The Greeley tribune., 1905-01-12

| the plaster and of course fouhd 'he
gems arranged in Il pretty pattern "ofh
| henenth it, And. | tell you. lie must
have suffered with his burden, because
| the stones were cut. ana each o! ti'i'
had mule IL hole in his bsck.
"And that is the story OF our 'ah4ns
ot leust $4,000 worth OF beautlluiiy
,.nt stones from our willy friend
The old nan paused again ami again.
looked at the end of his now unlishteu
cigar. and slowly he drew match
from his rocket and lighted 1t. AS lie
putfcd away lie said:
But that isn't quite all. Here's the
best part of the story. We took the
Jewels. wrapped them carefully III Il
handkerchief and went away. very
proud of the sagacity of the agent IN
| Er,hce and of the ease with which we
had carried out our part of the pro-
.ramme. We took the jewels to the
custom house. and-putf-and-pulf-
when they were eXamined-puf-it was
found puff-that they wcre-putf
| -slass."
The narrator cooked his eye at us
and replied: Yes, glass. And that WHY
person with the plaster had sent us
the cablegram himself and brought in
a trunkful of things, because we hau
not looked at all carefully through his
baggage. Now. what in the world
could any enc do when he was up
against Il crook like that one!
| Now, doesn't that give you some
idea of the people with whom we have
to deal? There are lots of crooks Just
as clever as that one, and they're lying
awake nights studying out devices by
which TO get ahead of the customs au-
thorites. 1t wasn't so very long ago
| that we discovered very pretty little
scheme by which the government had
been losing thousands of dollars of ,lu-
ties. 1t was in the importation of rare
and costly laceS from France. and its
! somewhat unpleasant.
"A rather careful tab had been kept
upon the lace branch of the smuggling
business but ii was found that many
! thousands of dollars worth of valuable
pieces We're comiOg in under the very
noses of the officials. And mt last the
method was found oN by the horrible
process of opening dead body which
had been shipped to this country TO
small town in the west. Concealed in
the body WAS Theoretically sealed can
lister, and inside this We're found pieces
of lace worth at least $4,000. You
see. the smuggiers. us we aftcrwald
! discovered. had several times purchas-
ed the bodies of the dead in Paris. pay
| ing 30 francs for them. and within
them had placed tin canisters contain
| ing the laccs. The bodies were regu-
larly shipped with death certificates
and all complete and consigned to OBJ
scurc persons in out of the way places
| in this country ostensibly the bodies
of relatives who had passed away
abroad and We're being sent home for
burial in the family plot. 1t WAS
scarcely reasonable to suspect that
smuggling would be attempted in such
a way. and indeed it was Il long time
before the authorities got track of 1t.
"Smuggliug is Il peculiar thing" he
continued meditatively," and it appeals
particularly TO women. There are
! many women-at least there wcre-who
used to give the customs authorities no
end of trouble. They We're ingenious,
! too, and whenever we found Il woman
we already suspected the possessor
of small dog our suspicious We're
greatly strengthened. 1t is fact that
these women used to make use OF the
dogs to bring dutiable things into the
country Diamonds and the like We're
not infrequently found attached to the
collar of II pet. and there is Il story
that one woman had an extra hide on
her small dog covering its back and
also many Yards of lace Hollow toilet
articles. brushes and looking glasses
with false backs. even toothbruShes
with the handles followed out. have
been found New York Post