Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1897-04-09
A VAIN BETRAYAL.Y
HOW THE NEW YORK CUSTOM HOUSE
INSPECTORS MADE $4,000.
How an Old Germans Effort to smuggls
In n Lot of Diamonds Was Frustrated
Conditions Which the son in-lav inforns-
er Had Not the Nerve Ia Face


sorts of stories some Of them long after
the knowledge will 30 any good Never
theless now and then these yarns form
curious bits of history Not long ago Q
gentleman from the inside WAS telling me
bit of the unwritten history Of the New
York custom house What he related took
place over 90 years agO-in fact not long
after the war lie was explaining how
money was made inside the customs lines.
4" "A 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.
sengers and overhaul the effects Of immi.
grants In other words he was TO look
out for smugglers This WAS in 1869
'One day his chief came 10 him and
said You meet such and such 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
Il German girl who is aboard the boat
This girl will be with her father, whose
name is Schmidt. and who comes from,
Bremen. He has nothing on him or about
him that is wrong but the girl has a
whole handful of diamonds done up IN her
back hair You have the inspcctreSs who
} with you TO search the girl ind have her
.inaly find the diamonds in her chignon
Don't bungle tho job nor go straight TO
The diamonds AS If you knew where they
were. want the discovery Ia come along
in regular way and nothing done to In
iicate that we have had any pointer as to
the folks and their diamonds >
""rhere was no time, continued my
friend, ito ask any questions "a to how my
chief knew of the whereabouts OF this
Ia. Il
spoctor, 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 no was
easy to pick out. l searched the old man
in careful way, and the woman with me
took the girl into stateroom, and after
fo0lng away ten minutes in a pretended
search finally discovered the diamonds In
her waterfall, us the peculiar couture OF
| that day was termed.
"'Of course we took possession OF the
| diamonds and put the old German and his
| daughter under arrest. IL was sore blow
| and they walled and wept and beat their
| bosoms nightly.
AS we always did at that time, wa
contcnted ourselves with confscating the
| diamonds. OF course | made a bluff.
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
peniteLtiary for anywhere from 10 to 20
years.
"'This last, say, was only bluff
| however, and the people never came back,
! as we had every reason To suppose would
be the case. We had no time To try Grim
| inalS and usually contented ourselves with
confscating the goods which they at.
tempted to smuggle, and rs these were
generally very valuable it was punishment
enough.
"'When / found my chief, told him
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
,sked 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 father got ready to come over,
wrote the other how they had turned all
Of their property into diamonds, which
| could be bought at "a 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 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 conflscated property
when sold, being the amount which, in
that day, went to the informer.
1" Il couldn't for the life Of me see where
my chief and myself and the other boys In
the custom house were going 10 get any
part of the proceeds of these diamonds.
! They were of course reported To the office
as conhscatcd, and their sale would duly
take place, but with the reptile sonin law
getting 40 per cent as informer and Uncle
sam the other 90 per cent rs coniiscator,
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 plan which
he was confident would work.
d" AT one of the sales which the custom
house periodically holds the old German S
diamonds were duly hawked off 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 at the house I'm New York, very much
! overcome with their loss and the fear oi
being punished as smugglers, IA fear which
he very much fed, by the way, 10y telling
them some awful stories of what happened
70 people who were caught trying to beat
the custom house. The diamonds, wher
sold, if ! remember correctly were taker
by Tiffany and brought between 50 Gee
and $40 600. The share due the lnformef
was over 81 0U0
" The amount due &c the government
was turned over, and shortly following the
faithless son-iu-law came skulking ~ te
/ get his share of the money.
"' Certainly" replied my chief,
you re the informer, and the money =
yours. There is something over $Ac9C
coming to you But 1 propose to haze
witnesses when it Is paid over | will pay
| II to you any time when you bring youi
wife and her sister and your father in-law
with you TO see il done. intend that
they shall witness this transaction ano