Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-17
SMUGGLING FROM CANADA.
A Great Deal of 1t Done, but Not So
Much Saved as is Generally Thought.

A Great Deal of 1t Done, but Not So
Much Saved as is Generally Thought.
The general impression that everything
is cheaper in Montreal than in New York,
says a Montreal special of the 18th, is
based on prices during the time when
Canada imported goods under duty ad-
justed for revenue only. Now a stranger
must know what to buy, and he will find
the list small. while of that number many
of the goods are too bulky TO be Struggled
over the border. Unless the railway pas
senger can pretend in reason that what he
has with HIM is for personal use he cannot
get his purchase past the customs iuspec-
tor. During carnival week the majority
of the visitors from the States brought
huge Yalises and spent great deal of
time and money in the shops. What they
gained was hardly worth the trouble.
when any one asks me-" said a men,
Der of the great dry goods house of Ora
ham & Co., in st. James street, Il always
tell the truth. Things are not much
cheaper here, as a rule, than they are in
the states. know that my fellow citi-
zens would rather create the opposite i'm
preston, but it would not be honest. We
used to pay about 171Z per cent. over all
on our impOrtatiOns, while now some
duties reach as high as 80 per cent. Kid
gloves are 10 per cent. cheaper here, and
dress goods are about the same. We have
been able to buy American cotton goods
(what you call muslins and compete with
those who sell the same goods of Canadian
manufacture. just now we cannot DO so,
for our mills have been Oyerpr0ducing,
and cotton goods are cheaper. You Ameri-
cans can make a bargain by getting your
tailoring done here. Tweeds and doe
skins OF French, English!and Scotch make
are cheaper, and first class tailoring costs
considerably less than is charged in New
York. For instance, you can get good suit
of clothes for $25 here that would costyOu
$40 in New York. But ready-made cloth
ing for men is cheaper in New York, be-
cause you pay very much lower wages to
your sewing women than we do. The
ladies gain nothing by buying silks and
laces. They are 10 per cent. cheaper, but
the risk and bother make it up in the
other direction. It's just the same with
carpets. If you had to pay the duty across
the line-as you certainly would have to
lit would be cheaper to buy at hOme.''
cigars are cheaper here" said a Craig
street wholesale tObaccOnist. ''There Is
not a cigar that's made in the States sold
in Canada, and whereas you may say that
all 10-cent cigars in New York are made
in the States, in Montreal all the 10-cent
cigars are imported. Here the duty on
each cigar. Therefore an American does
well to buy here, though he can only buy
one box. If you take the top row off a
box you can pass the border with it. We
sell boxes on phrpose for that trade. We
put one row in the customers pocket and
nail up the rest in the box, so that when
he gets over the line he can fill up his
box. Fifteen-cent Havanas in New York
sell here for $40 a thousand"
Champagne, is if anything. a little
higher here than in New York, but
genuine French brandies and Irish and
Scotch whiskys are One-third cheaper
here. Canada rye, liquor that New
Workers like very well, costs only one
third the price of American bourbon.
cheaper in the States. Nearly all food is
about one-half cheaper than in the States.
Mutton fetches 10 cents pound and pOr-
terhOuse steaks 1917 cents.
The advertisements IN the newspapers
and the signs in the shop windows during
carnival week were all calculated to keep
up the impression that everything is
cheaper here than across the line. Ameri-
can ladies were constantly urged to buy,
but the shrewd ones knew the home prices
too well to make many mistakes.
''NOW look at these silk handkerchiefs,'
said a clerk in the reporters hearing.
''They are China silk, and cost from 80
cents TO 81 40, whereas they would bring
in New York from 81 10 to s." The
American woman to whom he spoke
bought these, and said they were a bar
gain. but when the clerk showed her some
black gros grain silk at 81 80 a yard 1t
was evident that she did not believe that
it would cost 81 in Broadway.
Il think l could get the same thing for
81 60 or 81 10 there" said she, $50 that
the saving is not worth the risk
''Oh, there need be no FISK, nlaualns
int skirt lengths haste j il an i trnnR WITH
the remainder inside the folded skirt.
The inspector will not know it from a
dress"
In furs there is a real saving, and lady
who buys a sealslsin sacQue and wears it
over the line profits very considerably.
Even on mans sealskin hat there is a
Gain Of aho1Jt 81