Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-01-03
A VAIN BETRAYAL.
HOW THE NEW YORK CUSTOM HOUSE
iNSPEC TORS MADE 1900.
How an Old Germans Effort to Smuggle
In Lot of Diamonds Was Frustrated.
Conditions Which the Son-i Law Inform
er Had Not the Nerve to Face.

curious bits of history Not long ago q
! gentleman from the inside was telling me
u bit Of tho 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 tho customs lines
- A friend of mine, said that gentle
| man, was one Of the inspectors In the
New York office His business was to 30
| aboard boats, ransack the trunks of pas
songers and overhaul the effects of immi-
grants In other words, ho was TO look
out for smugglers. This was in 1869
" One day his chief came to him and
said: You meet such and such ship
when she comes in, She's ut the Narrows
now. Take with you one of the women OF
our Office, because you will have to search
a 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
, 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
tho diamonds as if you knew where they
were. l want the discovery to come along
in a 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, to ask any questions as To how my
chief knew of the whereabouts OF this
plant of diamonds. ! took the woman in
spoctor rs he directed me, and we went
aboard the boat and quickly found our
VI. =
had been further described TO me by my
chief rs having only one eye, so he was
easy 20 pick out / searched the old man
in careful way, and the woman with me
took the girl into statcroom, and after
foUling 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 a sore blow,
and they walled and wept and beat their
bOsoms nightly
" AS we always did at that time, we
contcntcd ourselves with conflscating the
diamonds. OF course l made a bluff.
told the old man and his daughter they
were under arrest, but that l would lot
them so for the night. The next day they
must return at 10 o'clock to the customs
Office, when we would send them to the
penitCntiary for anywhere from 10 TO 20
years.
This last, l say, was only a bluff
however, and the people never came back,
as we had every reason TO suppose would
be the case. We hal 10 time to try Grim
inals and usually contentcd ourselves with
confscating the goods which they at.
tempted to smuggle and as these were
generally very valuable it was punishment
enough.
When / found my chief, told him l
had the diamonds all safe enough and
had given the cd German and his daugh
ter such scare that none Of Us need cx-
pcct TO see either Of them again Then /
asked him how no knew so accurately
about the diamonds
My chief told mo that his nforma.
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
New York city. The younger girl when |
she and her father got ready to come over,
wrote the other how they had turned all |
Of their property into diamonds, which |
could be bought at u low figure in Europe, |
and on account OF tho 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 |
informal rascal expected To get 10 per cent |
of the proceeds Of the confscated property
when sold, being the amount which, in
that day, went TO the informer.
g Il 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 40 per cent as informer and Uncle
sam the other 90 per cent as conflscator,
| couldn't sec where we'd get in. But my
chief, who was IA very intelligent man, bade
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
|
overcome with their loss and the fear Of
being punished as smugglers, n 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 So COG
and Sl00 600. The share due the informer
was over 81 600.
3" The amount due TO the government
was turned over and shortly following the
'aithless son-in-law came skulking in to
get his share Of the money.
3" Certainly" replied my chief,
your the informer, and the moneys
yours. There is something over a, 900
coming To YOU But 1 propose TO have
when it is paid over / will pay
{ TO you any time when you bring your
wife and her sister and your father in law
with you to see il done. l intend that
hey shall witness this transaction and
earn just exactly what sort of "a cur you
ire -
q" The son-in-law informer crept away