Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-09
OCTOBER 9. 1910
sMUcoLERs' TRICKS

A few of the countless clever tricks
by which people try to rob Uncle sam
OF his revenues by means of smuggling
are told by Franklin Clarkin in Every
bodys Magazine. Some of these tricks
are:
Tobacco ropes on sailing craft, demi-
johns with oil inside, but brandy COM
partments just surrounding 1t; pearls
in bicycle tires, diamonds in pieces OF
soap, in the sawdust stuffing of
childs doll; live fowls whose crops are
stuffed with jewels.
Special information from spies abroad
last year caused the bestowal of par
ticular attention upon an incoming
Austrian. He would have rubies. A
dozen red stones hidden in his cravat
gave the inspectors visions of high
"moiety." On test it was found that
they were not real rubies. Sadly the
inspectors let him go. Excited news
came by cable. Searching him once
more at his hotel, signs were seen that
he had lately worn porous plaster.
An intricate pattern of pink dents in
dicated where things with sharp cor
ners recently had been snugly con-
cealed between the plaster and the
smuggler.
Mails, too, have to be closely
watched. The New York postoffice
yearly collects about $250,000 in duty
assessed. Books conceal much contra
band. One postal examiner, from ex-
perience, determined that he would
specialize on two titles: Every Book
of Common Prayer and every "Imita-
tion of Christ" he scrupulously turned
the leaves of. Gloves and laces were
found hidden in many where inner
leaves had been cut out to make room
for them.
but, nowadays" an inspector tells
Mr. Clarkin, I'VE who serve at the port
of New York don't see the great SNUG
Cling. That goes on along the Cana
dian border Think of that long, long
line from the st. Croix river to the
Straits of Juan de Fuca, and no patrol
1900 miles and customs stations a
DAYS journey apart Canada's border
indeed is the last remaining smugglers'
paradise.
"a man may be out shooting prairie
chickens, yet have in his game bag
several pounds of opium which he can
leave on the American side of the line
at an inn where he stops for drink.
Many inns straddle the line. If an in
spector appears he has simply to hand
the contraband to a confederate over
the threshold of the next room, and in
stantly it Is not contraband, for the
holder of it is in Canada.
Zone day a mountebank. leading a
buppOSeu lTdlHtu DSdII with
fur. came over. I was then about to
take my vacation and I strapped up
our dunnage. I saw a mountebank
leading a little brown ASA child's
donkeyi The bearslSin that had lately
covered it had been shipped to New
York. 1t is row there, the winter
fea ture of club rearth.
"You have perhaps heard of the
woman who went back and forth be-
tween Buffalo and Montreal so fire.
quently that she was thought to be
subject to some m7nia for motion? Sc
was a motherly sort-always carried,
in fact, an infant. A model babe!
Never hungry never felt pains, never
cried. It's invario BILE stiffness and quiet
induoed suspicion. Examination re-
vealed it was made of tin and filed
with-whisky! Quiet, indeed, yet full
of spirit
'Then there was the man fishing in
the St. Lawrence one summers day,
who broke two lines on some unknown
obs acle off Prescott, Ont. Diving
down, he discovered his hooks fast to
barnacle on slim lead tube. That
tube had been conveying contTaband
liquors under the river from Cana
dian distillery to the American side
duripo oiobfaaO months -