The Holbrook news., 1910-03-04

In the days of the Georges snug
 gling was so popular a calling In En-
 gland and the smuggler so popular
 gentleman even with some of the land | ed gentry. in whose ancient country
 mansions special chimney recesses | have been found especially construct 1 ed to shield from detection the i'm
 ported brandies which had slipped into the country without reporting to the
 kings customs officers. that even the
 sedate and high-minded Scotchman,
 Adam Smith, classified the contraband
 traffic as trade albeit one of great
 hazard. That the smuggling of the
 eighteenth century had reached high
 degree of perfection Is shown in the
 laws aimed at those engaged in the
 practice. writes H. B. Chamberlain. in
 the Chicago Record Herald. Vessels
 carrying undeclared goods were for
 feitable. as were the goods; high in-
 ducements were offered to informers
 who would betray their fellow work
 CTS; persons maimed in arresting
 smuggIers were entitled to a reward
 of $50; informers guilty of sordid. selfish treachery were given the same amount for each person convicted on their testimony and the informers were granted immunity. Smugglers were whipped and transported to the
 plantations. In 1746 assembling to run contraband goods was made pun ishable by death as felony. As the offenses multiplied and the popularity of the smugglers made 1t difficult to capture them. counties were made lia- ble for their deeds.
 But the smuggler of that period is no longer extant. Like the Indian scout, the buffalo and the desperado of the Western plains, he has been crowded out by a complicated civili- zation. He could flourish only in thinly populated country. with a coast offering to him inlets and harboFs where he could in safety land his car go. In these days of the wireless and populous- cities and great traas=Atlan- tic steamers he must assume another form and pursue different methods.
 Cunning rather than strength or knowledge of waves and winds Is the requisite qualification of the modern smuggler. Hence women are as we'll able to engage in 1t as men. and. in- deed. the facts prove that they seem to have an especial aptitude in this line.
 The false-bottomed trunk Is so old | a device that the unsophisticated won- der why anyone should trust to it. | For surely every inspector knows of | this contrivance for concealing goods. | But. as has been shown by the whole | sale dismissal of employees from the l customs service in New York. inspec- tors have not been obstreperously eff cient in guarding the interests of their country.
 In these days smuggling on a large scale invariably produces the suspicion that there has been collision with the government officials This was shown to be true in a case at New York. Early in November a member of a cheese importing firm, was sentenced to a year in prison and to pay a fine of 1000 for defrauding this govern ment of duties by misstating the weight of cheese imported. To carry out this fraud it was necessary for the government weigher to falsify his re- port to fit the figures of the false in- voice sent by the exporter from Flu rope. Four government weighers turn ed states evidence and told how this had been done, and evidence gathered from the books and records of pur- chasers. corroborated the stories of these informers, who were offered. i'm munfty from prosecution and retainedl in the customs service. The culprit testified that the frauds had been sug- gested to him by the government weighers who shared with him the money thus kept from the government
 The S2.OOO. 900 which the sugar trust has fraudulently withheld from the government by means of an ingenious device applied secretly to the scales for weighing the sugar and operated by employees of the company Is an example of the large scale on which evasion of payment of duties can be practiced in this century and country of large things. lN