Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-04

Take that diamond-smuggling case we
had few months ago. FOR instance.
Now. diamond smuggling used 10 bs
about the most frequent crookedness we
ran into The duty on diamonds was
enormous and IL the srnugglers succeeded
in getting by they made huge profit
Nowadays. however. the duty Il only -
per cent. Also. the efficiency of thu SerN
ice has increased. As a result most pe"-
pie would rather pay the compare lively
small duty than take chance 81 getting
caught
But every now and then there crops
mp a man who considers even the 10 pr
cent too much-hence this recent case
I'm speak king Of. the principal ia which
happens 10 be one OF the largest import
ing jewelers. in New York.
Several months ago 2 scientific nlaGa-
zine. printed in Dutch aud addressed
10 a man in New York. arrived IN Gotham
from Holland and was started through
the usual process followed with .ncomiuE
mail II 50 happened however. that u
shipment the wrapper on the masazrr
had become badly torn. and Il further
happened that il fell into the hands -
clerk whose tendencies were decidedly
altrustiC.
Here's a magazine with badly torn
wrapper unused this clerk Too bad.
but il can be remedied I'll just put
SO he proceeded 70 take or the old
wrapper and then. idly enough. started -
look through The magazine After IL
had turned about twenty pages H. came
TO a large hole. the sides or which were
padded with cotton. This hole was about
forty pages deep. and il was filed chuck
full of unset precious stones.
Well. that magazine was rewrappea
hurriedly. put aside. and our office no
titled. In due course 81 time tho big
JeWeler called under the alias Tor his
mail, bat instead OF getting il W got
him, and when got through With
him he had paid the full duty on tho
stones. as well as fine II Stop. ana
had had the stones all confiscated. They
We're worth some odd S.9.sn.
Another attempt at diamond SNUG
Cling cropped out in the mail room OF
the New York post Office customs divi-
sion still more recently as the result of
an accident. \ few weeks ago small
gilt picture frame addressed 10 a man
in New York. general delivery,
celved and at the time IL MAS noted
that the wrapping was not only torn. but
the frame broken. Hence il was laid on
the shelf placed for incoming mail with
more care than is usually bestowed. bur
little later other packages were throw
on top OF IL and il was jostled about con-
siderably
Late that afternoon. a clerk looking
over the shelf for package that had
been called for. was astounded to find
rough boa riding. Five minutes later 4
whole staff OF clerks was picking az
every package separately and shaking IL
trying to find one that ratified Eventually
they found what they were after. and
ii was the picture frame 1t had been
especially made for the purpose. was
hollow and contained nearly ten thousand
dollars worth of precious stones. The
only trouble was that in making the
frame hollow the maker had made IL too
weak to stand an ocean voyage in a mail
sack
1.-The government stiI has that pack
age. The Smuggler must somehow have
gotten wind of what happened for he
never called for it.
But all these might be termed the
lighter forms Of smuggling" declared
Wilkie, suddenly. There are other forms
that are far from light. that are positive
~ grewsome. For instance. a while back
the Belgian papers announced the death
OF a certain American. and also an
nounced that his body would be emhalm-
ed and sent TO this country for interment.
In due course OF time the coffin arrived
and was tenderiy escorted from the boat
to the pier where a customs officer, shud-
dering at his task, raised the top OF the
coffin lid. looked at the face OF the dead
man inside and then passed It on.
"A moment later. through some freak
rested broke down. and II became neces-
sary TO carry the casket the remainder
OF the distance over the pier. So Gus
toms men seized the handles and hoisted
il up.
They had carried il perhaps fifteen
feet when one OF them spoke:
. Seems to me this corpse is mighty
light. considering his size said he.
IL was just thinking the same thing
declared another of the pallbearers.
Now. I wonder
He never finished his sentence. for the
same thought evidently struck them all
at the same time. And so they put the
box down and unscrewed not merely the
, top of the lid. but all of it.
Inside the coffin they found exactly
half corpse. The body had been cut off
at the waist and placed in the coffin so
that when the top of the lid was opened
the face would show. The remainder Of
that coffin-the part that should have
contained the dead mans legs. was pack
ed and jammed with almost priceless
laces.
NO" concluded the supervising agent
of the United States customs forces. no,
there's no telling how far a smuggler
will go.