Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-01-31
TRICKS or sMueGLERs.
Boot Heels a Receptacle for watches
"A LaP-DOg as a Smuggler.

\ Root Heels a Receptacle for watches
"A Lap-DOg as a Smuggler.
In the days when high-heeled French
boots were the pride of fashion there was
shoemaker in London who made for
tune by the sale of the best Paris boot at
price which all his fellow -tradesmen de-
clared ruinous. He undersold the trade
and obtained troops of customers. HThese
boots must have been stolen said his
rivals; but there was no evidence that
they were; certainly they were not SNUG
gled boots, for any one could satisfy him
self that the full duty was paid upon
them at the custom-house. The shoe
maker retired from business with for
tune. Afterward his secret was accci-
dentally discovered Although he had
paid duty for the boots, he had not paid
for everything that was in them. There
was heavy duty payable on foreign
watches, and every boot consigned to him
from Paris had contained in its high heel
cavity large enough to hold a watch.
The great profit obtained by the trade in
smuggled watches made it possible for
this tradesman, when he had filed up the
heels, to sell the boots under prime cost.
This was worth while, again, because, 81
course, by the extension of his boot trade
he increased his power of importing watch
es duty free.
Some years later an elderly lady and a
lap-dog travelled good deal between
Dover and Ostend. It came to be gen
orally considered at the custom-house
that her travels were for the sole purpose
of smuggling Brussels lace, then subject
to exceedingly high duty; but neither
the examiners of her luggage nor the
female searchers at the custom-house.
who took charge of her person, could by
the narrowest scrutiny find matter for a
single accusation. At last, when she
was about to decline the smuggling bust
ness, this lady accepted a bribe from a
custom-house officer to make him master
of her secret. Calling to her side the
lap-dog, who was to all strangers very
snappish little cur, she asked the officer
to fetch knife and rip the little crea-
ture open. Like few of the dogs.
(which have sometimes even proved to
be rats) sold in the streets of London. it
gloried outward in false skin; and be-
tween the false skin and the true skin
was space enough to provide thin cur
with the proper comfortable fatness
proper to lady's pet, by means of a
warm padding of the finest lace.
In the reign of Louis XVIu.-It may
be noted, by the way-very fierce dogs
were trained to carry valuable watches
and small articles under false skins across
the frontier. They were taught to know
and avoid the uniform of custom-house
officer. Swift, cunning and fierce, they
were never to be taken alive, although
they were sometimes pursued and shot.
Not very long ago great number of
false bank notes were put into circula-
ton within the dominions of the czar.
They could only have been imported /;
but, although the strictest search was
made habitually over every vessel reach
ing Russian port, no smuggling of false
bank notes was discovered, So strict is
meant to be the scrutiny at Russian Gus
tom-houses, that the ship captain, who is
bound to give an inventory of every ar
ticle on board, may fall into unheard-of
trouble if he forgets so much as his own
private canary-bird There was an Eng
lish captain once at Cronstadt, who, by
accident, forgot to enter fine turtle
upon his list. He told the leading Gus
tom-house official plainly and honestly
of his omission, and the func-
tionary, who was a good-natured
man, saw no plain way out
of the difficulty. He recommended that
the matter should be CLOSED over by as
suming that the turtle was intended for
the emperor. The captain did, there
fore, declare that, if he had not entered
the turtle, it was because it had been
brought expressly as an Englishman's
gift to the czar, and to the car the tur-
tie was dispatched accordingly.
Soon afterward there arrived govern
ment messenger inquiring for this most
courteous of captains, who brought the
gracious thanks of the Gar Nicholas.
together with the gift of gold snuff
box embellished with the autocrat's s
cipher set in diamonds. Instead of fine
and persecution, there were gifts and
honors for this lucky sailor. But when
afterward some other trading captains,
acting, as they imagined, cunningly
upon the hint, brought turtles to ex-
change for snuff-boxes, his astute majes-
ty quietly made the turtles into soup,
but declined to add snuff-boxes to the
articles of Russian trade shipped at the
port of Cronstadt.
Now to go back to the forged notes.
Accident brought also that mystery to
light. Several cases of lead-pencils ar
rived one day from England, and were
being examined, when one of them fell
out of package, and the customs officer
picking it up cut it to a point and used
it to sign the order which delivered up
the cases to the consignee. He kept the
one loose pencil for his own use, and
few days afterward, because it needed C
fresh point, cut it again and found that
there was no more lead. Another chin