The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-05-20
A TALE OF SMUGGLERS.
EVEN WHEN CAUGHT 1T rs
HNRD TO CONVICT.
Absurd Claims Made That valuable
Dresses Are the Property OF FASH
tonabis Dress- Makers -
Smuggling Jeweiry.

but constant violation OF the customs
laws that must be looked after and
the worst of IL is that the most per-
sistent offenders are women. and
wealthy. high-bred, educated ladies
at that"
The speaker was special agent OF
the treasury department.. one of those
men whose position in official life il
hard to define, but who, at stipend
of ~ per day and expenses, exercise
vicariously all the functions of the
secretary OF the treasury himself and,
many unlucky imposters contend. all
the powers OF justices of supreme
court OF the United States as well.
There are. of course. he resumed,
''many people in trade who make an
effort. and very often successful one,
to beat the customs Dress-makers
and diamOnd-dealors are the chief
offenders. and in these cases 1t is de-
cidedly difficult to convict either one.
Our system has been for years very
complete, and we have men located
In Europe and constantly upon the
steamer docks abroad to keep track
OF leading dress-makers and dealers
who we know are in Europe. We are
notified of the date of their sailing,
and either the men of our force or the
surveyors staff are on the lookout
for their arrival. The modistes Of
this city, Who usually return from
abroad with from five to twenty
trunks, are put through a pretty
searching examination, and then the
trouble begins.
Several years ago we made
large seizures of trunks belong
ing to well known drcssmakcrs
OF this city and Boston and
pursued the cases vigorously.
Evidence was produced showing that
nearly all the costumes contained in
the trunks. some of them valued as
high as 81, 2J0 apiece, were bought for
wealthy ladies Of New York and Bos-
ton Not one of them had been de
clared' as dutiable, and yet every
one OF these dressmakers had been
abroad yearly and knew the demands
OF the customs laws as well as you or
J. 1t was useless, however; the iur-
les promptly declared the women not
guilty. and Judge Brown was com
PEELED to release the goods. upon
which at least 5000 of duty should
have been paid. the duty on silk then
being fifty per cent adj valorem.
Since then we have been very care
full in making seizures.
1.-The modistes have pursued the
custom for some years of declaring
one or two costumes in each trunk
and claiming the remainder to be
their own personal wearing apparel.
1t is too difficult to secure evidence
to refute these claims and distinguish
between the goods to be worth the
time it takes. Occasionally new
Corners in the field of dress making
attempt to conceal the goods, and
that is their undoing. A woman will
attempt to come of the steamer with
one valuable costume over the other,
or with goods concealed about her
person, and she is generally invited
by the acute inspectress to visit the
searching room.
.'On one occasion we took sixty
yards OF valuable lace with which a
woman had hounced wooden petit
coat valued at about 81, and which
she claimed was proper trimming for
it. While attempts at concealment
of this kind Indicate determination
to smuggle, the offender is generally
allowed on appeal to the collector or
secretary of the treasury to pay the
duty and take the goods.
Dealers in iewelry and precious
stones are the leading smugglers
among men. although the cigar trade
for many years gave us a great deal
of trouble. Diamond smuggling is
frequent and is persistently kept up.
although the duty on gems is but
ten per cent and the profit saved is
not very great. The pursuit of
the diamond smuggler is most
unsatisfactory, although the hauls
sometimes made are heavy, and
were the jewels always conflscated
the profit to the selling officer would
be considerable. But diamonds are
goods of "a characrer which the owner
would most naturally conceal about
his person. and the law cOmpels the
selling officer to enter the alleged
offenders mental processes and prove
that ii was his intent to defraud the
revenue before he can be convicted
of smuggling.
II myself followed leading Maiden
lane dealer whom knew was SNUG
Cling diamonds constantly for nearly
two years without making any larger
capture than package of bort (uncut
brown and black stones used for
rock drills and in diamond cutting)
which was of course undutiable.
The firm represented BY this man had
branch house in Paris. He often
visited that city but returned empty
handed. We found him making
frequent trips to Montreal. and in
quiry of the Canadian Customs
authorities revealed the fact that
large packages OF precious stones
were addressed to him at the Mont
real Post-office. Diamonds are adj