Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-07-10
CHINESE SMUGGLING
Chinemen Said to be Gaining Ad-
mission to Vermont UnIawfuIIy.


of Cinnamon into the United States.
Occasionally an item has crept into the
papers, and each time "a prompt dis
claimer has come from Hon. B. B. Small
ley, Democratic collector of customs, to-
gether with change of procedure. The
latest in this line before the thing came
out in the New York World, Sunday,
was the employment of an interpreter,
so that those in charge of the offices at
Richford, ST. Albans, ct al. could under
stand what was up. Meantime, as the
sequel would show, reporter for the
World came up to investigate and if
what he says in the Sunday edition of
that paper is true, it was high time some
one investigated the situation. The re-
porter got into the confidence of one of
the leading passenger smugglers, and
saw the whole process, together with
the amounts paid, He got on to the
genesis of the bogus papers, where ire
sponsible parties swore as merchants for
a consideration, etc. The account is
long and specific and created veritable
sensation, especially as the collector
poses as the exponent of reform ad
ministration, and is the Cleveland boss
of Vermont. The World charges that
Cinnamon have been pouring in at the
rate of over a hundred a week. The
price paid for admission, the World says,
averaged 5000 apiece, which for fifty
weeks in a year would amount to round
million of dollars. This immense sum
would furnish the smugglers fairly
good profit, after paying all expenses of
affidavits and custom house charges.
AS the world goes rogues often over
reach themselves. The moving cause of
the exposure was because, the sum de-
manded by "up stairs was not prompt
ly forth coming in Gel tain cases, neces-
stating journeys to New York, where,
if "up stairs had been satisfied the
danger to the smugglers might have
been averted for the time. The people
would like to know who the party named
as sup stairs is. AS matter of world
ly policy the syndicate better have paid
the $25 extra demanded, than to have
had five bogus affidavits hung up, as
they were, at the last When the diff
Guilty had been fixed, the World reporter,
who was working with the smugglers,
started from Montreal with his cargo.
The story of his trip is interesting. The
custom house officers eyed him suspi-
ciously. The conductor endeavored to
find out his destination. No other grip
IN the car was searched, etc., but the
newspaper man carried through his part.
At st. Albans, where the Cinnamon
were to be examined to see if they were
the ones described in the affidavits, was
reached at IL 40. The examination here
is made by the United States deputy col
lector, Capt. George W. Burleson. The
affidavits are forwarded to him from Col
lector Smalley's Office in Burlington.
When the reporter and his party of
Cinnamon arrived at st. Adams, Captain
Burleson was there with Sing Bow. An
other man was there, too, Customs In
spector o. T. Winch, who had come over
from Richford on the strength of the
telegram sent him by Deputy Collector
Twohey, from Montreal. Winch is de-
tailed to board trains on the Southeast
ern branch of the Canadian Pacific road
running from Montreal to Richford, and
to examine passengers baggage. Winch,
however, is very intimate with the Sang
Kee crowd, and a great friend of Moy
Foy Yen, who is Sang KEGS partner. At
st. Albans Winch told Deputy Collector
Burleson that he had received telegram
from Twohey at Montreal, telling him to
come over and stop the Cinnamon on the
train. Burleson intimated that he was
capable of attending to his own business,
and Winch took the next train back to
Rlchford. Deputy Collector Burleson
examined the Cinnamon. There were
no discrepancies between the men and
their descriptions as set forth in the af-
fidavit, and there was nothing for the
deputy collector to do but admit them.
On the strength of Col. Smalley's ex-
PLANTATION, it is said that some of the
Chinese firms in Boston have large
number of partners, "some have as high
as Is partners, and the attention of the
government has been repeatedly called
to this fact" says Collector Smalley.
The readers will ''see the point" when it
is explained that the "& Co." of these
firms, are the Cinnamon thus smuggled,
and for consideration.
The government, had not been idle all
this time. Secretary Carlisle had deput-
ed Col. Scharf, and armed with the or
der accompanied by the World reporter,
both went to Collector Smalley's office,
where the following scene was enacted F.:
Scharf presented his order to the col
lector, who said he supposed ne would
have to deliver the papers and would get
them together and in a few days send
them to Col. Scharf in New York. Both
Smalley and Greenleaf said there were
so many affidavits and Chinese papers
that it would take weeks to get them
ready for shipping. Some were in Bur-
lington, they said some in Richford and
few in st. Albans.
Mr.. Greenleaf brought into the collec-
tors private Office few bundles of
Chinese affidavits, about six hundred in
all, and then Collector Smalley said that
he could not think of delivering them to
Scharf without having an itemized re-
ceipt.
The perusal of the affidavits developed
the fact that not nearly all of them were
there, many bearing on cases with which
Scharf aud the World reporter were fa-
miliar not being in the lot. Mr.. Scharf
made up his mind that he would demand
the rest of the papers, and also the rec
ord books containing the list of Chinese
firms and private records kept by Mr..
Greenleaf.
When this demand was made the
trouble began. "Oh, we can't allow
those to go out of our hands" said Mr..
Smalley, 'those books contain all our
private records regarding the admission
of Chinese. If we let those go the busi-
ness would come to a standstill. The
secretary never meant that you should
take those books, for he could not know
they existed. How did you know OF