The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-08-19
oLp TIME sMueeLINa.
How tho Business OF Cheating the Govern
mont Has Degenerated.

How tho Business OF Cheating the Govern
mcnt Has Degenerated.
Instead of a run by night in an open
boat from the French coast to the shores
of Hampshire, Sussex, Essex OF Kent, we
have to content ourselves in these prosaio
times with petty attempts to cheat the
revenue, for which women are more fire.
quently responsible than men. Such an
incident once happened ut Belfast, where
an Irishwoman named Mary McMahon
was brought to the police court charged
with keeping whisky on premises which
were unlicensed. Sergeant Jones de.
posed that he went into the defendants
house and found woman named Gray
ton, who was seated before the fire.
Upon searching her the sergeant came
upon 36 bottles OF porter and two bottles
of whisky slowed away in her petit
coats. To the inexpressible amusement
OF the spectators the sergeant produced
the peccant garments in court. Each
petticoat was made of coarse sacking
and was grit with innumerable pockets,
and all of them lined with soft material
so as to keep the bottles from clinking
and possibly breaking each other.
Unhappily for poor Mary McMahon,
the petticoats, whisky and porter were
contiscated by the relentless police mag
istrate, and the chief delinquent was
sent to Jail for three months. l enter
tain no doubt that the hearty sympathies
of nine tenths of those present in court
went with Mary McNIahon to limbo.
There has, we fear, never been time
III Scotland or Ireland when surrepti-
tlous potheen and mountain dew which
never paid bawbee to the state excheu-
uer did not, like stolen kisses, taste the
sweeter because of their clandestine
birth.
He, however, who would fain find
amusing stories about running the block
ade and smuggling contraband of war
through an enemy's lines may turn with
advantage TO many transatlantic maya
zines which teen with articles revealing
the illicit trade carried on during the
American civil war. Ladies of the Belle
Boyd and Mrs. Grcenhow type were
caught trying to make their way down
south with countless boxes of copper
caps and packages of quinine stitched
into their crinolines. Captain Roberts,
better known under his real name, Ho-
bart Pasha, tells us that he struggled
great quantities of Cookies pills into Sc
cessna, but that the southerners, differ
ing i'll taste from the lamented Colonel
Fred Burnaby. would have none of them.
A certain young lady, who appeared
to be i'll delicate health, took ship at New
York for Havana, whence she hoped to
run the blockade into Mobile. Over
powered by seasickness during the vow
age, she could not prevent the steward
ess from discovering that she was girt
round about with linen bandages, among
which many costly drugs We're slowed.
Such is the complexion to which modern
smuggling has come at last. Our coast
guards have no preventive duties to per-
form. and their only raison detre is TO
watch that no foreign foe makes de-
scent on our coasts. The Dirk Halter
alexis of the past are as dead as the pi-
rates of the Captain Cleveland order.
and in their stead petty larceny revenue
cheaters like Mary MacMahon have
sprung into existence. Society.