San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-04


ness-The Governments Detectives Are
Pretty Sharp, Too-Some Favorite Meth
ods'of Smuggling.
In spite of the vigilance of customs in.
spectors and the almost perfect working OF
the secret service, smuggling is continually
carried on in some degree, and for ingenui-
ty in ways that are dark and tricks not
always vain the smuggler is an adept.
Steamers from South America and the
West Indies and tramp steamers bring in
cigars, liquors and great variety of mer-
chandise not on the vessels manifest, which
finally gets on the market without paying
tribute to the government, and probably
never a great transatlantic liner arrived at
this port that did not bring some goods
which were Struggled through. The cases
of struggled English clothing on Liver
pool steamer, when the fact was brought
to light that for years London tailors had
been evading American duties, will give
some idea of what may still be going on
undecided. !s.. H....
The ingenuity of the smuggler is great.
Some years ago, when the barge Office was
used as landing place for cabin passen-
gers, a custom house officer one day step
ped up to a respectable appearing, well
dressed woman, who with her husband
was standing waiting to have her luggage
examined, and requested her presence in
the searching room. She carried a small
travelling bag in her hand, and he made
her bring that along too. She was of
course indignant aud her husband uttered
all sorts of threats against the officer for
what he denounced as ''this outrage"
CIGARS IN DEAD HORSE.
But the officer calmly opened the bag
and took therefrom soap box, and from
the soap box cake of soap. The cake of
soap had been used, and looked like any
other innocent piece of toilet soap. But
when the officer cut it in two with his
knife nest of sparkling diamonds of great
beauty and value was disclosed in its in
terror. How the customs officer knew that
woman, that travelling bag and that cake
of soap is a mystery, but one no doubt sus-
ceptible of an easy solution if all the facts
in the case were known.
The secret service has it's agents every
where, and the great trouble with women
smugglers is that they will talk, especially
when they have hit upon some particularly
ingenious plan for smuggling. Sometimes
portly women will enter the seizure room
to merge therefrom greatly emaciated, but
leaving behind large quantities of valuable
lace.
The smokestacks of steamers from the
West Indies have been known on several
occasions to yield up many hundred dol
lars worth of cigars. In fact, the smoke
stack is a favorite place for hiding Snug
gled goods. This sort of smuggling is done
by the crew, who work under the double
disadvantage as rule of having to evade
the watchful eyes of both the officers of the
steamer and the customs officers. -.
Once a dead horse fioated up on the
beach at Coney Island. When people went
to remove the carcass they found that the
intestines had been removed and the inte-
rior of the dead animal filled with Havana
cigars. The carcass and its cargo had prob
ably been thrown overheard from some
steamer, and the confederates who were to
have towed the argosy ashore at some Sc
cluded place had missed connection.
Throwing things overheard when the YES
sci arrives at night to be picked up by a
boat from shore is a common practice.
IN NEW YORK HARBoR.
The writer was once becalmed at night
in catboat in Gravesend bay. The night
was intensely dark, so that the outlines of
the hull of a big steamer whose lights
cleaned through the blackness from where
she was anchored off toward Norton's
point could scarcely be seen. Suddenly a
rowboat appeared alongside the catboat
and robust young man placed one hand
on the rail and gazed curiously up at the
faces of the occupants of the catboat
which were visible by the light of the Ian
tern in the cockpit.
The people in the catboat were too as
tonished to say anything, and apparently
the man in the boat had nothing TO say,
for after moments "siZing up" he showed
off, and disappeared as noiselessly as he
came in the direction of the steamer. His
oars were so completely muffled that they
made not the faintest sound in the row
locks, and he was so expert rover that
the blades made not the slightest splash in
the water. The owner of the catbOat mere
ly shrugged his shoulders and said, "Oh,
it's only one of those shore fellows going
off to a steamer after goods"
Altogether it was a weird and ghostlike
affair, and savored of old time smuggling
and the romance thereof. Sometimes a
swift sailing vessel is used, which, APP
preaching the coast, lays off and on until
night, and then putting into some obscure
harbor, lands a portion of its cargo and
sails away to some nearby port to enter and
discharge the goods on its manifest.
The yacht Halcyon, wrecked on the Jap.
anese coast, was at one time celebrated
smuggler on the Pacific coast. Once a
schooner came sailing up Narragansett
bay, and at night put into a little harbor
on the Warwick shore, where she unloaded
large cargo. The goods were stored in
the barn of a farmer nearby. A dray load
IF foraion goods cnmipo into Drovidapns