, 1876-10-07

could tell you oil about smuggling, but can't,
for you see | never was really into it my
self
Incredulous chorus Of ooh oh oh I"
from two old comrades
Then the old fellow laughed again, and
wiped his eyes, and called for another rum
punch, and went on.
"WelI, I'll tell you any way how I've heard
it was carried on. The vessels used to run in
BY Montauk Point, managing to get along there
at night and turn into Napeague habnur,
Down by what is known as Fresh Pond, and
perhaps also near Abraham'S Landing, there
used to be people on shore who We're pretty we'll
posted about when to expect friends along that
way, and who kept a sharp look out for them.
x red light would flash from the shore A
white light would answer from the schooner.
Then n white light from the shore and a red one
rlom the schooner. Perhaps the colors, or their
order might be varied, but it meant the a
thing, that the coast was clear, aud all safe.
Ifall the signals and exchanges were not given,
it was because there was some reason for fus-
pecting all was not right, and there we're other
WAYS Of changing the order of the lights and
moyiog them 50 as to convey warning messages.
But 8uppOSing all was right, the schooner would
lust chuck overheard what casks or puucheons Of
rum she had to leave there, aud, without ever
stopping, beat out of tho hlrbour aud keep right
on her course past Gardnor's Island and up to
New H,ven. S)metimos, they do say, things
which could not b. left at Nlpeague ha-bor
have boon cared f)r a. Gardeners Island"
"And at Savin's Rock, and Lighthouse Point,
aad South End lso-is it not so}'
"Wcll, those places are pretty near home.
We'd better talk about some a littlo further off.
You might say that there was scarcely any place
near the shore, in those days, where there wasn't
t l .. .--A - q 49,. -
happened to fall overheard. Why, everybody
around here loved the Government to death. but
| Ion't believe there was n man in all Conuec-
ticut from whom you couldn't have hired his OK
team, if he had Que, to haul s~muggted rum to
Canada for SO a day"
" After the rum was thrown overheard,
what next became of il r.
"People came out In small boats and found
it-for, you know, a cask of rum can't sink
and put it away carefully in the sedge. where
it wouldn't attract notice and attract
impertinent curiosity, and perhaps get stolen.
Then somebody else would come along and
find it in the sedge, aud convey it away. and
somehow it would get into some cellar In
town, or perhaps out in the country until 1t
was wanted, and that's all there was about it,"
WAS there any other important smuggling
than that in rum :"
"In later years there used to be something
done in bay oil, from Porto Rico, on which
there is a duty Of about $40 a gallon, but that
stuff was so costly that it involved % good deal
of risk. 1t came in bottles and was worthA$1 a
bottle. Well, you come to sink ten or a dozen
bottles of that stuff, at given point, with a
rope attached for the tongs to catch, and then
have some awkward shoemaker Of a fellow
graphing for them smash four or five bottles
before ne gets them up, or have the tide smash
them, which is just as bad, and 1t knocks the
profit out of your speculation. Besides. even
supposing you get 1t safe ashore, it's a mighty
ticklish stuff to handle, it's so expensive. Only
big houses Of manufacturing druggists and such
want it, and they are liable to fight shy of
struggled staff. It isn't like rum, you see.
that every sensible person wants. Why, 1
know of one case where a captain got one
hundred bottles of bay oil ashore, and sent a
fellow down to New York with a sample to sell
it. The houses he went to not only wouldn't
touch it, but they actually gave him away, and
the officers tracked him unit they found tho
whole lot, three weeks after, in the captains
hen coop aud seized it. Ali that was a loss.H
ais smuggling still carried on, in this
vicinity" ~ Lssa
al don't see any. I have heard that within
Eve years a schooner same into this port laden
with soma of the most delicious rum ever
brought from the West Indies. She got indn
the dead of night, aud anybody with the eyes VI
a cat might have seen a long, low, black boat