The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-26
SOME TRICKS OF THE sMUGGLER.
How an Innocent Man UncOnsciOusly
Brought i'm Many Diamonds.

New York Tribune.
They were talking about the $4,000 dia-
mond smuggling case and many curious.
bold and humorous cases of a similar ma
ture were recalled One man who does odd
jobs at detective work in the large depart
ment stores in the fall and winter seasons,
and has similar work in one of the Saratoga
hotels in the summer, was an interested
listener until all had told their stories, and
then, taking the half-smoked cigar from his
mouth said:
II know of a big case in which the man
who got the stuff past the customs officers
was Ignorant Of the crime and never made a
cent by the operation. 1t is we'll known that
nearly all the big custom-house seizures are
the results of tips given by enemies of the
or with manufactured names are sent to the
customs authorities with the information
that John Smith or Mary Jones, passengers
on certain vessel, should be watched for
diamonds, dress goods, laces or some other
valuable article which Smith or Jones will
try to get through without paying duty
Several years ago a letter of that kind was
received, and on the arrival of the steamer
the man was seen and his baggage carefully
searched. He had declared a few Swiss
watches and some other articles of jewery,
put denied having anything else and the
closest search failed to reveal anything fur
"A few weeks later I heard the sequel to
the story, and that's the point. I met
man whom had known for years, who told
me tnat ne came over on the same ship with
diamond smuggler, and that he had helped
90 the job, and the fact worried him.
" . li1u tdhtll Tue pllOL ABOARD the man
SAID, ana everybody was making prepara-
tons for landing / had only a small trunk
III my cabin, which was soon packed and
went on deck to get a glimpse of the papers
Drought on by the pilet One of our passen-
gers, an elderly German, whom I had met
oetten In the course of the trip, and who was
a atSn on board for his fondness for pino-
chle and his queer English sided up to me-
and we remained together most of the time
until we went ashore. Just as we were go
ing he handed me a couple Of canes and an
OLD umbrella and asked me to carry them
ashore because he had ''zu much baggage"
our baggage was examined. and then
we reached the place beyond the custom
mouse line. l happened to think that | had
left the canes and umbrella behind. 1 ran
back and found them on the floor in bag
gage heap, the umbrella a little more bat
tered looking than it had been. AS we
parted my German friend handed me one
OF the canes and said: Bring dot to my
gave me the name of a hotel in Fourth
avenue, much frequented by Germans. A
few days later [ called there and saw the
man. He was in high spirits, glad to see
me to renew our friendship. He had told
me that he would leave town the next day,
but would look me up when he came again.
happened to remember that he wanted to
show me something" and he went to
corner OF the room and brought out the bat
tered umbrella.
{" He unscrewed the little ivory handle and
showed me that the rod was a tube. Then
ne took from the inner pocket leather wal
let, opened 1t and took out a number, of
tissue paper parcels, each one of which con-
tanned a number Of diamonds. The Winks
and smiles of the willy German told the rest
and knew that / had carried ashore and
came dangerously near losing big consign-
ment of contraband goods
"A long time afterward it became well es-
tabhshed in customs circles that the man
with the Swiss watches and the man with
the rickety umbrella were one and the same
and that despite the1nfoImatiOn given to the
customs department the goods came in free
of duty"