The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-06

OL PcFVpV NOA LII PstS9Ch klLC NNAolOAAA house hidden in candy coated ami nal carried by child The toy was of course, transparent, but so also were the diamonds Upon another oc- casion the famous diamond smuggler Max Lasar, rolled some large stones in balls of sealing wax, and inserted these in a baby's rattle in place of the usual marbles. These stones which it Is said were worth 5000 pounds were carried through the customs by the unsuspecting child of a fellow pas Isenger.
 In American as h English ports collins are always looked upon with suspicion by the customs officials. A year or two ago the New York au- thorlties had information that a quantity of valuable lace was going to be run through in coffin. The ship arrived, and there were tho bereaved relatives in the deepest mourning in charge of leaden coffin Although the certificates were in perfect order, the officer insisted upon having the coffin opened. The relatives violently l Et b1NNbCI ttE eAlIlSI SuCIl dtl outrage, put this only confirmed the suspicious of the customs man. The coffin being lopcn, imagine the officials horror whom he saw that 1t really did con tain body. He was on the point of apologizing and ordering the coffin to be resealed, when he happened to catch sight of a suspicious eye watch l fnpr him fp1111 hA1tnI handkerchief. It was enough; he had the body removed, and hidden below it was lace worth several thousand dollars, The corpse proved to be that of q pauper bought for the occasion.
 On the Pacific Coast there used a few years ago to be a tremendous bus mess in smuggling opium. At that tme the duty was no less than SIP a i pound, and this proved so strong an incentive to smugglers that while it was estimated that the yearly con sumption in the States was about 30O.- 1 0OO pounds yearly, only 10000 of the amount paid duty. Syndicates backed by capitalists went into the business, and the Secretary of the Treasury calculated that the revenue lost in all over $4,00000O. Most of the stuff came in through Puget Sound. It was contained in logs hol- lowed out and fastened together again
 with wooden pegs; a few of these in
 cluded in a cargo of timber easily es.
 capped detection.
 Eventually purely in defence
 the duty on opium was lowered to SC pound, This put an end to the oper-
 atons of the large gangs, and at pres
 ent the States actually reap larger
 sums in duties at this reduced rate
 than they did when the duty was al
 the higher figure.
 It is said that honesty Is the best
 policy. Perhaps it was this provert
 which a certain American engine
 driver had in mind when puzzled a,
 to how to smuggle coking stove into
 Mexico. The man, who was employ
 ed upon line running from Texas in.
 to Mexico, had married a Mexican gir band made his home in that country
 and the stove was needed to complete
 the establishment. Now, the Mexican
 duty on hardware of that kind is hiel and as a cooking stove is not the sor
 of thing you can carry in your port
 manteau the man was at his wit,
 end how to get 1t across the border
 At last, however, brilliant schem,
 occurred to him, and on his next four
 ney he lashed the thing to the pilo of his engine. When he stopped A the customs office the Mexican of1cial
 stared at the stove in anazement bu
 concluding it was some new Yanke,
 device In connection with the engine and afraid to betray their ignoranc,
 by asking questions, they let it go, ant
 the driver, suppressing his mirth witt the utmost difficulty, proceeded in tri
 umph to his destination.
 Italy imposes heavy duties on to bacco sugar and salt, and conse quently smuggling along the Swis frontier has of late largely increased So much so, indeed, that few year
 ago the fItalian government fenced of
 large part of the frontier with wIr Inetttng, of which the gates are fitte, with alarm bells. Custom house of ticers armed with rifles form a regula cordon along the fence. As it ha , thus become almost impossible fo , men to carry on smuggling, they hay , trained dogs to do the work. The ani , nal is first taken to a village on tn ) Italian frontier and there petted an | well fed; after a few weeks it ' brought across the frontier into l Swiss village, where it is shut up, hal , starved and beaten by man in tn } uniform of customs official. Afte
 a few days of this treatment a parce
 of tobacco is fastened to the dogs col ) lar and 1t is set free. Naturally } makes straight for it's Italian home s naturally, also 1t avoids the hated uni - form Of the customs officer. Present l y it sneaks through a gate, the be l rings and the nearest officer fires. Bu Y if he misses he cannot chase the dos f for goods that have once passed tn f frontier are considered as having pai & duty. The extent to which this form ( f smuggling has developed may | - gathered from the fact that in one re & cent period of three months no fewe e than 270 dogs were shot, dumb ma1 n tyrs to the cupidity of their owners
 T. c. Bridges, in Macminan's Maga e zine.
 
 = Trouble About the Negro Vote