New-York tribune., 1909-01-10
MODERN TREASURE HOUSE



old masters and sugar ponderous machinery
and fragile china. pianos, drugs, salt fish, mum
mics butterflies, dynamite, orchids and What-
ever else is produced by the industries OF the
world. Yet nothing is for sale on the premises
nor is the public invited to view the wondrous
products Of every cline. Every day the whoie
collection, worth perhaps $1,O000OO is hustled
out Of the building and new lot of staples ano
curios is brought in. A big job and strange
procedure Is it the fantastic Whim of multi
millionaire to gloat upon a banquet of world
commerce. changing the menu every day?
Not exactly. Your Uncle Samuel owns the
building and orders the layout If he gloats
while he examines, it is not without a shreWd
calculation of profit for in years when business
is good he nets about $200O00OO0 a year by
looking over all these articles. So much are
the customs duties, one-quarter the total
value of the merchandise imported here. The
collection at the United States Appraisers Ware
house an armo1ylike structure that you notice
at the Christopher street station Of the Ninth
avenue elevated road, is certainly vast and be-
wilderng hut it represents only 10 per cent Of
all goods imported. If these are only samples,
what monumental heap the total consign-
ments would make! If it takes a full regiment
of men now to appraise the samples, it would
require army corps to handle all.
Greater than department store or museum,
the Appraiser : Warehouse is also a university
where such branches chemistry and art,
metallurgy and music. taught to perfection.
The graduates receive no degree, but they are
likely to be enrolled in the staff of one hundred
expert examiners and get the average salary or
college professors. 1t is something of hb-
eral education for a visitor to look and smell
around the building for few days. Some years
of smelling made r. ]. Fearns a tea expert,
and an assiduous looking at canvases qualified
Charles r. Hecht to pick out a masterpiece
from a caseful of daubs. The delicate nose and
the aesthetic eye trained solely in the gov
eminent service and while the owners were oc-
cuped with subordinate duties. If you have a
good sense of touch, try for messengership or
something in the textile department, and you
may feel yourself into desirable position.
It is rumOred that tariff rates going to be
pied That would mean a lot of readjust-
ment of the infinitely complicated machinery of
appraisal. To change all the textbooks of a
university at once is hard the professors
Men have almost gone mad figuring the conun-
drums of the present schedule. Is an imita-
ton stone dutiabe at 90 per cent ad valorem
as Il fake jewel 60 per cent decorated .
china? Is a sofa piece of furniture at low
rate embroidery at high figure? Would ,
you tax a lamp 45 per cent for its metal base
OF 60 per cent for its glass chimney? If this ,
article is a smokers ash tray it comes high;
set is a maddening riddle being composed of
leather dutiabIe at 30 per cent metal at 45 /
and mirror at 60 per cent,
The importer is a sly humOrist; he has fun |
at the expense of the examiner knowing that |
duty is assessed according to "chief value of
an article, and that cotton textiles listed |
much cheaper than silk, he may order lot Of
woven goods that contain one tiny strand more
of cotton than silk. The expert has to play |
Sherlock Holmes with the microscope and count |
all the strands, and he may be able to prove |
several thousand dollars. If the goods contain |
an infnitesimal fraction above 30 per cent of |
silk they are classed silk Everything seems |
to be considered fair in the struggle between |
importer and appraiser When the government
was beaten in court in its attempt to collect |
100000 duty on a artificial silk which It |
classified silk it brought the importer to |
speedy terms by threatening to call the stuff |
cotton and charge four times much, estimat-
ing the duty the basis Of the very numerous
threads in the substance.
Once there was antique that wan
dered into the ceramic departments the exam
iner intuitively felt that il had twin that
would enhance the value Of both. So he kept |
the vase for some months, and when its mate
came across from another point in Europe he
put them together and marked a good round |
valuation pair Similar