The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-02-02
CUSTOM HOUSE CLERKS.

Dimculty Of Computing Compound Duties.
Driven l1Ad by Figures.
There Is one department In the custom
house for which there are not many as
pirants, though the pay is good. II is the
liquidating department. The work Is
hard and puzzing, and It requires man
of peculiar temperament to make his way
in It. The liquidating office is the place
where the final calculation of the duties
to be paid on imported goods is made.
When the goods are first entered rough
estimate Of the duties as per invoice is
made and the duties are deposited. Then,
after the work of the surveyors Office is
completed and the appraiser has examined
the goods and placed on the invoices their
classification and rate Of duty, the work
Of the liquidating office begins.
One of the hquidating clerks, in speak
ing to q reporter about the work of the
office, said:
"To one who is not acquainted by act
ual experience with the work, it is a hard
matter to explain it. have never known
such didicult work. In the first place the
guage, and the measures of quantity and
value are expressed in the same tongue as
that in which the invoice is written. All
these, in the first place, have to be re-
duced to American measures and values,
and Is trying work. Then . man in our
department has to be walking encyclo-
pedia Of commercial and trade technicai-
ties.
Zone Of the most puzzling things in
our work Is the figuring out Of the duty
on articles which pay q compound tax.
Take for instance dress goods. The tax
Is B cents yard and 85 per cent. ad
valorem, or 7cents q yard and 40 per cent,
according to whether the value Is over or
under 20 cents q yard. Say we have a
consignment of 1000 yards of dress goods
from England which are billed in the in
voice at Q shillings and 8 pence, less 1877,
favorite discount less 3 per cent, less Q
per cent, and with charges say Of E12.
The charges must be deducted and dis
counts taken of in order to find out just
what the cost per yard Is, and ON this the
duty is assessed. This is q simple opera
tion compared to many we have.
On all worsted goods there is q specific
and ad valorem duty for goods weighing
under four ounces yard, and another
other woolen goods we have to find out
whether they cost 40, 90 or 90 cents .
pound, because different rates of duty are
charged. have had sometimes to make
as many a. twenty-five different calcula-
tions to ascertain what the rate Of duty
was on certain line Of goods. We can't
60 by the appraisers calculation at all;
his work is done hurriedly in many cases,
and we can't afford to trust him.
"About the most tedious work we have
is ON invoices Of glass. It comes In all
sizes and weights, and there Is q different
duty for each size and weight. have
known Of invoices that required the max
ing OF IL, 600 figures to ascertain the duty.
Sugar is another tedious article to figure
on. It is graded by polariscope test, and .
different rate Of duty IL charged for every
degree shove 70.
"Wines, liquors and tobacco all have
compound duties, which, as said, give
NJ the hardest work. The work never
gets easy, a. puzzlers are liable to come
up at any time. There are men in the
Office who have been there fifteen years,
and they will frequently come across some.
thing in an invoice which they have never
met before. II IL like sitting down to
solve Chinese puxxle and keeping At It
for eight or ten hours every day.
ut helps . man very little to be =
mathematician. Young Mather, who
committed suicide, was in the ofiice, and
was q splendid mathematician, but he was
Of nervous temperament, and ! don't
doubt that puxxhng over some Of those In
fernal over or under four ounce invoices
drove him crazy. New York Press.