The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-25

they nearly always prove devices fer
smuggling in the costly opium Tho
planks and aantlings have long augur
holes bored in them these are filled with
the drug and then carefully plugged up.
Innocent.looking boards are taken from
a steamer and laid carefully to one side
on the wharf. They are not there long,
for presently some watchful eye has dis
covered them and they are quickly
"sneaked off, These are likewise full
OF opium. One of these dummy planks
ranged to contain several hundred dollars
worth Of the drug, is preserved In the
surveyors office at San Francisco.
Opium has been discovered In the hol-
low iron stringers of steamers, in the
false bottoms to the chain lockers and the
hollow of the iron masts. Opium has
been covered with oil cloth and slowed
away in the ships bilge. 1T has bsen
found in the tubes Of the DO Tiers, inside
the vessels skin, and 1t has been brought
ashore in pockets on the person and in
hats upon the head. It has been discov-
partitions, strung up in sausage skins,
in table legs, in false bottoms in cuddy
holes and pantry drawers, in coal bunk,
ers, and under engines and boilers, in
the folds of extra sails, in the steerage
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 steam
ers was on the dock for repairs, numbers
of mattresses were thrown on the wharf
with the apparent intent OF letting them
air. They were discovered to be stuffed
with some of the finest silks that had
come into that port. The government
was defrauded out of more than $3.50, 600
by firm who had been importing silks
shipped as "orash towelling."
ALONG THE CANADIAN BORDER.
Smuggling Ia not confined to the Al
lantic and Pacific coasts, but extends all
[along the Canadian border. The snug
Cling of clothing, silks. jswelry, whiskey,
tobacco. butter, India goods, opium, ETC.,
is conducted on very extensive scale
across the Canadian border from Maine
to the state of Washington. Buffalo, N.
Y, has become known as the head CEN
ter of complete and profitable system of
swindling. Where dollars worth of
dutiabls property is brought from Canada
by rail thousand dollars worth is
shipped across Niagara river in skiffs be-
teen midnight and daybleak. 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 SNUG
gle cask or two across the river. IT is
only about mile from shore to Shore
The smuggling at Detroit. which Is the
second best point along the border is
merely hagntelle in comparison with
Buffalo. During the winter, when the
lake is frozen, teams are driven dis
tance of twelve miles upon the ice, and
not one load in fifty is overhauled. Most
| OF them contain smugRlsd goods. Sus-
pension Bridge, Ogdensburg, Richford
and st. Albans, Vt, and FL sPaso, Tex,
are also famous points for smuggling,
especially for Chinese laborers.
Recently car load of hay was sealed
and passed across the border Sin transit'
to the United States. After arriving at
one of ths large towns on the border in
the United States a hidden trap door was
| opened in the bottom of the car and
| twenty-thres smuggied Chinese laborers
slid out and departed for parts unknown.
Professional smugglers find their bust
ness SO profitable at times that they de.
vote their lives to the study of how they
| may defraud the revenue, an G when it is
considered that this class of persons are
among the shrewdest of men and women
1t Is something surprising that the reye-
nue. officers catch them at all. Frequent
IL they are detected. In this CASE the ar
ticles seized are sent to the seizure room
at the barge Office. and the facts arc re-
ported to the collector for his action.
I. THOMAS SCHARF,
Inspector of Immigration.
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