national channels to, perhaps, one day give it back to Trembath.
"This is a framing studio, so I think I'd put it in a shadow box and frame it up," said Trembath. "I'd probably put it in the window because it is a big nod to that time."
And she said she plans to keep renovating the building and see what else she finds.
"We have a workshop above this bulkhead and we haven't yet torn that apart. So who knows what we'll find."
[email protected]
Old gun found in Chinatown wrapped in news of the day
"Gambler's gun" found in 1918 newspaper
Rob Shaw, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007
The headline on The Daily Colonist that day in 1918 screamed: "Over Ten Thousand Prisoners Captured" and detailed a surprise Allied attack against German forces in the First World War. But the real story for readers today is what someone in Victoria's Chinatown decide to wrap inside the Aug. 9 edition.
A gun. More precisely, a 32-calibre, five-shot, Iver Johnson "Saturday night special" -- the kind of small arm known back then as a gambler's gun. It came tumbling out of its Colonist wrappings onto the desk of Alison Trembath a little over a month ago.
As the new owner of Dales Art Gallery at 537 Fisgard St., in Chinatown, she'd decided to do some renovations to the historic building's first-floor ceiling. It was there she found a carefully hidden piece of history.
A worker noticed the package above some wooden ceiling tiles. "I started unwrapping it going, 'What's this?,'" said Trembath. "And there it was, this remarkable gun. I had just finished a month and a half of restorations here, so it was very exciting finding such a nefarious gun. I don't see many guns in my life."
The gun was not alone. There were Chinese business ledgers from an era when gambling parlours and opium dens were a fixture in Victoria's downtown core. Although, to be fair, the business at the time was registered as a grocery store called Wing On Cheong and there's no indication it had any sort of criminal ties.
Trembath called Victoria police.
"It's an interesting historical find for Chinatown," said Const. Rick Anthony, an officer with a strong historical interest who examined the item with the department's history expert, Sgt. Jonathan Sheldan.
"People in that day and age were hidey-holing guns away and who knows what else is stored in the attics and behind the walls of these buildings down here in Chinatown."
A gun stowed away in a ceiling with some business documents is a suspicious find, no matter what the year. It may have been hidden for "quick access" by its owner, said Anthony. "The fact the ledgers were found with it sort of speaks to it as a secret hiding place for somebody, for some reason."
Police did try to research who might have owned the gun, and see if it was involved in any criminal activity.
"But going that far back, it is very difficult to trace it or track it," said Anthony, a history buff who travelled to Europe this year with Det. Lawrence Hemstad to research Victoria police officers who died during the First World War.
"We have done some looking into [the gun]. It doesn't come back with any history. It hasn't been involved in any crimes. We actually believe it has been up there the whole 80 to 90 years, maybe even longer than that."
Trembath, who renovated and reopened the gallery two weeks ago, also found an ancient letter behind drywall near an old window. The letter, in Chinese, is about family gossip, she said. Trembath said she plans to ask the Chinatown community for help interpreting the finds and determining their cultural importance.
Meanwhile, Anthony said he's having the gamblers gun put through the proper national channels to, perhaps, one day give it back to Trembath.
"This is a framing studio, so I think I'd put it in a shadow box and frame it up," said Trembath. "I'd probably put it in the window because it is a big nod to that time."
And she said she plans to keep renovating the building and see what else she finds.
"We have a workshop above this bulkhead and we haven't yet torn that apart. So who knows what we'll find."
[email protected]