Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1891-05-07

nov ss FORMERLY
First-elass professional smuggling,
s5y the custom house authorities. Is
raPidly browning lost art. In the
aggregate. perhaps. there is large
quantity # dutiable goods Struggled
through this port. but il is done in
small quantities and by persons who do
not make business Of violating the
revenue laws
As il generally well known. tho Gus
toms inspectors making seizures Of
tutiAbie goods ar~ entitled To rewards
for their work These rewards vary
with the valuations made b. the Ofiirial
appraisers
Not many years ago the average an
nGal income Of an inspector fr.rm this
SQUIRE far eSee-sled the amount paid
him a. his salary. But at present the
custom house inspector. like the Wall
street commission broker. replies when
anyone asks him how he II getting
along We'll. things are pretty dull
arm eking out living. bat there i
nothing in the business any more
wonder IL the go<.i old times will ever
come again
ehAnresi t@ meet few nights zyo a
vxesl-<nOwn member Of the collectors
STAFF. who was an inspector when Chez
ter n Arthur was COLLECTOR and who
returned to his old plaes. under Colonel
Erharit He was surrounded by n
syruup Of customs inspectors IN an up
town cafe. and all were b~xaiiing the
fact that there was much Iess money
now in Uncle Sans s<rvice f1r the
buys than there was in the good Old
days Major Blank agreed entirely
with the general sentiment.
Why said he. from iss. In IS.s
we haa 4 seizure of considerable eors-
sequence almost every week. AMI II vve
dpt not get two ~ three rich seizures
every mouth we did not consider that
we were doing any business at all
Il think the clever~st man who ever
gave Us a long chase to catch him was
n French Jew who devoted himself
entirely - smuggling diamonds The
man was worth many thousands Of slsl-
lars He eOuld have retired from bust
nesS ana spent the rrmain<ler IF hi,
years in easss and Injury. or he could
have established big legitimate buSi-
ness and carried IL On successfully
But he had made his money in this
way There was an immensx. profit
IA the sale Of the smugyiesi brilIIantS.
and u hs hat b.een uniformly SUCCESS
full be preferred Ia remain a srnu-vfer
IL there ever was n man who masss.
smuggling \ fine art j, Was this fellow
He was just in the prime of life. and
was a. shrewd ami clever a. any man
ever came in contact with We were
SURE he was engaged in smuggling His
trips to France and back were too f-,.-
quent for n man who was engaged in a
legitimate business
I'VE searched hin tinas. AMI time
again but nothing was found either in
his trunks 90 on his per~.1a FINALLY
we made up our minds IN have him
watched in Paris The collector put
himself in communication with III.
United States minister At the Frpnsh
capital. and few weeks later received
letter from the late Z K WaShburu~
who was then our minister To Fran.,e
informing him that he had had our man
watched and that he had been purrha>-
ing large quantities of diamonds. The
minister stated that FROM information
brought to HIM the value Of the PENS
was close 10 . quarter of q million dol
lars
Soon after we received TELEGRAM.
telling rs that our man had sailed with
hts stock of precious stones. DAD We
feel gond9 Well now. do you know
the commission On that seizure would
make many a man consider himself
rlehg Our trap 10 catch Mr.. Smuxyi-r
was complete At least we thought !,
was We sent three specially instructed
inspectors down the hay To nee, the
steamer As sson ~ they boarded her
they spotted our man. and they never
took their eyes from him till the boa,
reached her dock The moment the
sang-ptan< was put in position
two of cur men walked M to the
suspected man, slapped him on the
shoulders and informed him tha, he
vas prisoner
lie demonstrated. bz, they told him
that they knew their game AMI he inns.
come along Well sir. we spent the
greater part Of a day searching that fell
low We stripped him We rippsa
open his clothing. We searched ev.rx
soo< and Sxesiee IN his trunks. bat no,
single stone did we. ind The three
disgnstea inspectors simultaneously
swore and joined in the chorus. We
we're sure he had the diamonds skill
but we had nothing on which 70 de,ain
him The inp1dent rascal put his e.
ger 10 his nose rs he saun,ered awav
and remarked You fellows Thought
you were smart. ditn't your
Two weeks later we learned tina.
cur prisoners agents here had literally
noofed the market with very valuable |
and high-prieed diamonds. Then we
<nes~ he bad gotten the bes. of rs III
stayed awake nights trying to imagine
how he did L. but was forced 70 give !,
up
In less than three months our man
again appeared upon the scene. This
time he was given away by one of his
partners on the other side The Col
leetor received an anonymous Letter
rom Paris telling him Just how N.
'nuggier proposed 20 operate. The
elbow had cheated him, the writer Of
Pc letter sssd; bat sses then he would