The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-01-25
AN INNOCENT sMUGGLER.
Diamonds Brought In by an Unsun
pectinR PRasenger.

Diamonds Brought In by an UnEun-
pecting Paasenger.
They were talking of the $50. 600 dia-
mond smuggling case, and many Curl
ous, bold and humorous cases Of simi
lar. nature were recalled. One n an who
does odd jobs at detective work in the
large department stores in the fall and
winter seasons and has similar work in
one Of the Saratoga hotels in the sum-
mer was an interested listener until all
had told their stories, and then. taking
the half smoked cigar from his mouth,
said:
II know of big case in which the
man who got the stuff past the Gus.
toms officer was ignorant Of the crime
and never made cent by the operation.
"It is we'll known that nearly all the
big custom house seizures are the result
of tips given by enemies Of the SNUG
glers. Letters u ith either no signature
or with manufactured names are sent
to the customs authorities with the in
formation that John Smith or Mary
Jones, passenger on certain vessel,
should be watched for diamonds, dress
goods, laces or some other valuable ar
ticle which Smith or Jones will try to
get through without paying duty. Sew
eral years ago letter Of that kind was
received, and on the arrival of the
steamer the man was seen and his bag.
gage was carefully searched. He had
declared few Swiss watches and some
other articles of jewelry, but denied
having anything else, and the closest
search failed to reveal anything further.
"a few weeks later 1 heard the sequel
to the story, and that's the point. l
met q man whom I have known for
years, who told me that he came over
on the same ship with o diamond snug
gler, and that he had helped do the
Job, and the fact worried him.
I'VE had taken the pilot aboard.
the man said, and everybody was max
ing preparations for landing. Ihad only
q small trunk in my cabin, which was
soon packed. and went on deck to get o
glimpse of the papers brought on by the
pilot. One of our passengers, an elderly
German, whom / had met often in the
course of the trip and who was known
on board for his fondness for penuchle
and his queer English. sidled up to me.
and we remained together most Of the
time until we went ashore. just as we
were going he handed me couple Of
canes and an old umbrella and asked
me to carry them ashore because he had
"zu much baggage. F"
"'Our baggage was examined, and
when we reached the place beyond the
custom house line I happened to think
that i had left the canes and umbrella
behind. ran back and found them on
the floor in baggage heap, the un,brel-
la little more battered looking than it
had been. AS we parted my German
friend handed me one of the canes and
said, Bring dot to my hotel und 1
show you sonnet ing, " and he gave me
the name of hotel in Fourth avenue
much frequented by Germans. A few
days later 1 called there and saw the
man. Ho WAS i'll high spirits, glad to
see nae and to renew our friendship.
He told me that he would leave town
the next day, but would look me up
when he came again. I had already
said goodby when my host happened to
remember that he wanted to "show me
something, and he went to a corner
of the room and brought ont the bat
tered umbrella.
"Hc unscrewed the little ivory han.
die and showed mo that the rod was II
tube. Then hn took from an inner pocket
Il leather wallet, opened it and took out
q number of tissue paper parcels. each
one of which contained number OF
diamonds. The winbs and smiles OF the
willy German told the rest, and / knew
that had carried ashore and come dan
gcrously near losing a big consignment
of contraband goods.
"a long time aftcrward it became
we'll established in customs circles that
the n.:n with the Swiss watches and
the man With tho riclSoty umbrella
were one and the same, and that despite
the information given 10 the customs
department the goods came i'll free Of
duty. New York Tribune