The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-02-02
APT AS SMUGGLERs.
Women Show Remarkable Ingen-
uity in Getting Pets Through.
One Was Detected When "Baby"
Barked and Another Was Caught
Giving Animal Drug to Pre-
vents Its Making Noise.

Dover-The days when bold, bad
smugglers ran their boatloads of
rum and brandy and tobacco INTO Sc
cret coves and caves on the seashore
are gone. The smugglers of today
are women, and their cargo is often
dogs.
The devices which they are now
adopting to evade the customs Off
GERS and the quarantine law of the
land are as ingenious as they are
amazing.
Twice women have BEEN charged
here with attempting to smuggle dogs
in by concealing them in pockets in
their underclothing They would have
succeeded in their intentions, too, but
for the dogs having yelped and be-
trayed their mistresses.
But popular-and often successful
as is this hidden pocket dodge, it is
commonplace beside some of the
methods of dog smugglers which have
recently been attempted at Dover.
"a woman, a nurse and an infant
Ger, boarded the steamer at Calais.
They Immediately shut themselves in
| a cabin, and were not seen again till
Dover was reached, except by the Gus
toms men on board, who were quite
satisfied that they had no contraband
with them
cat Dover, however, when the party
was coming ashore, the infant whose
head was completely muffled in lace
and muslin, barked.
! Here is another story, the would-be
smuggler in this instance being a
man:
"a travelling rug on his arm ex-
| cited suspicion. He was stopped and
the rug examined, and found to con-
tain three little pockets, in each of
which was a valuable tiny dog.
He was fined $75 and the dogs were
put in quarantine"
The sailor to whom l spoke once
happened to glance inside cabin, oc-
cupied by two women passengers to
| Dover, just before the customs men
! entered it.
One woman was giving a little dog
a Whit Of something out of bottle
| probably chloroform; the other was
busy making up a parcel" OF wraps,
etc. A cushion was thrown carelessly
over the insensible dog, and the Off
GERS did not trouble to look under
meath it,,
| When the women left the boat they
had the dog concealed in the parcel,
which had been passed"
And these by no means exhaust the
means which women employ to snug
gle their pets.
They suspend them in bags from
their necks. Women who do this al
ways wear we'll buttoned up coats or
else plenty Of furs
They put them in big pockets of
| loose "overcoats"
They carry them in their muffs, one
hand holding the dog inside the muff
This is frequently tried trick at sea-
sons when muffs can be worn with
out exciting suspicion.
I'VE catch about one a MONTH" an
other customs officer said, but for
every one we do spot twenty or
thirty must escape us
IF a dog does not bark or wriggle
at the wrong moment and if it is so
skillfully tucked away as not to inn
pede movement, a woman who has
her pet hidden somewhere in her
dress is practically certain to pass
us scot free.
Women, it seems, rarely trust to the
smuggling powers of their men folks
where dogs are concerned This. at
first sight, may seem curious, for
man could very often gs. dog safe
ly through in one of his big pockets.
But perhaps the reason lies deeper.
The following Shavian dictum is re-
garded as truism by the customs Of
ficers:
"a man is generally more honest
than woman; if you challenge him,
and he has contraband, he usually
owns up"