Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-01-10
A VAIN BETRAYAL.
HOW THE NEW YORK CUSTOM HOUSE
INSPECTORS MADE $4,000.
How an Old Germans Effort 20 Smuggle
In a Lot of Diamonds Was Frustrated.
Conditions Which the s%on-in-iav Inform.
err Had Not the Nerve to Pare.

Conditions Which the Son-in-law Inform
err Had Not the Nerve to Fare.
"Years ago" said an old secret service
man, IL was in business In New York.
Men at my trade as a detective hear ali
sorts of stories, some Of them long after
the knowledge will do any good Never
theless now and then these yarns form
curious bits of history. Not long ago a
gentleman from the inside was telling me
a bit of the unwritten history of the Now
York custom house. What he related took
place over 20 years agO-in fact. rot long
after the war. He was explaining how
money was made inside the customs lines.
ga friend of mine said that gentle
man, was one of the inspectors in the
New York office. His business was to go
aboard boats, ransack the trunks of pas
scngers and overhaul the effects of immi-
grants. In other words, he was to look
out for %smugglcrs. This was in 1869.
"'One day his chief came to him and
said; "You meet such and such a ship
when she comes in. She's at the Narrows
now. Take with you one of the women of
our Office. because you will have to search
II German girl who is aboard the BOAT
This girl will he with her father, whose
name is Schmidt. and who comes from
D1hlllpI. f1G HIS IOlllliR Oll MN Ut aJOlb
him that is wrong, but the girl has a
whole handful OF diamonds lone up in her
back hair. You have the inspectress who
is with you to search the girl and have her
finally find tho diamonds in her %chignon.
Don't bunglc the job nor go straight to
the diamonds rs 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
"'Thcre was no time continued my
friend, to ask any questions rs to how my
chief knew of the whereabouts of this
plant of diamonds. l took the woman in
spcctor, 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 n careful way, and the woman with me
took the girl into n stateroOm, and after
foLling away ten MINUTES in n pretended
search finally discovered the diamonds in
her waterfall, as the peculiar couture of
hat 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 W.T. always did at that time, we
contcntcd ourselves with confiscating the
diamonds. OF course l made "A bluff. l
told the old man and his daughter they
were under arrest, but that | would let
them 90 for the night. The next day they
must return at 10 O'Clock to the customs
office, when we would send them to the
penitrntiary for anywhere from 10 to 20
years.
"'This last, | say, was only u bluff,
however, and the people never came back,
rs we had every reason to suppose would
be the case. We had no time to try Grim
inals and usually contented ourselves with
cOnfiscating the goods which they at
tempted to Smuggle, and as these were
generally very valuable it was punishment
enough.
"'When l found my chief, | told him l
had the diamonds all safe enough and
had given the old German and his daugh-
ter such u scare that non of us need ex-
poet to see either of them again. Then l
asked him how he knew so accurately
about the diamonds.
"'My chief told me that his informa-
tion 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 he bought at IA low figure in Europe,
and on account Of the 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 Nor
husband, ana It was he who Informed my
chief. What was his object? Why, the
internal rascal expected to get 10 per cent
of the proceeds of the contiscated property
when sold. being the amount which, in
that day, went to the intormcr.
~ couldn't for the lifcO of me see where
my chief ana 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 cunii-catyd, and their sale would duly
take place. hut with the reptile son-in-law
getting 10 per cent as infurmcr and Uncle
sam the other % per cent rs con1lscator.
| couldn't See where we'd get in. But my
chief, who was a very intelligent man, babe
me be of good cheer. He had IA plan which
he was confident would work.
"'At One ~ the sales winch the custom
house periodically holds the old Germans
diamonds wcra duly hawked off. We had
not seen either him or his daughter since
l turned them loose ON the wharf, although
we knew from the sOn-in-law that they
were at the house in New York, very much
overcome with their loss and the fear of
being punished rs s|mugglcrs, IA fear which
he very much fed, by the way, 10y telling
tl.t,t lttt4 4kgftt. Et,ria-A ~ what huutpurt
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 $4,000
and $40. 600. The share due the informcr
was over 81, QUO.
" Tho amount due to the government
was turned over, and shortly following the
faithlc,s son-iu-law came skulking in to
get his share of the money,
'"Ccrtaiuly," replied my chief,
l"VOuirp the iufnrmrr. and the money