The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-08
SMUGGLERS.
HOW PEOPLE ECIRCUMVENTT THE
CUSTOMS OFFICERS.
The Princ cipal Smugglers are Women
Accounting for Young Lady's
Plumpness-OddP Places for
Struggled Articles.

III
is veteran whom everybody knows.
He has searched more trunks in more
parts of the world than any of Uncle
Sans officials. He has served on rev.
enue cutters innumerable. He can tell
of bouts with cgar smugglers on the
coasts of Jersey and Maine. He knows
every trick that the ingenuity of the con-
trabandists can devise. He is the Jona-
than Wild, the NJ. Lecocq of the busi-
ness;
"The principal smugglers of to-day" I"
he said, "are women. The daring of
other times is unnecessary now. A Sara
togo trunk properly prepared is worth
more than all the dirks and cutlasses that
smuggler ever wore at his belt. re-
member, when I last came back from
Europe, fine young woman, exceed
ingly plump, whom every body ad-
mired. The young fellows on board
were infatuated. All the way over she
wore the same dress-blue cloth, tailor
made. It fitted her, if possible, just a
little bit too well. Said I: Il can i'm.
agine belle rigging herself like this
when on parade at Newport, but for the
deck of Cunarder, it is trihe too
chic said l."
"What did you suspect"
"Suspect2 Blessyou, l didn't suspect
Il knew. At Quarantine, after the
health officer came aboard, boat pulled
out from Fort Hamilton and wanted to
take my charmer off. 1 touched her on
the shoulder. you can't leave this ves-
SELL, said I, until we reach the Battery
who are youY she demanded, turning
pale. I'm a Custom House officer
said I, 'and as soon as we land 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 nobody had heard us.
'O(icer,' she said at length, how much
will make it squarep well, said /,
with sly glance-at her shapely figure, 1
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
of that dress of yours And so it was.
When the woman-searchers had un-
dressed her she looked like scarecrow-
old, hageard, a regular skeleton. The
haul Just doubled my estimate"
"Where are the smuggled articles usu.
ally concealed2' asked the reporter of
the Chicago Tribune lately.
Everywhere. Anything will form a
hiding place. Fruit is perhaps the handi-
est covering. Who would look for cigars
in pumpkin or for snuff in turnip2
Yet pumpkins and turnips carefully lined
with wool have brought any amount OF
tobacco into this country"
"And jewelry3"
"No. Jcwelry generally travels in
boot heels, The boots are specially made
In Paris. I remember unscrewing one
of those heels in New York. A shower
of brilliants fell all around me. There
was fortune in that little shoe"
"And gloves9"
"There was a famous lawsuit, you
recollect, against Frenchman who i'm
ported gloves in his long Hessian boots.
For my own part I have generally found
gloves In trusses of hay. A tin box can
lie snugly in the centre of a big truss OF
hay. Indeed, there is no article OF
merchandise which the smuggler cannot
turn to his purpose. At Liverpool they
told me how on a vessel coming from
stettin in the Baltic they found cigars in
casks of camomile flowers, and elsewhere
cigars in cases of glue, tobacco in potato
sacks, tea lying on furze bushes waiting
to be shipped, tobacco slowed away in
loaves of German bread, to say nothing
of boat drifting in the harbor with
fifty barrels of snuff in it.
''The ladies are born smugglers. They
think it no harm to defraud Uncle Sam.
They arr. .rabid free traders. They will
hide jewelry in their hair; wrap lace
around their bodies; pack their hus'
bands cigars among their pestticoats.
The commonest device of the feminine
smuggler is the false -bottomed trunk. In
a box filled apparently with cheap ging.
hams and calicoes may lie the finest
dress that Felix can produce, ,"-Nea'
York Graphic.