The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-10
VALUABLE GEMS seized,
Santa Barbara Customs Off
GERS Make an Important
Discovery.
An Attempt to Smuggle JeWelry
on the Bark Duke of
Argyle.

SANTA BARBARA, CAL, May ga
little before noon to-day Deputy Customs
Officer Fred Forbush of this place and OF
ficer Johnson of Los Angeles, who, with
Deputy True, had been sharing the regular
watch upon the bark Duke of Argyle, made
discovery that bids fair to be important,
and get some one into trouble with Uncle
Sam.
The bark arrived in port from Newcastle
n. S. W., more than week ago, with 1900
tons of coal assigned to s. B. Williams,
president of the Santa Barbara Gas Com
pany. Captain Golightly proceeded to
Los Angeles and secured his necessary
papers before commencing to discharge
his cargo, which he began doing on the
9th.
A vigilant watch was kept upon her and
all her men, after the custom with ships
hailing from foreign ports where dutiable
| goods might be struggled ashore. In
this case certain news received by
| the customs service made the officers per-
haps more vigilant than usual, but at
first nothing rewarded their watch and
they were beginning to think that the in
| formation they had received might be I'M
| founded.
| The Santa Barbara harbor is not thronged
with shipping, and any suspicious move
| ments by day or night would be sure to be
noted. This forenoon, however, one of the
men on board the ship, a German,
whose name has so far been with
held, and who is variously reported
to have been a deckhand and stowaway,
made preparations to go ashore. This man,
who had the jewels in his possession, is said
4 to be musician by profession and to be
engaged to play in the Santa Barbara city
band, whose leader, Wiedenbeck, is said
be his personal friend and whom he was
preparing to join.
officers Johnson and Forbush stepped
up and opened his valise. in which they
found two Notwithstanding packages,
one of which was sealed. Opening
the other, their eyes were dazzled by
the prismatic colors and flashing lights
of quantity of opals, apparently the
precious Australian gem. Realizing that
the discovery might be an important one
they decided not to open the sealed pack
age, except in the presence of their chief,
and Mr.. Sjoberg, deputy collector of San
| Pedro port, was at once wired to come up.
| He arrived on the evening train, but as
the two packages had meantime been
placed in the County National Bank for
safekeeping he decided to postpone any
further investigation until 10 o'clock to-
morrow, when the bank reopens. No
one yet knows the value of this
seizure. The precious opal is very
valuable gem and the unopened package,
which is large, may prove TO have dia-
monds or rubies in it. At the same time
it must be remembered that no expert
hasyet examined the gems, and if it should
prove that they were merely fire opals
they might not be worth $40 pound, as
Mr. Sjoberg wisely observes, for Mexican
opals of this characte are now mined in
quantity and are drug in the gem mar
kets of the world.
1t is also possible that the remaining
package may contain gimcracks for the
children of the Teutonic gentleman s
friends; nevertheless everybody here
is on the tiptoe of expectation as to
the result of the opening of that
mysterious sealed package. The man who
undertook to bring the pretty stones
ashore is not yet under arrest and will not
be until the value of his packages and the
question of their dutiable or non-dutiable
nature is settled. Nevertheless he is under
close surveillance, and everywhere he goes
he is closely Swallowed by myrmidon OF
the law. In this connection it is interest
ing to know that if the gems are of purest
ray serene there is duty of 10per cent
upon the uncut and 25 per cent on the cut
jewels. In their hasty inspection
of the opened packages the deputies
counted seven cut gems, the rest being I'M
cut. At all events one thing is certain,
however this prosaic, rational, modern
world may reason against effete supersti-
tons, there is one man who will believe
that the opal is an unlucky stone to his
dying day