The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1909-04-10
TRICKS IN SMUGGLING
The Way Uncle Sam Is SwindIed
Through the Mails.
WATCHES IN WEDDING CAKE.

! G!eefVl Girl Who Could Not Held
! Her Tonsue-Glovcs That Came One
at a Time and corsets In sectlSns.
Too few people think II a crilne 10
swiDdle the customs. For that reason
many bright and brainy persons think
hard bow TO get goods from abroad
without paying toll to Uncle sam As
most OF the successful operators iu
this iine are women. who have more
time to think about such things than
men, 1t can he imagined that the Gus.
toms officers have to be eternaliy alert
! TO protect the government
The avenues through the steamship
passenger route are pretty carefully
guarded. and rs comparatively few
! people go abroad the great mass of
jewellers in this protected land are de-
barred from sharing in the humorous
little game Of hide the diamond or
| smugglc the silk. But there Is an
other avenue that Is being used enthusi-
/ astically by the anti-duty aggregation
/ 1t IS the United States mail
With the immense volume Of foreign
mali delivered to this country il Is
manifestly impossible to open and ex-
anime every package that seems TO
/ contain newspapers or merely a bulky
letter 10 see whether or not some duti-
able article Is concealed therein So
far as it is possible, however. II Is
done. and the addressee has to 20 To
the pcstofiice ard pay duty on the
amount at which the dutiabIe article
: is appraised.
/ The custom house experts at the
| postoffice have their hands full check
mating the clever moves Of those who
are constantly devising new ways TO
disguise dGtiable things as innocent
looking parcels.
I'VE used 10 pass cakes through
without question" said one Of the ex-
| aminers cit seemed too bad 10 lay
hands on a Christmas pudding sent by
relatives in England to some exile IN
this country. Il also disturbed the sen.
! timental side OF q customs officer 60
I demolish a section Of wedding cake
! that had been sent from the old home
! in Germany to Fritz In America. So
| we let these sacred things pass
through. But one day we had an
I awakening. One Of the customs men
heard that a neighbor had obtained a
4nh oil. hod
through duty free. and the gleeful girl
who was wearing 1t could not keep
i quiet about the clever way the post
J Office had been deluded. 1t seems the
/ watch had been baked right into the
| cake and had come through without
I discovery. Now, this forced US to take
some step TO prevent a repetition of
such smartness. and ever after that
we held on to all cakes or puddings
! that came In packages through the
I mail A letter is sent to the person to
whom the package is addressed. and
! this person ut is almost always a wo-
NAM has to come TO the postoffice and
/ cut the cake or slice the pudding right
4
catch n Tartar occasionally? Well. you
/ may take II for granted that any one
who would try this trick Is Tartar,
| to begin with. and so we don't get of
/ without scene when the cutting time
, comes.
! "a trick that fooled us for a time
was the sending through the mail of
/ one glove q trifle creased to give the
idea that II was merely a worn glove
that had been left in Europe by tour
ist. With the glove would come a let
ter to that effect. You went away
without one Of your gloves etc. OF
course we passed it through unsuspect-
ingly. But we got so many OF these
that It began to look suspicious. So
we held on TO one OF them, and by the
next mail there came another glove
| from the same address to the same
| person. The glove was the fellow to
the other. Then we got another ief.
/ hand glove and later the right hand
glove TO match It. The trick was SIM
pie and admirable in It's simplicity.
| Gloves were being sent through In
quantities, one at time.
"But the queerest trick we exposed
the other day. A woman was aecumu-
lating q large stock of fancy corsets
without troubling about the duty that
should have been paid on them. The
! trick was TO send half a corset through
! the mail. We knew Of no rule about
paying duty on half corset. Il APP
! peared to US TO be mere remnant OF
the up to date woman's attire and not
| important enough to consider as duti-
able.
$50 we passed the half corset along
and thought no-more Of ii. But half
corsets began to drop IN with all too
great frequency. II looked as though
corset remnants had suddenly attained
considerable Importance in some ones
estiSation. So one OF the men put 1t
up to his wife. aud she took some
thing less than a fraction Of a second
to puncture the scheme. The half cor
set was useless in itself. but when the
other bali arrived there was French
corset ready for wearing.
I'VE find fine silks done up in pack
ages Of herbs, watches. diamond rings
and bracelets concealed in the leaves
of books IN holes cut for the purpose
and separate diamonds hidden away in
bottles OF transparent liquid where the
| gem IS scarcely visible. No doubt
many dutiable articles escape us. but
we are getting wiser every day to the
tricks OF the mail smugglers.
I York Tribune.
Keep your face always 70 the sun
shine and the shadows will fall be
hind you