The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-08-06

ed to contain several hundred dollars
worth of the drug is preserved in the
Surveyors Office at San Francisco.
Opium has been discovered in the
iron stringers of steamers, in the false
bottoms to the chain lockers and the
hollow of the iron masts. Opium has
been covered with oilcloth and slowed
away in the ships bilge. 1t has been
found in the tubes of the boilers, in
side the vessels skin, and it has been
brought ashore in pockets on the per-
son and in hats upon the head. 1t
has been discovered behind panels in
the staterooms, in partitions, strung up
sausage skins, in table legs, in false
bottoms in cuddy holes and pantry
drawers, in coal bunkers and under
engines and boilers, in the folds of
extra sails, in the Storage stateroom,
in barrels of picked salmon, in mats
of rice, and in every nook and corner
of the vessel.
Recently, when one of the large
steamers was in the dock for repairs,
numbers of mattresses were thrown
on the wharf with the apparent intent
of letting them air. They were dis
covered to be stuffed with some of the
finest silks that had come into that
port. The Government was defraud
ed out of more than $25O,OOO by a
firm who had been importing silks
shipped as 'crash towelling.'
Smuggling is not confined to the At
lantic and Pacific coasts, but extends
all along the Canadian border. The
smuggling of clothing, silks, jewelry,
whisky, tobacco, butter, India goods,
opium, etc., is conducted on very ex-
tensive scale across the Canadian Dor
der from Maine to the State of
Washington. Buffalo has become
known as the head centre of COM
plete and profitable system of swind-
ling. Where a dollars worth of
dutiable property is brought from
Canada by rail, a thousand dollars
worth is shipped across Niagara River
in skiffs between midnight and day
break. There are saloon keepers in
that city who buy in Canada every
gallon of the spirituous liquor which
they sell, and they always know just
where to find parties to smuggle a
cask or two across the river. 1t is
only about mile from shore to shore.
The smuggling at Detroit, which is
the second best point along the Dor
der, is merely bagatelle in compari-
son with Buffalo. During the winter,
when the lake is frozen, teams are
driven a distance of twelve miles upon
the ice, and not one load in fifty is
overhauled. Most of them contain
struggled goods. Suspension Bridge,
Ogdensburgh, Richford, and St. Al
bans, VT, and Ell Paso, Tex, are also
famous points for smuggling, especi-
ally for Chinese laborers.
Recently a carload of hay was seal
ed and passed across the border Sin
transit" to the United States. After
arriving at one of the large towns on
the border in the United States hid
den trap door was opened in the
bottom of the car and twenty-three
struggled Chinese laborers slid out
and departed for parts unknown.
| Professional smugglers find their
business SO profitable that they devote
their lives to the study of how they
may defraud the revenue, and when
it is considered that this class of per.
sons are among the shrewdest of men
and women it is something surprising
that the revenue officers catch them
at all. Frequently they are detected
In this case the articles seized are sen,
to the seizure room at the Barge Office
and the facts are reported to the Col,
} lector for his action.
h2,,,,.