The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1896-01-08
DIAMONDS IN HER HAIR
A SECRET SERVICE MANS STORY.

them long after the knowledge will do
any good. Nevertheless, now and
then, these yarns form curious bits OF
history. Not long ago a gentleman
from the inside was telling me bit OF
unwritten history of the New York
custom house. What he related took
place over twenty years ago; in fact
not long after the war. He was ex-
planning how money was made inside
of the custom lines.
+" "A friend of mine, said that gen.
tleman, was one of the inspectors in
the Now York Office. His business
was to go aboard boats, ransack the
trunks of passenger and overhaul thy
effects of immigrants.
'One day his chief came to him
and said: You must meet such and
such boat when she comes in. She's
at the Narrows now. Take with you
one of the women of our office, be-
cause she will have to search Ger
man 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 that
is wrong, but the girl has whole
handful OF diamonds done up in her
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 show that we
have had any pointer as to the folks
aud 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 dimonds. 1 took the
woman inspector 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. l searched the old
man in a careful way and the woman
with me took the girl into stateroom
and after fooling away ten minutes in
a pretended search, finally discovered
the diamonds in her waterfall, as the
peculiar coiffure OF that day was
termed.
"'As we always did at that time. We
contented ourselves with confiscating
the diamonds. OF course made
bluff I told the old man and his
daughter they were under arrest, but
that would let them go for the
night The next day they must re.
turn at 10 O'Clock to the customs Of
Ace,. when we would send them to the
penitentiary for anywhere from ten to
twenty years.
"'This last, as I say, was only
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 criminals, aud usually
contented ourselves with confiscating
the goods which they attempted to
smuggle, and as these were generally
very valuable, it was punishment
enough.
"'When found my chief / told
him had the diamonds all safe
enough, and had given the old Ger
man and his daughter such a scare
that none of us need expect to see
either Of them again. Then I asked
aim how he knew 80 accurately about
che diamonds.
MY chief told me that his infor.
nation came from the son-in-law of
the old man. 1t seems that the old
German had two daughters. The
elder ono was married, aud already in
this country, living In New York city.
Ths younger girl. when she aud her
fAther got ready to come over, wrote
the other how they had turned all OF
Aeir property into diamonds, which
could be bought at low figure in
EUROPE. and on account of the tariff
cold for double the money here; and
bow she Intended TO conceal them in
Der hair in order to smuggls them
ashore Naturally, the elder sister
4old hss husband. and Il was he who
ofosned nv ehiet What vas hia