The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-10-31
Beautiful Smugglers.

'sNow is the time we have to keep
our eyes open," said a prominent MEM
Der of Capt. Brackett's custom-house
detectives. '.All the gay birds of fash
ion who spend the summer abroad are
on the wing home, and if they can slip
in a few yards of costly lace without
paying duty it would save them the ex-
pense of their trip"
''Do ladies indulge in amateur SNUG
glingP"
'All of them don't, and some are so
over-conscientious that they even offer
to pay duty on non-dutiable goods. But
human nature is the same, whether it is
a fashionable dressmaker or the wife of
a prominent clergyman, like the one
who had twenty yards of fine Valen-
ciennes lace tackled in her petticoat. 1
can not give you her name for publica-
tion, for no proceedings were taken
against her except to have the lace re-
moved from the garment and sent to
the public stores, from which her hus-
band afterward obtained it by paying
81 yard duty"
care the ladies cunning in the de
vices they adoptP"
Their ingenuity is unbounded. Take,
for instance. the case of Mime. Leone,
the fashionable modiste, who was ar
rested for smuggling some time ago.
She declared that she was an actress,
and that the dresses which she at
tempted to pass through without paying
duty formed her theatrical wardrobe
and were entitled to be sent in free un-
der the section relating to tools of trade.
She showed a contract in which she was
engaged to perform the leading female
roles in a number of plays. On the
trial this contract was proved to be Q
forgery.
Ladies will bring over sealsSin
sacques in the middle of summer and
wear them when the thermometer is in
the nineties, simply to be able to swear
that they have been worn. remember
lady who wore brand-new camels-
hair shawl valued at $4,000. In her
trunk was another shawl of the same
material, worth about $500. She claimed
to own both of them, but the dearer one
was confiscated and never afterward
called for. 1t was subsequently ascer-
tanned that the person who had given
her the commission had made her q
present of the cheaper shawl, with the
understanding that she was to get the
| other one through free.
s'Another device of the ladies Is to
fold new dresses inside their old ones,
and it takes an experienced eye to
detect the fraud. In one case lady
covered a $500 Worth dress with
an ordinary calico wrapper much
the worse for wear. knew that
she was too aristocratic to wear any
thing so humble as calico and
that awakened my suspicious. Had
she taken one of her ordinary wearing
dresses instead of her servants the
fraud might have been successful.
Some ladies do not hesitate to resort to
trunks with false bottoms. One trunk
in particular had false sides as well,
and when l pulled couple Of screws
out it all came to pieces"
'.Do you ever arrest the ladies whom
you catch in the attempt to smuggleP" 7"
mo. The only case of arrest that /
remember is that of Nine. Leone. We
are contented to confiscate the goods.
We send the articles to the public store
and the owners can obtain them either
by paying the duty or proving under
oath that no duty is due. We take
that course even in cases Of suspicion,
and / admit that innocent passengers
sometimes suffer delay and hardships
on this account. We must be extra
cautious or Uncle Sans revenue would
be seriously diminished. You have an
| idea of our work when / say that over
$4,000 are annually collected at the
docks of the various steamships for duty
on baggage brought over by the pas
sengers. This is exclusive of what
| passes through the custom-house in the
ordinary course of business. How large
an amount the Government is defrauded
of in the year by people who would be
Mortified to be called smugglers and who
are not professionally engaged in the
illegal trade, can not pretend to say"
ssHave you had much experience with
the tricks and devices of professional
smugglers?"
II should say 1 had" replied the
detective, with a smile, as he took from
his desk hollow boot heel fashioned OF
iron, to which was attached an iron
clamp, and showed it to the reporter.
s.Do YOU see thisP'' That clamp was
fastened to a mans boot after the leather
heel of the latter had been removed.
Then this iron heel was filed with
diamonds and screwed to the clamp.
The shape and color are exactly like
that of an ordinary heel, and were it not
that the smuggler's nervousness be-
trayed him, he might have defrauded
| the Government out of about 81, 900 In
duty.
'tAnother case happened on board one
of the HAVANA steamers was look
ing for smuggled cigars, and having as
/ thought, satisfied myself that there
were none on board, was about to leave
when / noticed that the cleat of the
window of the barber shop, which was
on the upper deck, was trif1e loose.
caught hold of it and pulled, and, tc
nj surprise, the panel came out, re-
vealing an aperture about three feet
high and one in depth, and running
along the whole length of the window.
This space was filed with boxes of the
choicest cigars. After my men had
seized them the barber and the steward
of the vessel mysteriously disappeared,
and have not shown up around the ship
again.
Ibid not the captain know Of thisp"
mo, from his explanation / felt con-
done without his knowledge. He had
sixty men in his crew and only one pail
of eyes to watch them while they were
watching him. / wish could say that
all captains of inbound vessels are as
innocent of completely in smuggling as
this particular one was. Other favorite
methods of smuggling IN cigars are tc
pack them in the center of barrels oi
oranges or in between baskets of ba-
nanas and other fruit"
"Is it not risky to have a man
searched unless you have good cause
for suspicionp"
There is no pecuniary risk, but you
are liable to discharge from the refvice
on complaints made by the innocent
sufferers. We must use our best judg-
ment, and even then we are sometimes
put on the right track by mere luck"
II remember one day searching an
Englishman, who was highly indignant
when nothing was found on him. We
| told him thai he had been pointed out