The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-18
THE IMPORTS OF THE CITY
Methods in Appraising Articles from
Acrossthe Sea subject to Customs Duty.
Unpacking and Packing Again the Goods That
Have to Be Carefully Inspected-Fixing
the Value Of Cigars and Liquors.

Indianapolis ranks high as an American
importing city. and probably occupies in
this respect first place among the inland
cities. For the past twelve years the local
customs collections have largely increased,
and to-day the Office of surveyor OF GUS
toms here is said to be one of the best regu>
lated. in point Of method and plan, in the
country At the corner of Mississippi and
Pearl streets, conveniently near the rail-
roads and the business houses of the city,
is a large brick building, with iron shutters
and doors heavily barred and hinged. This
somewhat formidable looking structure is
the customs warehouse and is we'll worthy
of a visit to those whose ideas of the work.
lngs OF the system are few. During the
past week a Journal reporter dropped in,
and in a few minutes he was given a hasty
description of the place by Fred Schmidt,
one of Surveyor Hildebrand's deputies.
Dir. Schmidt was armed with a book larger
than any n census taker or tax assessor ever
carried, and in it he jOtted down the data
of eonsignmeDts as they were checked off
in the examination.
There probably isn't one person in a
thousand" said he. who the process
that has to be gone through In order to get
a box of foreign goods into the local mar
ket. Take, for example, this box, which
contains toys. They are put up in London
and sent to Liverpool. There they are
without being examined. At New York
they are received. but still they are not
touched. When they reach us we have
them brought direct to the warehouse, and
then the work begins"
DO you examine everything that the box
containsf" asked the reporter.
Yes. it is required by law where; as
an the case OF toys, several entries
A-4 In tnnd On nnn TnnnIn nNA
seen letter-paper comein here packed in the
finest of hand-painted boxes. The con
signees, you see. expected to Get the whole
of it in on paper duty. and then sell the
was to tax the boxes, too, and the man no
doubt thought his letter-paper came high
And in this case of toys we have to exam
inc each article, and see that no snch
schemes are tried. l have seen as high as
twenty different duties taxed on the con-
tents of one case of goods alone"
do you have to repack these articles as
they came to you"
Yes; and it is no small job. either. We
try TO put each article back into it's place,
! just as we found it, aud if you have ever
tried to replace a packed article as it came
to you from the dealers you can imagine
how it is for us who have to handle arti-
cles of every conceivable kind and shape
where con signments are all of one kind
do you examine every casei"
mo not as a rule. The fact is, it de-
ponds largely upon circumstances, and the
firms we are dealing with. A practiced eye
can very readily see whether, in a crate of
dishes, for example, any other goods are
concealed without taking every dish out
and examining it. This holds good only
for merchandise. Imports containing
..Of course the brandies and wines have
to all be tasted in order to test their rate
of taxation?o
"Tastedf Why. do you suppose we would
resort to our palates in order to pass judy
ment on what would make a cool, refresh
ing drink Not by any means. We are all
strict prohibitionIsts in this Office, and we
employ mechanical means alwaystyes. al
ways-in deciding the duties on wines and
WHISTLES. Here Is a gauge, you see. which
gives the specific gravity and everything,
in fact, but the taste. Cigars are taxed by
weight, and they are carefully weighed,
even TO the ounces"
Are the inspections made in the presence
of the importerss"
Sometimes they are and sometimes tn ley
are not. There is no law on that point, for
no matter what a dealer has to say, the
goods speak for themselves. They are
proof enough to convince both him and us,
and hence a dispute never arises. You see
our work, while it may seem at first thought
TO be somewhat difficult. Is entirely regu-
lated by schedule rates. Every possible
import is graded and listed and we charge
according to that list. The only thing that
is tedious is the labor that is necessary in
unpacking in order to the inspection"
mo doubt you receive some very queer
eonsignments."
Yes. we do. Look here. for example.
What would you think those boxes con-
tainf Well, you would never guess in a
lifetime, for there are three million clay
pipes boxed mp there. They are for the
Wholesale trade only. and goright to a local
sh~ipping-house. The other day we had
several boxes of these little marbles. and
they looked rather unique, packed down
like so much wheat. Here is a case of
goods that is a little queer. from the fact
q duty of only S21.15. 1t contains a lot of
Egyptian bric-a-brac and other articles.
and is a collection made by
an Indianapolis Citizen. which he
ostrich eggs. fancy ornaments of all kinds
and lace-work.. And. by the way, this
affords a good illustration of how q double
duty is. charged on q single article. Here
on a back ground of cloth. We have a rate
for the curtain itself and the gold, but that
isn't all In il there is just one pound of
wool, and that has to be charged extra
duty. Oh, no.. it isn't much, but it's the
law, You know"
annapolis firms on a single consignmentp
That would be hard to say. for they vary
so much. We have duties of all amounts
paid in. / have seen one firm pay as high
as 5000 on "a single entry. and a 50, 900 pay
ment is no unusual occurrence. And then,
again, | have seen them as low as 70 cents.
which is the lowest we can collect. That
is simply the usual entry fee for the privi-
lege of landing"
Have we many large importers in the
cityp
& Reese, Charles Mayer, A. Kiefer d Co.,
Kipp Brothers. Pearson & Wetzel, Tanner
& Sullivan. Van Camp q Co., Murphy. Hib-
ben & Co., ID. Z. Erwin. kingan a. CO.: on
salts especially, James'R Ross. H.. Lieber,
Julius Keller. l.. G. Deschler and q long list
of others l could name"