The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1864-11-11
ssisl5iae-' - From tie New York Express.
Startling Custom House Revelations
Thieves in the Bonded Mare
eese ga houses.
now SOME. OFFICIALS WIVES LEVIED
BLACK MAIL ON IMPORTERS.

Attention has been repeatedly called in the
Eepgess to the gross frauds perpetrated in the
Custom House The sham Investigation made
III secret by Solicitor ,Jourdan, about the man
agerlent of the Custom House only resulted in
white-washing the officials charged with fraud
ulent nlaIpractiee. The course Of the Solicitor
in the Prize Sales investigation, might have CIV
en- an earnest of the result Of the later inquiry
The Congressional Committee on Public Ex-
penditures, however, succeeded in discovering
many of the thio4ish abuses in the various de-
partments, after consistently enforcing the at
tendance of witnesses during several months, and
few number of the officials were removed.
The latest developments, however, show that
wherever practicable, there was a general con-
spiracy among the attaches who had charge Of
bonded goods, to rob the merchants of this city
The merchant places his goods in the bonded
warehouse at his own risk. While II is Under
stood that they shall be returned te him as they
were received, he has no claim for damage
should they be stolen or injured. The knowl-
edge Of this fact led the officials to play sharp
game, by which they were enabled to stealtrom
the Government stores property belonging to
merchants worth over a million Of dollars IN
each year The merchants knew they had ne
remedy, and had therefore to submit to the rob
berry.
Tie new Collector, Mr.. Draper, however,
has suuimarily ended this game. The search
in. investigation which he is now making about
the management of the bonded warehouses and
the encouragement he has given to merchants
TO expose any frauds to which they have been
subjected while his predecessor was in office,
is hourly resulting in the discovery Of n1alprac-
tices and rascality among seme Of the Office
holders
The frauds were perpetrated in this wise: -
Half the quantities of silk stored in the ware
houses were a5Stracted barrels of sugar were
robbed of portion Of their contents, tea-chests
were rihed cases of gloves were stolen-in
f22 n2ggthgg kt ths refine refined official liked he help
they even whispered a complaint about their
wrongs the thievish officials heard Of it, and
they soon had ample revenge. Valuable cases
of goods belonging to the complaining mer-
chants would be removed to damp portions of
the stores; where they would soon lose half their
! value, or be destroyed And thus the nnfortu-
[ nate importers found that it would have been
| more profitable for them to have submitted to
| the series of robberies than to the damage OF
! their goods caused by their exposure Of the
| thieves. Collector Draper has further dlscov'
| cred that the wives and ''lady'' relatives of a
number of the officials III charge of the bonded
warehouses had levied a species OF black mail
on merchants After being introduced to the
4 i'm porters they freely patronized their stores.
! OF course they paid for nothing In all cases
where they were refused articles without mon
| ey, they complained to the officials, who sup
Piled their wants from the warehouses, or IN
ficted damages on the importers goods, accord
1 Ing as they in their retributive wisdom decmec