Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-19
ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO- SNUG
GLE.
Custom Officials Declared Women
Who Try to Evade Duty on Jewels
Chief Offenders.

VINO Try to Evade Duty on Jewels
Chief Offenders.
If by any chance you've sometime
dreamed of while walking along the
streets of Paris that you would find
the most wonderful gem in the world,
could you smuggle it safely into the
United States? The chances are
million to one that you could.
If, on the other hand by very good
fortune you were able to enter one of
the shops of that same Paris and pur-
chase the second most wonderful
jewel in the world, do you think that
You could smuggle it into this country
just as safely? The chances are not
quite but nearly a million to one that
you couldn't
For there is a good deal of the OBJ
vious and much of the subtle jumbled
together in the problem of smuggling
and it's detection. And if the special
agents of the Treasury Department
were to explain the why's and where
fores of their startling successes it
would be just as simple as Sherlock
Holiness deduetions-after they were
explained.
fine arts, but undoubtedly of them all
woman has developed the pleasant
and profitable game of smuggling into
the quintessenee of fine arts. De
Quincy wrote an entertaining eulogy
of murder as a fine art, but its crud-
. ity is apparent when eontrasted with
the fashion in which women, by sins
of omission and commission. assassi-
nate verify in bringing particular pets
of adornment or wearing apparel into
, the United States.
Which doesn't mean, however, that
women are the only offenders. Not by
a long lie or a short one! Merely
that they are in the majority, because
| in the feminine makeup there isn't
| much room for a sense of abstract
justice. They can't see the reason
| for paying duty for something for
which they have already paid in full
value.
But there are any number of the
genus male who smuggle, too. Not
for the same reason though. They
appreciate the abstract justice, and
their delinquency is more a matter of
commercial economy" And the men
time are generally caught in the tolls
at last.
But the occasional woman smuggler
is a much harder problem to solve,
although not so difficult as in former
years. For be it known-and it is
admitted by special agents of the
Treasury Experimentation it isn't so
extremely difficult for clever woman
to evade the keen eyed Inspectors of
the Customs Service, especially when
no suspicion attaches to her in the
first place.
Suppose a woman--or a man, for
that matter-werc to stick the rarest
gem of the world in the followed
Sutta percha of IL golf ball. Would it
be detected? The chances arc as high
as you can count to one that IL would
not. Suppose woman We're to Sc
crete pearls in the heel of her shoe, or
in her hat, as has been done, or
man were to place them between his
skin and porous plaster-the indica-
ton of one mans genius-how in the
world could any one know it? Ex
actly: how in the world. And yet,
though it is admitted that gems and
slip in every year, many of the clev-
crest ruses are detected.
How? The Treasury Department
is naturally reluctant to reveal the
workings of it's secret agents. Yet
here and there hint is dropped. From
one or another of the bald recitals of
facts in the Treasury Department re-
ports is illumined the mystery and the
SO many apparently miraculous detec-
tions.
Chance is one of the Custom Inspec-
tors greatest allies: it may be a ges-
ture a frightened look in the eyes, u
hesitancy of speech that arouses his
suspicion and leads him on the path to
a startling disclosure. 1t may be the
carelessness of the censpirator, as two
of the cases to be cited will show, that
will evoke suspicion where none was
before. But all is not left to chance.
1t would be too expensive to do that.
Whenever an American purchases an
expensive gem or a rope of pearls or
bejeweIed tiara abroad, one way or
another, the Treasury agents learn of
it and await the arrival and the dec
laration of the purchaser. All sorts
smuggling is to be attempted notify
the department of the circumstances.
Some do it whose business it is in
directly to do so. Others do SO
anonymously some of them women
whose green eyes explain why they
are so devoted to "honor."
Not very long ago there filtered
down to the custom house rumors of
the phenomenal success that d recent
ly established Maiden lane jewelel
was making. 1t was phenomenal, in
comprehensive, but it was a fact, and
one which could neither be denied nor
undermined by active measures. 1t
continued until carelessness explained
lit.
That happened one morning when