The Washington herald., 1909-04-18
MAIL SMUGGLERS
CHIEFLY FEMALE
Sounds Like a Paradox, but
Ask at POst-Office.
CORsETS COME HALF SECTION
Wife Of One OF the Inspectors Sees
Through Scheme. and II Is nj an
End-Watches in wedding Cake
and Diamonds in BOoks-CustOm
House Experts Kept Busy.

Too few people think IL a crime 20
sWindie the customs Too many citizens
IN this era Of free thought consider II q
meritorious act 10 be classed with the
neglect 10 pay fare on a street car when
forced 70 hang 70 a strap. For that rea-
son many bright and brainy persons think
hard how to get goods from abroad with
out paying toll % Uncle sam. says the
New York Tribune. AS most OF the sue
cessfuI operators IN this line are women.
who have more time 20 think about such
things than men Il can be imagined that
the customs officers have 10 be ete-nally
alert 10 protect the government.
The avenues through the steamship
passenger route are pretty carefully
guarded, and as comparatively few peo-
pie go abroad the great mass OF dweIlers
in This protected land are debarred from
sharing in the humorous little game OF
hide the diamond OF smuggle the six
But there IS another avenue that has
been overlooked. until recently. and this
Is now being used enthusiastically by the
anti-duty aggregation Z Is the United
States mail
mail delivered TO this country Il IS mani
testify impossible 70 open and examine
every package that seems 20 contain
newspapers or merely bulky letter 20
see whether or not some dutiable article
Is concealed therein. So far as Il is pos
Slhle. however. IL IS done. and the ad-
dressee has 10 70 10 The pOst-Ofdce and
pay duty on the amOunt al which the
D -Tr-~ )
sense has taught the astute American
that sealed letters are much more likely
10 be passed through Inexamined than
parcels sent unsealed. Il is easy 20 unite
e string and investigate the contents Of q
package but 20 open al the letters that
come through the mail would be a stu
pendOus task Il is assumed as q broad
guess that all the articles that are dUJi-
able viii come by package post. and De-
cause OF this assumption many a small
article that would otherwise be taxed BY
the customs officers gets through without
ton.
DevisfuE New Schemes.
The custom-house experts al the post
Office have their hands fun checkmating
I the clever moves Of those who are con
stantly devising new ways 70 disguise
6u;iabIe things as innocent-Iooking par
GELS.
We used 20 pass cakes through with
out question. said one of the examiners.
| Tt seemed too bad TO lay hands on
+ Christmas pudding sent by relatives IN
( England 20 some exile IN this country. Il
also disturbed The sentimental side OF
customs officer 70 demoHsh q section OF
l wedding cake that had been sent from
/ the old home in Germany 70 Fritz in
America 50 we let these sacred things
I pass through. But one day We had an
/ awakening one OF the customs men heard
I that a neighbor had obtained a new
watch from abroad II had come through
duty free and the gIeeful girl who vas
wearing II could not keep quiet about the
clever way The pOst-OffCe had been de-
T luded. u seems the watch had been
E baked right into a cake and had come
I through without discover Now this
forced Us 70 take some step 10 prevent
/ repetition OF such smartness. and ever
after that we held on 20 all cakes OF pud-
diEEs that came in packages through the
mail A letter is sent 20 the person 20
whom the package IS addressed and this
4 person dt IS almost always a woman1
( has 10 come 20 the post-office and cut the
q cake or slice ths pudding right IN front
Z OF the customs officer DO We catch a
z Tartar OCCASIONALLY Wen. you may take
/ IL for granted that any one who would
/ Try this trick is a Tartar 20 begin with.
/ and so We don't get or without 8 scene
( when the cutting time comes
/ A trick that fooled Us for a time was
I the sending through the mali OF one
glove. a tri5e creased. 20 give the idea
4 that il was merely worn glove that had
: been left IN Europe by a tourist With
The glove would come a letter 70 that e.
I feet You went away without one OF
your gloves &c. OF course We passed
! IL through unsuspectiugly. But we SOt
+ 50 many Of these that IL began 10 looR
I suspicious. 80 we held on 20 one Of them.
and by the next mail there came another
glove from the same address 10 the same
I person The glove was the fellow 70 the
I other Then we got another left-hand
glove and later the right-hand glove 20
match T. The trick was simple and ad-
mirabie IN its simplicity. Gloves were
I being sent through IN quantities. one a.
! time. In the same way We found thar
shoes were being snluggled- Same trick:
/ Sorry you went away and left one OF
/ your good shoes when packing I'D. Hope
/ the other one was in the trunk all right
HaIf Corsets Arrive.
But the Cueerest trick we exposed the
other day. a woman was accommodating
a large stock OF fancy cO-sets without
troubling about the duty that should
( have been paid on them we are all men
/ here. Perhaps 10 woman had been on
duty the trick might have been disc0v-
cred sooner The trick was 10 send half
a corset through the mail We knew OF
no rule about paving duty on haIf a cor
/ set Il was easy 20 unlace the half and
send II along X appeared 20 us 20 be a
mere remnant Of the up-tO-date woman's
attire and not Important enough 20 con
si6er as dUtiable.
so We passed the half corset along
and thought no more OF f. But half cor
{ sets began 90 drop IN with all too great
l frequency II looked as though corset
remnants had suddenly attained consid-
ersbie Importance in soH,e ones estima-
ton SO one o. the men put Il up 70 his
wife, and she took something less than a
fTactiCn Of a second 70 punctUre the
scheme. The half corset was useless I'm
itself. but when the other half arrived
there was a French corset ready fo-
wearing
we hnd sne silks done up in packages
OF herbs; watches diamond rings and
bracelets concealed in the leaves Of books
IN holes cut for the purpose, separate
diamonds hidden away In bottles OF
transparent LIQUID where the gem IS
scarcely visible and Imported colognes
dcne up In innocent looking parcels q
foreign newspapers 40 doubt many
dufisble articles escape US. but we are
/ getting wiser every day 20 the tricks o.
the mail smUggiers-femaIe sInugglsTs