The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-02-01
BY SAMUEL o. JAMES.
Copyright, 1903, by Samuel o. James.

A Judge we'll known in New Yorl
state was glancing over the newspa
pers headlines. AS his eye fell or
Robbed the Government of Thou.
sands" he threw aside the paper ant
addressed himself to the group around
him.
Robbed the government of thou.
sands, did he? Umph! He's not ace
high-excuse the unjudicial expression
gentlemen-.with the tobacco manufac-
turers of my boyhood days. Those fell
lows-they were Observation-Disclosures
the art of robbing the government Of
millions of dollars of revenue"
The judge paused for reflection, and
as the group prepared itself for a
story he began:
Fifty years ago the greater part OF
the plug chewing tobacco produced in
this country was manufactured in
Richmond, Louisville, St. Louis and a
string of towns along the Mississippi
river extending from st. Louis, on
the south, to Keokuk, Ia, on the
per Mississippi tobacco towns, and,
like all the other boys of that time
and community whose folks were
either unable or unwilling to keep
their youngsters in idleness, 1 worked
as stemmer in one of the tobacco
factories from March till October-the
rest of the year was devoted to school
ing.
"The war between the North and the
South demoraliZed the tobacco indus
try south of the Ohio river, and
brought to the towns on the Upper
Mississippi such a boom as they had
never dreamed of, and, by the way,
they are dreaming of it yet. In add1-
ton to the usual markets, which made
extra heavy demands upon our towns
because of the closing of so many
Southern factories, there were large
orders from the government for plug
to supply its commissary department.
well do ] remember one of those
government orders. 1t was for 100000
hounds of. Black Navy The factory
in which / worked at the time got the
order. The bpand was rightly named,
for nothing could be blacker than 1t
was. The casing consisted of the low
est grade Of licorice, dirty brown su-
gar and musty gum arabic. The hllers
we're not stemmed. and some OF the
stems were as large as a lead pencil.
The plugs weighed a pound each and
everyone contained enough heartburn
to make a soldier long for home, moth
or and a pound of chalk.
Put. while there were large profits
in this and similar contracts. my em-
rIover didn't make the bulk OF his
fortune out Of them.
The Old Way of Collecting Revenue.
'In the time of which 1 am speaking
the machinery of the revenue depart
ment of the government wasn't as per-
feet as it is at present. Nowadays,
as YOU probably know, special revenue
STAMPS are provided by the Internal
Revenue Department, and each pack
age of tobacco, when put upon the
market. must bear stamps sufficient
in value to show that the tax upon
the contents of the package has been
paid TO the government. The present
method was not inaugurated until
some time in the seventies, the old
method being much simpler and, con-
senuently. fraud under it was not so
difficult.
Under the old system each internal
revenue collector, instead of having
stamps to sell in quantities as re-
ouired by the manufacturers, was pro-
vided with a set of stencil plates and
dies. When requested by the manu-
facturer. the collector would go to the
factory and brand the packages that
were ready for the market. The
brand, which was stamped on one end