Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-03-31
Diriculty of Computing. Compound Duties.
Driven Mad by Figures.

There is one department in the custom
house for which there are not many as.
pirants, though the pay is good. 1t is the
lquidating department. 'ehe work il
hard and pnzzRng, and it requires a man
OF peculiar temperament to make his way
In ii. The l|iquidating office is sIe place
where the final calculation of the duties
to be paid on imported goods is made.
When the goods are first entered a rough
estimate OF the duties rs 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 liquidating clerks, In speak
ing to a reporter about the work Of the
Office, said:
ITO one who is not acquainted by act
ual experience with the work, it is a hard
matter To explain it. ] have never known
such difficult work. In the first place the
invoices come TO you in every known Ian
guage, II the measures of quantity and
value are expressed in the same tongue rs
that in which the invoice is written. All
these, in the first place, have 10 be re-
~ ~ ~ oill llt
and is trying work. Then a mar in our
department has to be a walking encyclo-
pedia of commercial and trade TECHNICAL
ties.
Zone of the most puzzling things in
our work is the figuring out Of the duty
on articles which pay a compound tax.
Take for instance dress goods. The tax
Is 8 cents n yard and 80 per cent. ad
valorem, or 7ccnts a yard and 40 per cent,
according TO whether the value is over or
under 20 cents a yard. Say we have a
consignment Of 1000 yards Of dress goods
from England which are billed in the in
voice at 2 shillings and O pence, less 1877,
a favorite discount less 5 per cent. less .
per cent, and with charges say of Gl2.
The charges must be deducted and dis
Int taken off in order To find out just
what the cost per yard is, and IN this the
duty is assessed. This is Il simple opera
ton compared to many we have.
On all worsted goods there is a specific
and al valorem duty for goods weighing
under four ounces a yard, and another
for goods over four ounces, and on some
other wooden goods we have to find out
whether they cost 40, 60 or so cents a
pound, because different rates Of duty are
charged. / have had sometimes to make
as many as twenty-five different calcula-
tons TO ascertain what the rate Of duty
was on n certain line Of goods. We can't
go by the appraisers calculation at all;
his work is one hurriedly in many cases,
and we can't afford 20 trust him.
about the most tedious work we have
is on invoices OF glass. 1t comes in all
sizes and weights, and there is a different
duty for each size and weight. l have
known Of invoices that required the max
ing Of 10000 figures TO ascertain the duty.
Sugar is another tedious article 10 figure
N. 1t is graded by polariscope test, and a
different rate Of duty is charged for every
degree above -.
Wines, liquors and tobacco all have
compound duties, which, as ! said, give
rs the hardest work. Tho work never
gets easy, rs puzzlers are liable TO conc
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. 1t IS like sitting down to
solve n Chinese puzzle and keeping AT Il
fox eight or ten hours every day.
lit helps "A M very little to be a
mathematician. Young Mather, who
committed suicide, was in the Office, and
was n splendid mathematician, but he was
Of a nervous temperament, and ! don't
doubt that puZzhng over some of those in
fernal over or under four ounce invoices
drove him crazy. New York Press.