The Portland daily press., 1895-12-26
A VAIN BETRAYAL.
How the the New York Gu stom Hons
.r,-as.s-zuszza-x.
Inspectors Made $4,000.

How an Old Germans Effort to smuggle
In Lot of Diamonds Was Frustrated.
Conditions Which the Son-in-law Inform
err Had Not the Nerve to Face.
"Years age" said an old secret service
man, II was in business in New York.
! Men at my trade as a detective hear all
sorts of stories, some of them long after
the knowledge will do any good Never
theless now and then these yarns form
curious bits of history. Not long ago a
| gentleman from the inside was telling me
bit of the unwritten history of the New
| York custom house. What he related took
place over 20 years ago-in fact, not long
after the war. He was explaining how
money was made inside the customs lines.
4" "A friend of mine, said that gentle
| man, was one Of the inspectors in the
| New York Office. His business was to 20
aboard boats, ransack the trunks of pas
| sengers and overhaul the effects of immi-
grants. In other words he was to look
out for smugglers. This was in 1869.
Zone day his chief came to him and
said: "You meet such and such ship
when she comes in. She's at the Narrows
now. Take with you one of the women of
our office, because you will have to search
g German girl who is aboard the boat
| This girl will be with her father, whose
name is Schmidt, and who comes from
Bremen. He has nothing on him or about
him that is wrong, but the girl has a
whole handful of diamonds done up in her
back hair. You have the inspectress who
| is with you to search the girl and have her
| finally find the diamonds in her chignon.
| Don't bungle the job nor go straight to
| the diamonds as if you knew where they
were. I want the discovery to come along
in regular way and nothing done to in
dictate that we have had any pointer as to
| the folks and their diamonds
There was no time, continued my
| friend, ito ask any questions as to how my
chief knew Of the whereabouts of this
plant of diamonds. I took the woman in
| speetor, as he directed me, and we went
aboard the boat and quickly found our
passengers from Bremen. This Schmidt
had been further described to me by my
| chief as having only one eye, so he was
easy to pick out. searched the old man
in careful way, and the woman with me
took the girl into stateroom, and after
foolfng away ten minutes in pretended
search finally discovered the diamonds in
her waterfall, as the peculiar couture of
that day was termed.
OF course we took possession of the
diamonds and put the old German and his
daughter under arrest. 1t was sore blow,
and they walled and wept and beat their
bOsoms nightly.
AS we always did at that time, we
contented ourselves with coniscating the
diamonds. OF course made bluff. I
told the old man and his daughter they
were under arrest, but that Iwould let
them go for the night. The next day they
must return at 10 O'Clock to the customs
Office when we would send them to the
penitentiary for anywhere from 10 to 20
years.
This last, I say, was only a bluff,
however, and the people never came back,
as we had every reason to suppose would
be the case. We had no time to try Grim
inals and usually contented ourselves with
confscating the goods which they at
tempted to smuggle, and as these were
generally very valuable 1t was punishment
enough.
When found my chief, I told him I
had the diamonds all safe enough and
ter such scare that none of us need ex-
pect to see either of them again. Then I
asked him how he knew so accurately
about the diamonds.
My chief told me that his informa-
ton came from the son-in-law of the old
man. 1t seems that the old German had
two daughters. The elder one was mar.
ried and already in this country, living in
NprU VorGr citv Tho IL
she and her father got ready to come over,
wrote the other how they had turned ali
of their property into diamonds, which
could be bought at a low figure in Europe,
| and on account Of the tariff sold for double
the money here, and how she proposed to
conceal them in her hair in order to SNUG
gle them ashore.
Naturally the elder sister told her
husband, and it was he who informed my
| CHIEF. What was his object? Why, the
| internal rascal expected to get As per cent
of the proceeds of the confscated property
when sold, being the amount which, in
| that day, went to the informer.
g I couldn't for the life of me see where
my chief and myself and the other boys in
the custom house were going to get any
part of the proceeds Of, these diamonds.
| They were of course reported to the office
| as confiscated, and their sale would duly
take place, but with the reptile son-in- law
| getting As per cent as informer and Uncle
Sam the other So per cent as confscator,
I couldn't see where we'd get in. But my
chief, who was very intelligent man, babe
me be of good cheer. He had plan which
he was confident would work.
AT one of the sales which the custom
house periodically holds the old Germans
diamonds were duly hawked off. We had
not seen either him or his daughter since
| turned them loose on the wharf although
| we knew from the son-in-law that they
were at the house in New York, very much
| overcome with their loss and the fear Of
| being punished as smugglers, fear which
he very much fed, by the way, by telling
| them some awful stories Of what happened
to people who were caught trying to beat
the custom house. The diamonds, when
sold, if / remember correctly, were taken
| by Tiffany and brought between $4,000
and $4,000. The share due the informer
was over 81 600.