The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-11-07
ALApY sEARCHER,s STORY.


Lead Cheaply.
From the New York s,nr.
In neat brown-stone mansion up town
lives keen-eyed, sharp-featured woman,
who is employed as searcher in the Gus.
tom House.
Madam, you know something of the
tricks of smugglers, do you not?" said the
reporter.
Eyes, and especially female smugglers,
who, must say, carry on their nefarious
business with the most charming effront.
cry Of course, there are petty smugglers
of both sexes, but for cunning, boldness
and determination, the woman cannot be
approached Do you know that women
are born cheats oh, well, mean in this
direction. A woman's dress affords her
more facilities for hiding small but costly
articles, and it is far less easy to detect
them than men, and almost impossible to
.circumvent' them, as the elder Weller
would say, when they set their wits to
work. 1t takes an experienced searcher
to say whether woman has got anything
concealed about her, and as we cannot
search everybody, some of the clever ones
manage to get through without detection.
Some very funny instances have come
under my observation. once searched a
young lady, thin-faced, delicate crea-
ture, and my reason for doing so. was that
she appeared rather abnormally developed
above the waist. Well, ! found in the
lining of her corsets quantity Of jewelry,
valued at several thousand dollars. She
was evidently new hand at the business,
and was quite amazed when we informed
her that the jewelry must he confscated
to the uses of the Government.
"Yes, quite a number Of lady searchers
are employed by the Custom House author
tiles. When party is suspected, she is
taken into private apartment, and then
carefully stripped, garment after garment;
even her boots and stockings are remov-
ed, and her under clothing examined rig
orously. This is done in spite of the most
affecting protestations on the part of the
victim. 1t very often happens that Il
lady will pass the stripping ordeal sue
cessfully. Nothing is found on her, and
the searcher is afraid mistake has been
made, but lucky rip of the corsets, dress,
or pantalettes, brings to light a glittering
mass of carefully concealed precious stones
or costly laces.
Il suppose" said the reporter. 1.-The
lady searchers have to drop all sentiment
in making their searches"
"Why, certainly. We are the most
matter-of-fact women in the world.
These female smugglers imagine that
their sex will protect them from person
al examination. An amusing instance Of
this comes to my mind. One Of the lady
passengers was detained by the author
tiles, on information received. A stout,
elderly looking female. who had been her
companion during the voyage, accom-
panied her to the search room. The
stout lady was loud in her denunciations,
and threatened all sorts of vengeance ON
the bold, bad men who were giving her
friend so much trouble. But the search
ers found on the suspected person large
quantity Of laces and several cut diamonds.
Now, here's the joke. When the old lady
and her friend were about leaving the
room, one of the lynx-eyed searchers
noticed something peculiar about the
ursearched womans dress. In an instant
we knew something was wrong. We
lifted the skirts of this respectable old
party, while both women shrieked. Now,
hanging around this woman's dress, Sc
curely tied with tape, were some highly
valuable violins, which were subject to a
heavy duty.
IL remember another case-that of Il
middle-aged woman who reused my sus-
picions by her jet black hair. You see
her face was wrinkled, and | thought it
strange that she should have slch fine
hair. | politely intimated my desire to
search her. and commenced by exploring
the mysteries of that beautiful hair Why.
it was Il wig, so skillfully constructed
that the chignon concealed number of
precious stones. On this discovery we
decided to make fuller examination, and
were amply rewarded for our trouble.
IAN old trick of female smugglers is to
have rare jewels and laces sewn in folds
about various parts of their dresses and
underskirts. | once seized some fine Ly-
ons velvet done up in this way. Some
times find precious stones lightly covered
with cotton and secreted in the bOsoms of
these ladies. | saw one searched who was
completely enveloped in lace, wound
about her person, lace of such a cobweb
texture that roll Of three yards of it
could be passed through small finger
ring. In the days when wide hoOp-skirts
We're in vogue, | saw a slightly-built lady
walking. as ! thought, rather heavily,
and ] felt sure she required my services in
relieving her Of some dutiable articles. |
found hanging from each wire on the out
side OF the skirt, a selection of valuable
gold watches, in fact quite an invoice of
time keepers. found out afterward that
the lady was not a professional smuggler,
but that these watches were for friends
who had personally solicited her to get
them an English watch. She looked very
much confused when detected, and inno-
Gently asked whether We couldn't allow
her to have the watches. because her
friends would be disappointed"
In conversation with shrewd special
agent the writer learned that great deal
of smuggling is done in a quiet way by
naval officers. Of course these gentleman |
bring presents for their mothers, wives,
and sweethearts, but the goods are gen.
orally too costly and rare to admit of this |
and. notwithstanding strin- |
gent rules and strict watch, the game goes
On. |
ooh, yes, said passenger to an agent |
recently, i've got some new clothes. How |
many? Oh, about FIVE suits, three silk |
hats, think, and two opera hats, a watch |
or two. My wife? Well, don't think |
she's got anything. Yes, she has few |
new dresses and some shawls; well, just |
a few yares oflace and some diamonds.
forgot to say I've got box or two of CT |
gars. No, sir, there's nothing in my bag |
gage of dutiable nature"
The passenger was quite surprised when
the officer regarded his formidable list of |
articles, and still more was he surprised |
when the agent demanded the keys Of the |
trunks, and scattered about an array of |
dutiable goods, among which was small |
library of new and uncut books.
Two tricks were played on the agent Of
an amusing character. They had large |
number of children's carriages and wood
en- horses to pass, but we were much sur
prised to find them extremely happy. |
There was a swindle, but where? Happy |