The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-10-12
PELLEY LETTERS
PELLEY GETTING STARTED
STARTED
Towards the Flowery Kingdom

wv az ho AAA$ L AOW\A 1AAAAS2NO
Dear Folks:
Probably one Of the things that the
homefolks who never have left the
United States are most curious about,
is the procedure you have to go
through with your baggage at the
hands of the customs officials. What
happens, anyhow?-do they pull your
stuff all out and leave it a mess for
you to pack back yourself-hoW
much annoyance is it?
Well, or the whole | can't call it
much of an annoyance. Of course,
these being war times, the customs
officials are stricter than they might
be otherwise, particularly in the mat
ter of traitors taking papers out of
the country and gold and silver.
What we went through was this:
We had purchased a wardrobe
steamer trunk in San Francisco and
packed all our things into it except
ing what things we put in a suitcase
bought at Steele, Taplin's and my Co
roma typewriter which Harry Randall
got rid of on me. Our boat sailed
at. one o'clock and we had been adj
vised by the steamer people to get
our baggage down to the dock as
soon after eight o'clock as possible.
We had an eXpressman take the
trunk and suitcase down, we follow
ing in a taxi because we had to be
on hand to keep track of that bag
gage until it had been inspected.
Leaving the lady to watch the same
after it haG been delivered on the
floor Of the big pier and the man at
the gate had examined our passports,
/ joined q long line like the line be-
fore ticket window, waiting my turn
to have an inspector assigned me.
stood in that line exactly one hour.
The official at the Customs House
up in the city had given me a paper
stating that he had taken my affidavit
about gold. silver and letters, and this
paper was in turn cOuntersigned by
these folks on the dock. Then | got
my inspector and we started back for
my baggage He took the suitcase
first, opening it up and going through
it like an artist so far as rumpling
things was concerned, or getting
them so pied that they had to be re-
packed. I had to unlock the big trunk
and open all the compartments. A
swift examination in the same care
full mannef followed and then he
chalked the whole of them 0. K. with
thing tha5 stumped him and that was
my big leather wallet of unfinished
manuscripts which l had planned to
work On, aboard ship. They must
have read strangely to him and | had
to go TO very great length to explain
my job and what those manuscripts
were used for. But he finally passed
them-not, however, until he had got
an initial reading of a couple OF
yarns. which will appear in the fall IN
the American Magazine.
/ suppose a whole lot depends or
who you are and how you appear. to
these officials and there may be lot
of underground instructions go along
with you. | know that l got through
light compared with some folks wht
were taking this steamer. The Sc
cret Service men raked som of thu
passengers over the Goals prett,
roughly, l understand. One man, tn
story goes abroad had 20 trunks an
the inspectors went through ever,
one of them with a ine-tooth CONT
AS soon as the Inspector had pu
his initials on the baggage in chalk
in was picked up automatically b
the steyedores with hand trucks an
hoisted into the steamer inside j
great sling that lifted a dozen a
once. 1t disappeared down the hole
to turn up later under the bunk i
our stateroom. We lined up thel
to hav c our private papers, letter
and money examined. 1t is strict
against the law in these war times t