The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-10-05
AGE OF SMUGGLING HAS PASSED.
Vigilance Of Revenue Officers Has Re.
Guced IL 10 a Minimum.


Vigilance Of Revenue Officers Has Re.
Guced IL 10 a Minimum.
For years the department was non
plused to discover ways ard means
OF snooing or gluing the professional
smuggier without prosecuting the inno-
cent tourist As first step in the re-
formation the hundred dollar limit was
incorporated in the tariff law. Since
the law went into enect-1S97 to 1905
the aggregate amount collected by
Uncle sam ON personal effects has been
$36oO,OOO, roundly speaking. Contrast
this with the estimate of S100,OOO,00O
worth of merchandise previously
brought into this country in the guise
OF personal effects on which no duty
was paid ana the revolution in revenue
tactics may be better realized.
In the chief cities of Europe the
treasury department employs secret
agents who keep track OF sales made to
Americans by all of the big jewelers.
and exporting houses. There are five
OF these in Paris, four in London, three
in Berlin, and SO on, each receiving SS
a day and expenses. They receive
ready cooperation from the foreign
merchants. who do not wish to see the
smuggler undCrsell them in their legit-
innate importing business. Certain big
houses abroad Immediately notify the
treasury agents when an American has
made a purchase of diamonds, silks and
other duti2ble goods. one noted to-
baCco house in Havana regularly gives
the same sort Of warning. Moreover,
the treasury agrees to divide the value
Of seized goods with disinterested per-
sons giving clue to a departure of
smuggled articles purchased abroad.
In addition, there are always en-
ployed to go back and forth on the big
ocean liners travelling spoilers" who
receive $40 a day and expenses, and
whose business it is to ingratiate them
selves with passengers and learn what
they can concerning their foreign pur-
chases
Russian furs have, indeed, become so
relatively scarce by reason of the Rus
so-Japanese war having paralyzed the
industry that the high prices they
bring inspire periodical attempts to
smuggle them into this country in
homeopathic quantities. Arriving on
the Hamburg American liner Blucher
recently, a Cleveland furrier and four
members of his family quite forgot to
inform the customs officers of some
$1,000 worth of sable, silver fox and
mink boas and muffs.
BY mere chance Deputy Collectors
Coneys and Norwood, known in the
service as the men with Roentgen ray
eyes, observed the quintet coming down
the gangplank, and decided that the
young women of the party were OF
amazing physica | architecture. The
family was permitted to proceed un-
challenged to the letter Ii, and were
delving in search of their baggage
when the action of the little melo-
drama began. Gently tapping the head
of the family on the shoulder. they re-
Quested the honor of a few minutes in
private with him. BY way of denoue-
ment, a woman inspector tapped rich
vein of furs in the lining Of their
gowns, while Deputies Coneys and Nor
wood made a similar discovery on
searching the leader of the party When
the five Ohioans finally disembarked
they had shed enough weight to create
considerable astonishment among such
acquaintances as they had formed dur
ing the voyage.
Excepting women, and occasionally
men, who are detected trying to evade
the payment of duty on articles of rela-
lively small value, smuggling on an ex-
tensive scale is generally limited to
dressmakers and out-and-out profess
sionals. Sometimes where a person is
well known the inspectors are con-
strained to take his or her word in lieu
| of a searching examination. And it is
seldom that any advantage is taken of
the courtesy, although, as in the recent
case of a California magnate, it were
an easy matter to hoodwink the GUS
toms officers. Asked if he had brought
back anything dutiable, the wealthy
Californian indicated a small parcel
done up in an ordinary shawl strap.
Upon examination 1t was found to be
an $4,000 tapestry, upon which $4,000
revenue was cheerfully paid.