Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-06-05

curious bits Of history Not long ago a
gentleman from the inside was tolllng me
n bit of the 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 the customs lines
\ fricna OF mine, said that gentle
man was one of the inspectors in the
New York Office His business was 10 20
aboard boats, ransack the trunks of pas
scnpcrs and overhaul the effects Of immi-
Piant, In other words be was 10 look
out tor snlugglcrs This was in 1869
one day his chief came TO him and
said You meet such and such ship
when she comes in She, AT the Narrows
now Take with You one of the women Of
cur Office, because you will have TO search
IA German girl who i, aboard the boat
This girl will be with her father, whose
nam, Is schmidt. and VINO comes from
BrUmcn. He has nothing on him or about
him that j. wrong bat the girl has a
whole handful of diamond, done up IN her
back hair You have the inspectre,s who
} with you to search the girl ana have her
nally Aud thc diamond, in her chicuon.
Don't bungic the job nor 90 straight 10
the diamond, ~ If YOU knew whore they
We're. | want the discovery t. come along
i'm "a regular way and nothing done 20 IN
dictate that wo have had any pointer ~ to
the folks and thcir diamonds
" There wa, no time. continued mT
friend go ASK any questions "a, to- how IA,
chict knew ol the. whereabouts Of this
plant of diamonds | took the woman in
spcctor, as lac directed me and we went
aboard the boat and quickly found our
passenger, from Bremen THIS schmidt
had been further Described 90 me 10y my
chief a. having only one eye so hc was
easy 10 pick out. | searched the old man
in "A careful WY, and the woman with me
took tie giu into Il Stater)Jm and after
ioriing away ton minute, IN a pretended
search finally discovered the diamonds in
her waterfall. as the peculiar couture OF
that day wa, termed
d" OF course we took possession 81 the
diamond, and pat the old German and his
daughter under arrest II Wa, sore blow
and they walled and wcpt and beat thei,
bosom, nightly.
"'' As we always did at that time We
contentcj ourselves with coufiscating the
diamonds OF course | made "A bluff
told the old man and hi, daughter they
were under arrest. but that | would Lev
them - for the night The next day they
must return at 10 o'clock TO the custom,
office when we would send them 10 the
peniteLtiary for anywhere from 10 TO 20
years.
This last. say, was only a bluff
however and the people never came back
~ we had every .eason to suppose would
be the case. We had no time To- try erin
inal> and usually contented ourselves with
confi,cating the goods which they at
tempted 10 smuggle, and rs 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 old German and his daugh
ter such scare that none of us need ex-
pect to see either Of them again Then
asked him how he knew so accurately
about the diamonds
" My chief told me that his informa
sion came from the son-in law Of the old
man. 1t seems that the old German had
two daughters The elder one was mar
ricd and already in this country living in
New York city. The younger girl, when
She and her fathe. got ready TO come over,
wrote the other how they had turned all
of their property into diamonds, which
could be bought at q low figure in Europe,
and on account OF the tariff sold for double
the money here, and how she proposed t.
conceal them in her hair in order to snug
gle them ashore
90 Naturally the elder sister told her
husband, and it was he who informed my
chief. What was his object Why. the
internal rascal expected To get 45 per cent
of the proceeds Of the confscated property
when sold, being the amount which, in
that day, went 10 the iniOrmcr.
i couldn for the life Of me see where
my chief and myself and the other boys in
tine custom house were going 10 get any
part of the proceeds of these diamonds !
They were of course reported 10 the office /
"A, cOnii,catcd, and their sale would duly
take place bat with the reptile sOn-in-law !
getting 10 per cent a. informer and Uncle !
sam the other % per cent ~ conf scatter !
! couldn't see where we d get in But my |
chief, who was "a very Intelligent man bade
me be of good cheer. He had a plan which |
he was confident would work
90 At one of the sales which the custom !
house periodically hold, the old Germans /,
We're duly hawkcd of 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 |
were ~ the house in New York, very much |
with their loss and the fear OF |
being punished a. ,mugglcrs, fear which |
he very much Ted by the way, 10y telling .
them some awful stories of what happened !
to people who were caught trying 10 boa,
the custom house The diamonds, wher
sold II | remember correctly were taker
10y Tiffany and brought between 50 Gee
and $4,000 The share Que the informel
was over : GOO
" The amount due 10 the government
was turned over and shortly following the
faithle-s son-Iu-law came skulking - u
get hi, share of the money
o. Certainly replied my chief,
you re- the iutoruer and the MONEYS
yours. There Is something over s4.O0C
,oming 10 you But | propose 70 have
Witnc P, when it is paid over will pay
IL 90 YOU any time when YOU bring your
wife and her sister and your father l. law
with You TO see it done | intend that
they shall witness this TRANSACTION and
earn just exactly what sort "a a eur you
are "
The son III law informcr crept away
md never returned lie couldu face the
conditions which made his obtaining TIE
money possible 1t was not lost how