Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1897-06-30

American diamond dealers are anxious
to establish the diamond-cutting IN
dustry securely in the United States.
! Three and third million dollars year
distributed in wages to our workmen
is not to be despised. But with all the
earnest effort that has been put for
ward to encourage the cutting OF dia-
monds in America, we cut probapiy not
more than five per cent. of those which
are sold in this country every year.
The former duty of ten per cent. helped
to build up the industry, but slowly.
The duty of 25 per cent. helped it along
amazingly at first-it trebled the.
amount of rough diamonds brought
into this country in the first six
months--but it soon lost it's effective
ness because of the activity of snug
Cling. 1t remains to be seen what the
new duty will do. The establishment
of new factories under the early i'm
petus of the Wilson law has given the
business q stronger footing than it ever
had before.
They say at the treasury that the
smuggling of diamonds is the most
serious violation of the customs law.
Ten thousand dollars worth of dia-
rnonds can be held in mans mouth or
in the hollow of his hand. They can be
put in a package two inches long, one
and one-half inches broad, and quar-
ter of an inch thick; and the customs
officers have known of cases where such
a package was concealed under porous
plaster on q mans back. OF course, the
! customs officer would never think of
! looking on mans back. for smuggled
| goods unless he had some reason to
suspect him; and that reason would
arise from one of two causes--because
the treasury had received warning from
one of it's agents abroad or from some
! spitefu friend or enemy of the snug
| gler or because the smuggler betrayed
symptoms of nervousness.
In a memorable case in which warn
| ing had been received. the customs Of
! ficers found a number of diamonds i'm
/ bedded in cake of soap. The SNUG
! g,er's wife also had some gems. They
were concealed in the artificial grapes
/ on the trimmings of her hat. Under or
dinary conditions there was not one
| chance in thousand that they would
have been discovered.
! One of the stories of the New York
! custom house is of a professional who
| fooled the officers so often that they
! came to have a great admiration for
him. Time after time they would get
| Information from abroad that he had
| large purchases of diamonds for
| the American market; and they would
| be on the lookout for him when he ar
rived in New York. But search as
/ they would, they could not find the dia-
lnonds. They not only felt of his gar
ments but they even cut the seams of
| his coat so as to examine the inside of
| the lining. Hollow heels are common
! repositories for diamonds; so they split
the heels from his shoes and took the
soles off layer by layer. But all to no
effect. Long afterward they discovered
| his system. He always had a state
room to himself or shared it with his
| wife. Going aboard the ship. he sawed
! hole in the flooring of his room and
! concealed the diamonds there. He en-
| gagged the same room for the return
! trip. When the ship was to sail, his
wife accompanied him to the dock and
went with him to his state-room aboard
ship. There the diamonds were trans
fcrred to her; she returned with them
to the city and sold them; and later
she joined her husband on the other
side.
Women have been known to conceal
gems in their hair wrapped in tissue
paper of the same color as the hair.
Stones are often put in old settings and
brought in as family jewels. Some
times they are worn. Smugglers not
infrequently meet some American in
London or Paris who can be pursuaded
20 help them in a trick of this kind,
and who thinks it smart to ''beat the
government" 1t is said that carrier
pigeons are sometimes used to smuggle
diamonds into this country from Can
ada-probably the most valuable "mes-
| sages" ever carried by birds.
Much of the smuggling done under
the old law was done by amateurs
men who wanted to bring little pres
ents to their wives. Under the existing
law, more of it has been done by pro-
fessional men-diamond dealers who
have been willing to risk prosecution
FOR perjury and the possible confisca-
ton of their gems to save 25 per cent. on
their value. Under the new law there
will be less inducement to fraud and
the treasury officers are looking for a
much larger revenue from diamonds
than they have had since 1894
By the way, did you ever think of the
decrease Of the diamonds owned in this
country which reduction in the rate
of duty will cause? London sets the
price for diamonds. If the American
importer has to pay only ten per cent.
instead of rs per cent. on importations,
then dollars worth of diamonds from
London which was worth dollar and
quarter under the old law, will be
worth only dollar and ten cents in
this country under the new law. This
means that if the diamonds owned in
the United States now are worth $685.
100000 with the duty at 25 per cent,