The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-16
THE sMUGGLER's TRADE.
British People Warned That a Return to Protection Might Be Followed by Revival of Contraband
 Trade.

New York World.
 One result which the English seem to ex- pect from Mir. Chamberlains protective policy, If it is carried out is the revival of smuggling.
 Great Britain, with ts long and complicated coast line, so near the continent, Is peculiarly adapted for smuggling of bulky goods, which must be carried in small vessels such as could not cross the Atlantic to reach the United States
 In the old protectionist days the industry well organized. A hundred years ago a London merchant gave his orders to his snug gler, paid his percentage, and was sure of hay ing the contraband goods from France pune tualy delivered. Of every three pounds of tea drunk in England two were smuggled. although an army of revenue officers and coast-guards- men policed every yard of the coast line.
 Smuggers' ingenuity was so great that their double and treble bottoms. invisible scuttles, boats-with their hollow masts and spars, bogus buoys (hlled with liquor and tobacco), detachable bows and sterns-were simply float ing conJuring boxes. In one case a donkey en- zine on deck turned out to have dummy boilers and cylinders specially constructed for con- traband articles! Hawsers were cut open and found to have strands made of tobacco. Hol- low ballast was painted to look like iron. Then there were devices for hanging illicit kegs of French brandy below the keel or from the bow. fo rsinlxing and anohoring them be- low the surface until again dredged up later on when danger was past. by conspirators disguised as fishermen. for the casks would preserve the contents rom contamination even for weeks
 Loaves of bread hams and bars of soap were carried hollowed out and containing gloves or lace wrapped in silk. A suspicious-looljng violoncello being opened by the customs of fcers was found crammed with something more marketable than music. Dummy pianos in recent times have been used in the same way.
 The boats themselves were of the imsiest brown-p paper description. being often abandoned fv, 4t,, hrrt tkn guards. Sometimes they were painted to look like Government revenue cutters, carried sails of different cut and color, or mysteriously changed names while crossing the channel. If half were captured the profts were still handsome.
 Any counter-demonstration was welcomed to cover the smuggler. The Duke Of Wellington
 was the unconscious instrument Of coup at Dover in 1925, a smuggler Infringing on a good thing while the coast-guards were in- tent nthe rushing of the croWds and the crash of the saluting cannon
 During the Napoleonic wars, when the Gov ernment was too busy to attend to crime at home, smuggling had an army Of Its own' de- fled authority and murdered revenue officehs. After 1916 the laws became stricter' the coastug craft were regulated, and persons | loiterug near the sea could be arrested and
 even whipped. while helloing or striking a match was a punishable onense' as PoSsioie signal to smugglers outside.
 Smuggling at our Atlantic ports is done only upon a small scale by comparison, the most of 1t by well-dressed and unconscious-looking men and women who conceal small qnanttties | of lace pr diamonds If bulRier goods cheat the customs if must be by undervaluation | frauds and that is rather a dangerous busi-
 ness Along the long Canadian border snug gling seems easier than 1t Is. The most lu- | cratlve branch of the industry IS smuggling | opium and live ChInamen, though there is a trihng skin trade across the St. Lawrence by night.