The daily gazette., 1878-11-06
A Lady Searcher's Story
New York Star.

I'm n neat brown stone mansion up
town lives "A keen-eyed, slarp-ieatured
woman, who is employ ed as Il searcher
in the Custom House.
"Madam, you know something of the
tricks of snugglers, do you not| said
thereporter.
oYes, and especially female smugglers,
who, must say, carry on their nefarlous
business with the most chorhing etfront-
ery. OF course, there are petty SNUG
gleIs of both sexes, but for cunning,
boldness and determination, the women
cannot be- approached. Do you know
that women are born cheats? Oh, well,
| mean in this direction. A womans
dress affords her more facilities for hid
ing small but cost articles, and 1t Is lar
less easy to detect them than men, and
almost impossible to 'clrcumvent them
as the elder Weller would say. when they
set their wits TO work. 1t takes an eX-
perienced searcher to say whether a
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 lnstanceshaye come
under nv observa alton. | once searched
"A Young lady, a thin-faced dthcate erea-
ture, and my reason Tor doing so was
that she appeared rather abnoImally
developed above the waist. Well, l
found in the lining of her cors.ts, a
quantity of jewelry, valued at several
| thousand dollars. She was evidently 10
new hand at the business, and was quite
amazed when we Informed her that the
iewelry must be conhscated TO the uses
OF the Gov, rnment.
eyes, quite number of lady searchers
are employed by the Custom House all--
thorities. When n party is suspected
she is taken into private apartment
and then carefully stripped, garment
| after garment; even her boots and STOCK
iugs are removed and her underclothlng
examined Vigorously. Ihis Is done ues'
mite the most aft cling protesiation on
ihe part of the victim. 1t very often
lhannens that eady' will pass the strip
ntng ordeal successfully. Nothing Is
fnn9d on her, and the searcher is afraid
n mistake has been made, but lucky
trim of the corsetS dress or pantalettes
brings to hight gllttering mass OF care
fully coucraled precious stones OF costly
laces." ..o, ,,,,o
lady search.rs have to drop all sentiment
in making their searches. -.-.-.---
"Why, certainly. we are 1i1 the Thos', most
matter of fact women III lhe WORN. neso a',
female smugglers imagine that their sex
will nroIect them from personal eX-
animation. An amusing instance OF this
comes to my mind. One OF the iady pas
sengers was detained by the auth orltles'
on fnformatien n received. A st0nt' eIder-
ilv-looking female, who had been her
lcompanion during the voyage, acconpa-
MED her to the search-room: Tue stoh,
i,dv WAS loud in her denunciations' ana
ihr, at.ned all sorts of vengeance on tne
hold bad men who We're giving her
friend SO much trouble. But the search
ars fnund on tie suspected person larsr
ouantiry of fine laces anu several cut
! dinmonds. Now, here's the joke. When
,ha nId ladv and her friends were about
iaaving ino the room, one of the lynx-eyed
Searchers searl noticed something peculiar
obnnt the hang of the unsearched wo-
mans dress. In an instant we knew
snmethinp was wrong. we hited tne
sl,irts Of this respectable old party, wniie
both women shrieked. Now, hanging
r"wnd his woman's dress. securely .itu 'i
Wiolins, % which are subject to a neaVs
duty. ..hor oasa. that of a
middle.aeed woman, who aroused my @ sus
melon by let black hair. on see nsr o. lac.
s was wrinkled, and thought 1t st'ahg'