Sharp County record., 1888-08-23
ABOUT SMUGGLERS.
How Women Cheat the Customs
Officers.
Usual Places of Concealment-Lace and
Jewelry in the Lining of Dress
A Real CustOm-House
Tragedy.

In the custOm-house Of this city
there is a veteran whom every body
knows. He has searched more trunks
in more parts of the world than any
of Uncle Sans officials. He has served
on revenue cutters innumerable. he
can tell of bouts with cigar smugglers
on the coast of Jersey and Maine. lie
knows every trick that the ingenuity
of the contrabandists can devise. He
is Jonathan Wild, the NJ. Lecoq of
the business.
The principal smugglers of to-day"
he said, "are women. The daring OF
other times is unnecessary now. A
Saratoga trunk properly prepared Is
worth more than all the dirks and cut
lasses that a smuggler ever wore in his
belt. | remember, when | last came
from Europe, fine young woman, eX-
ceedingly plump, whom every body
admired. The young fellows on board
were infatuated, especially those who
liked a stout, well-rounded girl. All
the way over she wore the same dress
blue cloth, tailOr-made. 1t fitted
her, if possible, just little bit too
well. Said 1: 4 can imagine belle
rigging herself like this when on
parade at Newport, but for the deck Of
81 Cunarder, it is trihe too chic, said
/"
"What did you suspect?"
Suspect? Bless you, l didn't sus-
pect-I knew. At quarantine, after
the health officer came aboard, boat
pulled out from Fort Hamilton and
wanted to take my charmer off. |
touched her on the shoulder, You
can't leave this vessel said |, until
we reach the battey.' Who are yOu?'
she demanded, turning pale. I'm a
custom-house officer said |, and as
soon as we land l shall have you
searched She hadn't the heart to
say much. Still pale, she sat down,
biting her lips and looking round to
see that no body had heard us. Off
cer,' she said at length, how much
will make it square?' Well said |,
with sly glance at her shapely figure,
Il don't know how much it took to
make it round; but | guess there is
about s., 900 worth of lace and jewelry
in the lining in that dress of yours.
And so it was. When the women
searchers had undressed her she
looked like a scarecrow-old, haggard,
a regular skeleton, The haul just
doubled my estimate. y
"Where are smuggled articles usu-
ally concealed?'
everywhere. Any thing will form
a hiding place. Fruit is perhaps the
handiest covering. Who would look
for cigars in a pumpkin or for snuff in
turnip? Yet pumpkins and turnips,
carefully lined with wool, have brought
any any amount of tobacco into this
country"
And jewelry?"
mo. Jewelry generally travels in
boot heels. The boots are specially
made in Paris. remember unscrew-
ing one of those heels in New York. A
shower of brilliants fell all around
me. There was fortune in that little
shoe"
"And gloves"
"There was a famous lawsuit, you
recollect, against a Frenchman who
imported gloves in his long Hessian
boots. For my own part have gen.
orally found gloves in trusses Of hay.
A tin box can lie snugly in the center
of a big truss of hay. Indeed, there
is no article of merchandise which the
smuggler can not turn to his purpose.
At Liverpool they told me how, on a
vessel coming from Stettin in the Bait
ic. they found cigars in casks Of camo-
mile flowers; and elsewhere, cigars in
cases of glue; tobacco in pOtatOe sacks,
tea living on furze bushes waiting to be
shipped; tobacco slowed away in loaves
of German bread; to say nothing Of a
boat drifting in the harbor with fifty
barrels of snuff in it. "
"Are the purchasers usually aware
of the smuggling?"
They are generally proud of it.
Enter A club smoking-room. Note with
what pride your juvenile host offers