Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-15

~ ANeo Nhah AVV dBNtCCt
- 10000 men are daily daring prison
INV8 walls for the sake Of smuggling
$500 imports past the customs officials
q the United States. This army Of snug
glers. according to the prominent WASH
.rgton official who furnished the data, is
made up of sailormen, who are largely en-
plCyed to bring the goods to ports; small
toatmen, who meet the ships when in sight
of port and pick up the tarpaulin- covered
cases thrown overheard; fences" in all
the more important ports OF entry, and
many a tobacco and liquor dealer both on
this and the other side Of the Atlantic,
whose lines Of goods are those chiefly
struggled. /
These men engage in smuggling pure
and simple. They have nothing to do with
getting undervalued goods through the GUS
tom houses. They match their wits against
those Of the customs officials for every
cent there is in the game, and they scorn
anything less.
But as exposed as are our thousands of
miles of seahoard, the best that these
smugglers can do, in numerical strength
half as large as Uncle Sans standing
army Of a few years ago. is to beat the
government out Of considerably less than
onC-half Of 1 per cent of the total amount
of duties annually levied and collected.
Small as this 81, 200, 900 seems when com.
pared with the $24O. 900. 900 duties on 81 .0OO,-
600. 900 worth of imports, that sum is event.
ually diminished one-fourth by the I'M
ceasing detective vigilance of the customs
department, SO that IL the net profits OF
s-musgling-some $3.50. 600 in all-were
equally divided among the smugglers, not
a mothers son of them would get so much
as 800 for hts p~erilous work.
The smugGler has to blame Uncle Sans
fine system of customs espionage, both
here and al road, for making his Illicit
calling more hazardous the longer he sticks
to 1t. Indeed, so closely watched is the
port of New York these days-hitherto the
fertile field of the smuggler-that even the
boldest customs evader thinks twice before
attempting to do business there. As a
result much of the smuggling trade has
been transferred within the last year 10
San Francisco, and that port bids fair to
establish smuggling records that will admit
Of fair comparison with New York's, ERA.
Until recently the smuggling in OF Su-
matra tobacco from Holland was carried
on almost wholly et New York. Now, how
ever, owing to numerous detectiOns, arrests
and convictions in that city, the snug
glers Of Sumatra are operating through San
Francisco.
This tobacco is shipped In what are
called "hands." The leaves, each shaped
much like the human hand, are laid one
upon the other and tied together at that
portion OF the leaf which corresponds to
the wrists. in punches weighing about two
pounds or one kilo. This constitutes q
"hand."
%. The Dutch. sajlormen, who are employed
TO smuggle them, secrete the "hands'
somSwhere about the ship. often in bags
beneath the contents of the coal bunkerp,
and when their vessel makes port they
await their chance, wrap the hands
around their bodies and then slip ashore
ana dispose of them to one of the many
fences with whom they are acquainted.
The fence" is generally a sailormen's
saloon keeper. The money he pays out for
the struggled goods he can usually count
upon getting back over his bar. But some-
times the sailormen grow tired of this
sort OF game and turn on the fence" az
instance the following case:
A dozen sailormen or a certain shin
brought over about $500 worth of Sumatra
tobacco in the coal bunkers. This they
wrapped around their bodies a little at a
time for several nights and carried to a
fence" On the night that the last of the
tobacco was sold to the ''fence"-about
100 worth-a group of sailors n
to secure the mans ear and hold his AT
tention in his barroom while their fellows
sneaked upstains and discovered the to-
pacco stored in a dlngy room over the