The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-06-09
MILLIONS LOST
j. S. THROUGH
BoastfuI Women Are Often
Preached on" by Friends
They Had Told About 1t.


rob Uncle Sam of $24,000,000 by
u smuggling precious stones into
this country was the statement
of Ludwig Nissen, president of the
American jewelers. Protective asso-
citation, whose headquarters are in New
York city, on the eve of his recent de
parture for Europe. The duty on pre-
cious stones. is 80 per cent. That
means that the value of gems SNUG
gled into America each year is $40,
100000
With view to minimizing this sort
of smuggling the jewelers. of America
last year formed the Precious Stone
Importers association. Since then they
have disbursed many thousands of dol
lars in rewards for information con
corning smuggIers, men and women,
who have eluded custom house scru-
tiny These rewards have not been
paid to detective agencies, but to mem
bers Of New York's Four Hundred who
have ''peached'
"Forty million may seem a very large
amount to be Struggled in past the
sharp scrutiny of the customs Mr.
Nissen said, 'but when you realize
that all of the$SO,O 100000 worth of pre-
cious gems imported during the past
two years could be carried in small
| grip you see how difficult is the task
of detecting smugglers."
Here Mr.. Nissen pushed a button on
his desk and gave an order to the boy
| who answered it.
Half Million In Vest Pocket.
pearl necklaces" he explained. THE
combined value of these necklaces is
$450,000."
A clerk brought in three black jewel
boxes. Opening them Mr.. Nissen took
from their satin beds three strings of
lustrous pearls, graded from a large
| perfect center pearl to small perfect
pearls, which ended in a diamond
clasp, and held all three in one hand.
See; l can easily put this half mill
lion dollars worth of pearls into my
waistcoat pocket" suiting the action
to the word. you can see no differ
| ence. You do not see my pocket bulg-
| ing out any more than it would if
happened to have some loose change
in it. That is what makes the detect.
/ ing of precious gems so very difficult
I'VE have an extensive system now
| however, which 1 believe in time viii
assist in greatly diminishing the
amount of smuggled gems. Mr.. Loci
|
in making seizures, and many a lady
during the past year has been surpris
ed after she had considered all diff
culties past by being called upon to &C
count for certain gems she had bough
abroad.
How did the collector find out abou
them? She had passed through tn,
customs all right and believed hersel
safe. She soothes her conscience, if
troubles her at all, with the sophistr.
that she has bought and paid for tn
things and they are hers. The hus
. bands of these women put no restriC
tons upon them, and they haughtil
refuse to see why a government dare
| to do so.
'Ninety-ive per cent of the SNUG
Cling is done by women. For man
years they had their own way. BJ
things are changed now. No matte
how MachiaveIlian their maneuver
no matter if their stories would max
Ananias blush with envy some tim
somewhere, somehow, the truth is g
ing to leak out, and humiliation an
punishment will come to them
Babbled to a Friend.
ct may be that Mrs. Newlvrich. WI