The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-21


 with the keys at great rate. One of the men finally said to him that it was useless to waste more time. and asked him to return to his stateroom for a somewhat more complete examination. At this the passenger raised a great protest, and declared it was outrageous to submit him to such an indignity. When we reached the room we asked him kindly to remove his clothing, say ing nothing. however about the plaster. By this time our man was at white heat. He said he had only come to the stateroom to- avoid a scence on deck, and he refused to take off his clothing. Then he was told he would have to be taken into custody and would undoubt- edly be searched.
 This further infuriated him, and he began a long rignarole about being an American citizen, with rights and all that sort of thing, anl we stood around and waited until he had finished. At ] last he cooled down a bit, and even laughed, saying that perhaps, after all, it was best to end the farce by subnit- ting. But he begged one. thing of us, and that was patience, because, he said, he had been suffering for a long time 1 with a severe attack of rheumatism in his back, and it was painful for him to get into and out of his clothing. He added that he had been able to obtain some relief from porous plasters, and that he never went about without one on his back.
 Abuot 10 minutes later we got down to his skin and there was the plaster, and not at all strange to relate, it was uneven and wrinkled. and quite lumpy in places. Just at this moment, the psycholo ogical moment, if there ever was one, we acquainted him with the con- tents of the cablegram which had been. received from the agent in France, and you should have seen the look that swept over his face. The rheumatism, apparently, doubled him up in a. minute. He began to groan and protest, saving that he must refuse to have he plaster removed, but his protest did not avail him. We took off the plaster and. of course, found the gems arranged in d pretty pattern work beneath it. And I tell you, he must have suffered with his burden, because the stones were cut, and each one of them had made a hole in his back.
 And that is the story of our taking of at least $50, 900 worth of beautifully cut stones from our willy friend. <. The old man paused again and again 1 looked at the end of his now unlighted cigar. Slowly he drew a match from his pocket and lighted it. As he puffed 1 away, he said:-- ].
 But that isn't quite all. Here's the best part of the story. We took the jewels, wrapped them carefully in a handkerehief, and went away, very proud of the sagaeity of the agent in France and of the ease with which we had carried out our part of the pro- gran.s We took the jewels to the GUS ton-h house and puff a n Tiff it was found puff puff-that they were puff
 glass.
 The narrator cooked his eye at us and repeated, Yes, glass. And that willy persons with the plaster had sent Us the cablegram himself, and brought in a tunkful of things, because we had not looked at all carefully through his baggage. Now, what in the world could any one do when he was up against crook like that one?
 Now doesn't that give you some idea of the people with whom we have ito deal? There are lots of crooks, just. as clever as that one and they're lying awake nights out devices by which to get ahead of the customs authorities. It wasn't so very long ago that we dis covered 2 very pretty little scheme by which the government had been losing thousands of dollars of duties. It was in the importation of rare and costly laces from France, and it's somewhat unpleasant
 A rather careful tab had been kept l upon the lace branch of the smuggling. business, but 1t was found that many lthousands of dollars worth of valuable l pieces were coming in under the very noses of the officials. And at the last method was found out by the horrible process of opening a dead body which ! had been shipped to this country to a lsmall town in the West. Concealed in the body was a, dramatically sealed canister, and inside this were found pieces {. of lace worth at least fifteen thousand dollars. You see, the snug glers, as. we afterward discovered, had several times purchased the bodies of the dead in Paris, paying thirty francs for them, and within them had placed tin canisters containing the laces. The bodies were regularly shipped with death certificates and all complete, and consigned to obscure persons in out-of- the-Way places in this country, osten- sibly the bodies of relatives who had passed away abroad, and were being sent home for burial in the family plot. 3It was scarcely reasonable to suspect l that smuggling would be attempted in such a way, and, indeed, 1t was a long time before the authorities got track of lit.
 I Smuggling is a peculiar thing" lie
 continued, meditatiyely, and it appeals particularly to women. There are many women, at least there were, who used to give the customs authorities no end of trouble. They were ingenious,