Arizona silver belt., 1895-12-14
SMUGGLING THAT PAYS.
How Chinamen and Opium Are
 Spirited Into This Country.
A Large Number of Persons Actively Engaged In Bringing Goods Over from Canada Without Pay
 Ing Duties

Smuggling is an offense of great an- tiquity and one that many of the revo- lutionary fathers and early settlers of the country, prior to the historic Boston tea party, were wont to commit us ire Quently us the opportunity presented itself, and the excessive duties made it profitable. As late as the latter part of the eighteenth century the snug gling of wine, liquor, tobacco and bull lion was so generally practiced in Great Britain as to become n kind of national falling" and the smuggler was often regarded as popular hero.
 The maximum penalty for bringing
 into the United States dutiable articles, with intent to defraud the revenue, is five thousand dollars fine or two years Imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court, and for aiding and abetting the importation of a Chi naman one thousand dollars, or one years imprisonment. The degree of punishment an offender gets depends upon the circumstances of the case. The smuggler also forfeits his goods.
 There is a large body of men system atically engaged in smuggling China
 men and opium on the Pacific coast and the Canadian frontier. The men who successfully engage in this business must be peculiarly adapted to it. The first qualification is ingenuity enough to invent ways and means; second, dis honesty to the degree of defrauding the government, yet with sufficient in- tegrity and honor to justify the import CTS in intrusting to their care hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars worth of opium. It is popular fal- lacy that any man who is dishonest enough and will assume the risk can make money at smuggling. If he has sufficient capital he can buy opium in Canada and possibly get it across the border, but it is practically impossible to sell it without detection. The deal CTS in the United States will not buy it, nor receive it, from anyone save their trusted agents.
 According to statistics there are about one million human beings in the United States, principally Mongolians, addicted to the habit Of smoking opium. It is prepared in Hong Kong by a sy adicate under the surveillance of the Chinese government. Prepared opium has the appearance of black molasscs. It sells in China for about seven dollars per pound, and the duty under the present tariff law is six dol lars per pound. Formerly the duty was twelve dollars per pound; it was then that the smugsier reaped a harvest.
 The methods of smuCgiers are too numerous to relate, but suffice 1t to say that the government has to main tain an army of detectives and spotters to suppress them. The detectives who render the most valuable service are those stationed at the places from whence the goods are imported. They speed the parting guest and give the tip to the detectives at the object i've point, who welcome the smuggler whenever the opportunity presents it. self. Conviction speedily follows, as the United States statutes place the burden of proof on the smuggler to show that the opium was not illegally imported. The Detroit river is one of the most favorable points for snug gling on the frontier, but, thanks to the efficiency of Special Agent Wood, one of the cleverst officials in the sery- ice, it is practically broken up. The smuggler usually crosses the river in a TOW boat and drives by conveyance to souRe small statian near Detroit, where he boards the train for New York or Chicago.
 The smuggling of Chiuamen is very profitable, but difficult. The Chinaman will gladly pay one hundred dollars to be safely landed. Chinamen were for some time successfully imported by bringing them over in the state rooms of sleeping ears; woman's at tire and black faces have been resorted 1 to, but the pigtail usually discloses the Chinaman's identity, and this he will not part with, owing to the supersti- tious belief in it ns a means to get him intoa better world.-D Detroit Free Press.