Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-03-09
Observation-Disclosures
PERSON WHO TRIES TO EvADE
DUTY ON MERE TRIPLES.
Vigilance Of Customs Officers Is
Gradually Stamping Out the
Practice - Operations Of
Professionals.

Petty smuggling, the sort that is
practiced by people who have bought
some small articles abroad and want
to bring them home without paying
duty, is now being pretty well
stamped out" said man who was for
several years in the United States
customs service on the Pacific coast
10 Kansas City Journal writer "0f
course, there never was so much OF
it in the west as on the Atlantic
coast, but the vigilance of the customs
officials and the severe penalties i'm
POSED on people who have been caught
has had tendency to break it up
pretty thoroughly.
"As a general thing the people who
try to smuggle in dItiable goods are
low Of two classes, the one composed
cf professional smugglers, who oper-
ate on a large scale, and the other OF
actresses and wealthy people of GER
tain sort, who take no particular pains
10 avoid detection, and who enjoy the
rotoriety which an escapade of the
sort gives them.
ION the Pacific coast the two things
10 which the operations of smugglers
are almost entirely confined are opium
and silks. Both have to pay heavy
duties, and both are comparatively
easily concealed. Much of the silk
brought in from China and Japan is
of such fine texture that four or five
ordinary sized handkerchiefs could be
concealed in an English walnut shell.
Some unique methods are used by
opium smugglers. One day the wharf
near his Office when he saw lime fly
over a high fence which inclosed a
vacant lot just adjoining the wharf.
Before long another one came in the
same way. He thought nothing Of it
at first, as the boys are quite in the
habit of throwing things at the rats
around the wharfs But when they
kept on coming his curiosity began to
be aroused. He stepped over to where
the lines were falling, and where there
were by that time probably dozen Of
them, picked one up and cut it open.
He found a small plug had been cut
from the lime, as though with leath-
er punch, the hole filled with small
pills of opium wrapped in oiled paper,
and the outside part of the plug re-
turned to its place. The lines had
been thrown from the deck Of ship
at anchor at the wharf to the vacant
lot, where the smuggler expected to
pick them up later.
"Of late the center of the opium
smuggling has been transferred from
San Francisco to the ports slrther
north, as the men who were operating
in that line became too we'll known to
San Francisco officials. Now most of
them come in through Portland, or
further north, in the British posses
siUns, where | understand the Cana
dian officials are now having great
deal of trouble.
at was the custom for some time to
allow a great deal of liberty to army
officers returning from the Philippines,
and to take their statements as to the
dutiable goods in their possession
without very thorough investigation.
But it was found that the privilege
was being abused, and stricter search
was instituted Shortly afterward a
captain came through, with three big
and declared that he had prac-
tically nothing Of a dutiable nature.
An inspection showed that in the bot
tom of one of his trunks were whole
bolts of valuable silks, which he lost
altogether by trying to cheat the gov
which he served"