The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-29

square furnace down in the underground
receSSeS OF the customs building in Bill
!ngsSate, on the Thames. Until about 1888
II used TO be charged and lighted once a
year All the tobacco that INSCRIPTIONS
1olk attempted TO bring into the kingdom
without the fOFmaity of paving duty
tnereon, and which was bounced upon by
ner ma1eStyS alert customs officials, was
! dumped into that furnace, and burnt
omerlng made of ii. The custom people OF
today say all with perfect gravity, and
they shook their heads severely when T
frivOlouSly limited that some brands"
occasionally might have been saved from
the burning Tor the private delectatiOn of
their lgi predecessors in office.
Ihere used to be some absurd old
fOrmality that had TO be gone through
with when the tobacco was burned-iust
WhaI NOBODY now can tell-but the whole
business was done away with long ago.
ana the captured smoking mixtures -
which last year amounted TO e115 pounds
are put 10 better Use. Lunatics and Bugs
get the benefit OF them. The first are In
the government asylums for the criminal
insane, the latter have their local habi-
tauons among the plants in the Royal BO-
tanical and the Kew gardens Neither
the Iunat1cS nor the bugs get cigars
these are sold at public auction IN Nine
ing lane-but the best of the captured
smoking tobacco IS served out to the in
mates OF the three great British inStitu-
tons mentioned. Why the criminal in
government could not be satisfactorily
explained by the customs people with
whom l talked. but they volunteered the
information that the best of the tobacco
was poor stun, leaving the happy infer
ence thai no one but lunatic could be
induced TO smoke il. As for the bugs, they
are even less to be envied, for they
get the tobacco that is REGARDED as alb
solutely impossible from a smokers view
point. That doesn't indicate any lack of
courtesy on the part of the government
Tor II doesn't care very much about the
bugs, anyway, and uses this tobacco only
for the purpose of destroying them bv
fumiSation.
Struggled Tobacco.
The greater part Of all this tobacco,
practically the whole of it, in fact, comes
from Holland and Germany, and is
brought by the lowest class of common
sailors, who try to run the tobacco.
either for their own endowment on land
as a gift TO friends, or to sell 10 small
dealers, and it's almost invariably OF the
poorest quality. The sailors methods of
hiding the tobacco are frequently original
and crafty, but the customs ''rumma gers
as they are called, have proved them
selves even more aStute, bringing the
carefully secreted stores to light with so
much ease that the army of petty snug
gers Is gradually becoming diScOura ged-
VI course, every one of the detected men
IS Drought up" and fined, and, while ten
years ago the yearly bag Of sea-faring
De nearly 4,5JU, It has now Shrunk TO 2,2e0.
Although $4,000 worth of tobacco is cap
tured for the queens pipe" the govern
mSnt doesn't make much, if anything. out
OF the transaction, for il has TO keep a
perfect army Of officials, bOatmen, etc,
10 attend TO the job of detection, 1900 OF
them in all. Every ship that comes into
England, no matter from what port she
halls, or who is aboard of her, is searched
Tor smUgSled tobacco and spirits, and the
majority or the culprits are run TO earth
at Hull Southampton, FOlkestone.
GraveSend and the other ports of mer-
chantmen from the continent Ships from
America rarely offend in this direction.
The customs ''rumma gers" and their
sturdy boats crews are stationed all along
the JaIIered coaSI11ne, and no ship has
more than anchored before they are
aboard, unwilling the Sanctity Of the mems
sea-cheStS. pOking under their hunks
and even probing the tunnels and smoke
stacks, if the ship be d steamer, or rifiing
the cross-trees and crows nest, if the sus-
pect IS a sailing vessel. all these localities
being frequently chosen by the erring
salts to conceal their unlawful boards
The searching operations are guided by
reports received from the regular detec-
tive force allied to the ''rummage gers" who
have the delicate duty of mingling, dis
gulsed, with the sailors in their shore
haunts, and surprising their secrets out
of them. all of which involves the double
reflection that it not only takes a ire
mendOus number of men TO ill the oueenfs
pipe, but that the lunatics and bugs OF
England are smoking tobacco that costs
more in the getting than any other in the
world, even if it IS bad tobacco.
A Curious Museum.
As a result of the activity of the rum
mayors, the custom house has started a
small museum, stocked with various in
genlous devices that have been used bv
bold, bad snfugglerS. only to fall into the
hands or her majesty's ferrets This coll
lecuon begins with an innocent looking
Scruoolng brush, but one that upon being
lifted IS curiously lacking in weight. IN
truth, II IS hollow. and when discovered
was stuffed with Cavendish Beside il is
an accordion found fun of cigars instead
OF music Next comes a long cord. with
cigars knOtted in it, one about every five
lhcnes, which the hardy seaman had worn
colled around his body, and cheek by fowl
with this stands a demure clock. pointing
10 5 mis- clock had tobacco works. An
well thumhed copy of phi
grim Progress on being opened re-
Vea1s circular holes cut in BunVan's text
wherein watches lay hidden in beds OF
cot5on WOOL A pOnderOus treatise on
contained, besides its invaIuable
precepts, certain shred tobacco. and more
OF the same had been concealed from the