The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-04
Customs House, Of ar
By ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.
tAuthor of Wol.vil!e Days.)


, ready for the fall. While his comrades
drove fast horses or buiIded hrown-stoue
fronts. or affected extrayagsnt opera
and supper afteG-ward with those painted
lilies OF femiuEnty III whose society they
delighted Betelnut Jack chung to his old
rude Bowery nest of sticks and straws
and mud and lived on without a. change
his Rowery life. He suffered no i'm
provements whether of --ahit or of habi-
tat. and provoked no question-ask by
any gildeet new r1etllods of existence.
AS fast as Bettnut Jack got money,
he bought United States bonds With
each new thousand. he got a new bond:
and tucked it safely away among its
fellows. These pledges of Government
he kept packed in small handbag;
tits stood ever at his heds head. ready
for instant fight with him. When the
downfall did occur, as following sun
dry years OF loot and customs pillase
was the desperate case. Bete!nut Jack
| with the earliest whisper of peril,
stepped into his raiment and his calf
| skin boots, took UP his satchel Of bonds,
| and with over six hundred thousand
| dollars of these securities-enough
| cushion and make pleasantly sure
| balance OF his days-said goodbye" to
| the Bowery, and was out of the country
| and into a corner of safety as fast as
| ship might swim.
| But now you grow impatient: you
| would hear in more of detail concerning
| what went criminally behind the cur
tair;s OF Customs in those later sos of
| last century. For myself. I may tell of
no great personal exploits. 1 die, not re-
main long in revenue service; fear,
/ rather than honesty, forced me to re-
! sign; and throughout that brief period
| of my office holding. youth ard lack
| OF eminence IN practical iniquity pre-
| vented main employment in these
| queer transactions which from time TO
| time took place. I was liked I was
| trusted. I knew what went forward
| and in the end I ever had my share of
the i'll profits: but the plans and. us
ually. the work came from others OF a
more subtle and experienced fertility
| In this affair of the Emperor's cigars
| the story was this. I call them the En-
| perors Cigars" because they We're OF q
hlnd made particularly for the then I'M
| perial ruler of the French. They sold at
| retail for one dollar each; We're worth
| wholesale seventy dollars a hundred and
| our aggregate harvest of this one OPP
Grafton of the ''Emperor's Cigars" was.
| as I now remember, full sixty thousand
dollars.
Ny first knowledge was when Lorns
! told me one evening of the seizure-by
whom of our circle and on what ship
I've now forgotten-of one hundred thou
sand cigars. They were in proper boxes,
| concealed I never knew how, and cap
| tured in the very act of being smuggled.
| just as they came into our wharf In
| designating the seizure. and for reasons
| which | have given before. they were at
| once dubbed and ever afterwards known
| among us as the Emperoc's Cigars.
| These one hundred thousand cigars.Sstill
l os ~, L,ai- tol- RI
the Customs Depot of confiscated goods.
The owners, as was our rule. were fright
! ened with black pictures OF coming
prison. and then turned loose. never to
be seen of us again. They We're glad
enough to win liberty without looking
once behind to see what became of their
| criminal property.
| It was one week later when a, member
of our ring from poorest tobacco and
| by twenty different makers, caused one
hundred thousand cigars, duplicates in
| size and appearance OF those Emperor
! Cigars to be manufactured These cost
| two and one-half cents each; q conscious
| difference truly! between that and those
| seventy cents. the wholesale price of our
| quarry Well. the Emperors Cigars
were removed from their boxes and their
aristocratic places filled by the worthless
limitations we had provided. Then the
! boxes were again securely closed; and
no one to look at them would suspect
the important changes which had taken
| place within.
The E;mperor's Cigars once out of their
two thousand boxes were carefully re-
/ packed in certain zinc-lned barrels. and
re-shipped as motions" to Havana to
! one or our folk, who went ahead OF the
consignment to receive them.
Once they arrived to his hand. he knew
what to do In course of time and in
two thousand proper new boxes
| they again appeared in the port OF New
| York; and this time paid their honest
duty Also. they had a proper consign-
ment, came to no interrupting griefs; and
being quickly disposed Of wrought out
fer us that sixty thousand dollar better
ment of which I've spoken.
AS corolary of this particular il!icitism
of the Emperors Cigars, there occurred
| an incident which, while grievous to the
| victims made no little fun for us: it's
/ relation here may entertain you. and be-
cause Of its natural connection with the
! main story. VIII come properly enough
| At set intervals the government held
an auction, OF all confiscated goods. At
these n,arekts. to which the public was in
/ yited to appear and bid the Government
asserted nothing. guaranteed nothing In
| disposing of such as these cigars. no box
| was opened: no goods displayed one
saw, nothing but the cover, heard moth
/ ing but the ssurnise of an auctioneer;
and thereupon. if impulse urged. bid
/ what he pleased for pig in poke
Thus It came to pass that on the oc-
casion when the Emperor's Cigars We're
held aIoft for bids. the sarrulous Lecturer
employed In sellin gthe collected Gus
+, toms punder of three conf1scatioa months.
took UP one of the two thousand boxes
| as a sample, and said:
81 offer for sale a lot OF two thousand
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