Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-03-14
How a Sharp Diamond Merchant Sue
ceeded in Battling the Custom
House Officials.
His Cunning Effeetually Deceived the
Most Experienced Officers for
a Long Time.
He is Caught,at Last and Tells How
he 0utwitted the
Detectives.

able goods smuggled through this port,
but it Is done in small quantities and by
persona who do not make a business OF
violation of the revenue laws
As is generally well known, the customs
inspectors making seizures OF dutiabl
goods are entitled to rewards for their
work. These rewards vary with the yalu
ations made by thu official appraisers.
Not many years ago the average annual
income Of an inspector from this source
far exceeded the amount paid rs his salary.
But At present the custom house inspector
like the Wall street commission broker,
replies, when anyone asks him how he is
getting along, We'll, things are pretty
dull. | am eking out living, but there
is nothing in the business any more.
wonder it the good old times will ever
come again.
/ CHANGED TO meet "a few nights ago a
well known member Of the Collector
staff who was an Inspector when Chester
A. Arthur was collector and gh0 eturned
to his old place under Colonel Erhardt.
lie was surrounded by group Of customs
Inspectors IN an uptown cafe, and all were
bewalling the fact that there was much
less money now in Uncle Sam 3 service for
the boys than there was lin the good old
days. Major Blank agreed entirely with
the general sentiment.
BIG SEIZURES OF THE PAST.
"Why, said he, from 1868 to 1878 we
mad q seizure of considerable consequence
almost every week, and If we did not get
two or three rich seizures every month we
did not consider that we were doing any
business at ali
81 think the cleyerest man who ever
gave us a long chase TO catch him was a
French Jew who devoted himself en- tirely
to smuggling diamonds The man was
worth many thousands Of dollars He
could have retired from business and
spent the remainder of his years In ease
and luxury. or be could have established
big legitimate business and carried il
on successfully. But he has made his
money IN this way. There was i'm inn
mon,e profit in the sale of the smuggled
/ briiljnts, and as be had baeu uniformly
successful he preferred b remain
snuggler. 1t there ever was man who
made smuggling "a fine art d. Was this fell
!ow. He was just in The primC OF life and
was as shrewd and clever laany man
ever came In contact with Wew.re sure
le 0I- engaged IN smuggling. His trips
lo France and back were too requent for
Hman vino was engaged an legitimate
business,
1--WE searched him time and again, but
nothing was found either I'M ls trunks on
on hi, person. Finally we uade MP Que
minds 30 have him watched iA Paris Iae
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''' ''''' ''''' ''''' " We" P'S'''''
rur,,,, was xoru5Ne rurnr
He remon. ua'ed, but they told him
they knew their game and he must come
along. Wei, sur, we Speno the greater
part Of 2 day seHthug ihat fellow We
stripped hl@. We ripped open has cloth
u1. W searched every NOOK amt crerlce
no bis trunks, ha' not a sing. = stone dad
we 5nd The three Disguised inspectors
simultaneously sand 1t N, and / Joined
IN the chorus. We were sure he had the
diamonds stlll but we had nothing on
which to detmn Nun. The lmpudent
rascal put blS finger 10 hls nose and Saun-
tered away and remarked, lou fellows
thought you were smart, dldn your
Two weeks later we learned that cur
prisoner agents here had literally Hood
cd the market with very valuable and
high priced diamonds. linen we knew
he bad gott"n the best OF us. 1 stayed
awake nlga,s trying to imagine how he
did it. bat was forced to give up.
In less tuau tQret months our man