New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-02-18
sundry Smuggling Contrivanoes.

In the days when high-heeed French were the
pride of fashion, there was shoemaker in london
who made a fortune by the sale of the best Paris
boots at a price which all his felow-tradesmen de-
cared runous. He undersold the trade and obtained
troops Of customers These boots must be stoen said
his rivals but there was no evidence that they were
certainly they were not struggled boots for any one
could satisfy himself That the full duty was paid upon
them at the Custom-House The shoemaker retired
from the business with o fortune. Afterwards his
secret was accidentally discovered although he had
paid duty for the boots he had paid for everything
that was in them. There was heavy duty payable
on foreign watches and every boot consigned to ha
from Paris had contained i'll its high heel a cavity
exactly large enough to hold watch. The great
profits obtained by the trade in Struggled watches
made it possible for this tradesman, when he had
filled up their heels to sell his boots under prime cost
This was worth while, again, because, of course, by
the extension Of his boottrade he increased his
ofimporting watches duty free.
Some years later an elderly lady and q lap dog ira.
yeled good deal between Dover and Ostend, 1t
came to be generally considered at the Custom-house
that her travels were for the purpose of smuggling
Brussels lace, then subject to exceedingly high duty
but neither the examiners Of her luggage nor the f.
male searchers at the Custonhouse, who took charge
of her person, could by the narrowest scrutiny find
matter for single accusation. At last, when she was
about to decline the smuggling business, this lady &C
cepted bride from a Customhouse officer to make
him master of her secret. Calling her side the lap
dog, who to all strangers very snappish little
cur she asked the officer to fetch knife and rip the
little creature open. Like few Of the dogs (Which
have sometimes even proved to be rats) sold in the
streets of London it glored outwardly in false skin;
and between the false skin and the true skin was space
enough to provide thin cur with the comfortable fat
ness proper to ady's pet, by means of warm pad
ding of the finest lace. In the reign of Louis the
Eghteenth-it may be noted by the way-very fierce
dogs trained to carry valuable watches and small
articles under false skins across the frontier They
were taught to know and avoid the uniform of Gus
tom-house officer. Swift, cunning and fierce they
were never to be taken alive, although they were
sometimes pursued and shot.
Not very long ago, great number of false bank
notes was put into circulation within the dominions
of the Car. They could only have been imported
but although the Strictes search was made habtualy
over every vessel entering Russian port, no snug
Cling of false notes was discovered So strict is meant
to be the scrutiny at Russian Customhouses that the
ship captain, who is bound to give an inventory of
every article board may fall into unheard-of tro-
BILE if he forgot much as his own private canary
bird. There was an English captain once at Cron-
stadt wllo by accident, forgot to enter fine turtle
upon lis list He told the leading Custom-house off
cal plainly and honestly Of his unfortunate omission
and the fnnctonary, who was Il good-natured man,
saw no plain way out of the difficulty. He recon-
mended that the matter should be CLOSED over by as
Stunning that the turtle intended for the Emperor
The captain did, therefore, declare that if he had not
entered the turtle it was because it had been brought
expressly an Englshmans gift to the Gear, and to
the Gar the turtle was dispatched accordingly. Soon
afterwards there arrived government messenger in
qurng for this most courteous captains who brought
the gracious thanks of the Gar Nicholas, together
with the gift of a gold snuff-box embeshed with the
autocratic cipher set in diamonds Instead of fine and
persecution there gifts and honors for this lucky
sailor. But when afterwards, some other trading
captains, acting as they imagined, cunnngly upon
the hint brought turtles to exchange for snufboxes
his astute majesty quietly made the turtles into soup
but declined by any act of exchange, to add snuff.
boxes to the articles of Russian trade shipped at the
port of Cronstadt.
Now to go back to the forged notes. Accident
brought also that mystery to light Several cases of
eadpencils arrived one day from England, and were
being examined, when one of them fell out from a
package, and the customhouse officer, picking it up
cut it to point and used it to sign the order which
delivered up the cases to the consgnee He kept the
one loose pencil for his own use, and few days after
wards, because it needed fresh point, cut it again.
and found that there was no more lead Another chip
into the cedar brought him to roll of paper nesed in
hollow place This paper was Of the false notes,
engraved in London, and thus passed into the domin
ions of the Muscovite.
During the last epidemic fever which displayed it.
self in this country as rage for antique furniture,
much of this was imported from the Netherlands. A
shrewd Dutch tradesman very much preferred an Or
der for sofas and chairs to order for sdeboards or
tables. Horse hair, he knew was plentiful enough in
England the duty upon tea, however, was excessive;
and by arrangement entered into with his English
agent it was understood that tea should be used in
stead of hay horse hair, as the stutfing of all
cushions attached to furniture transmitted by his house.
In this way there was a fortune made.