The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-03-18
MADE
 BY SMUCCLERS
 IN CONTRABAND

TORNEO. Russia, Feb. 26--The Torneo river is frozen over again and business is good in smugglers' haven. From far up in the arctic tundra of Lapland down to the ice. filled Torneo bay. thirty miles south of the circle. sledges drawn by rein deer. dogs and ponies are crunching across the river by night, laden to the runners with tea. coffee. rubber and sugar. all bound for Sweden, where they are worth almost their weight in gold.
 Their sources are Russia and Fin. land. and their immediate destination on the Swedish side of the Torneo river, where ex-sailors, hotel walters and typical collec- tion of frontier town types are mak. ing money hand over fist and drink. ing champagne for breakfast.
 Haparanda is Swedish, as different from war distracted and revolution. ridden Russian Torneo as if it were hundreds of miles away. instead of a ferry trip in summer, across the mile-wide. salmon filled river. Haparanda is the Dawson of the new klondike. and its gold comes from sledges that slip by the Rus sian frontier guards. full of the con- modities Sweden needs. It is nearly Arctic. and. now, in the heart of winter, there is daylight only five hours. The town doesn't awaken un- til ten in the morning. when the champagne-at about $12 quart begins flowing and bubbles in the coffee room of the hotel until 10:3O at night, when the electric lights are because Sweden is short of coal. And then it bubbles and fizzes by candlelight in bleak looking wooden houses. warmed by porcelain stoves and made air-tight by sealed up windows, until some one insists on breaking up the game.
 Before the war Haparanda was a tiny village, a frontier customs post. The Russian frontier gendarm, were vigilant and those who slipped from Finland with smuggled goods were few and far between. and there was less incentive 10 smuggle. for Sweden imported freely from across the seas. The war made Torneo the rival of Archangel and Vladiv0stok as port of entry into Russia. Iiaparanda shared the gain. Business buildings of wood and a large hotel that looks like a typical small town hall sprang up almost over night. It is still growing.
 The goose that lays the golden egg that buys the wine and keeps the poker games going lives over in Finland which. although short of food itself. permits millions of kro. ner worth to slip through every month.
 A year ago, Swedish preacher. on an innocent mission. was shot by a Russian frontier guard. The trouble that resulted led to almost laxity at the frontier and now. on any dark night, scores of sleighs slip across the river. unmo- tested. and deposit their cargoes on the Swedish side. Some of the goods go through the Swedish customs houses. and the duty is paid. Even with the Swedish duty. there is tre- profit on the shipments.
 Coffee that the Finnish agents se- cure for ten kroner kilo (220 pounds) brings twenty across the frontier Small boys. muffled in great overcoats waddle across the river on skis with rubber tires for automo- piles wrapped around their waists and rubber is the most difficult of all products to be obtained in Sweden. It's export from Russia Is forbidden.
 The smugglers are the richest. but "gay white way"-the hotel. is filled always with other spenders. There are German agents the German consul always has a party" at his table. Haparanda is the spot where invalid prisoners are exchanged. through the agency of Swedish Red Cross workers. and has for months been the only place where Russia was in free contact with Europe. Hence the Germans.
 Here is typical picture of any night in Haparanda when business is good on the Torneo. The coffee room is crowded early. A Serbian "kappelmeister" tunes up his violin. A young Austrian with base viol and three plump smiling German girls. with mandolins. the rest of the orchestra, play American rag time. Swedish bar-maids hurry about with champagne and other as expensive.
 A young Swede with blank.look- ing face. who has, just made ten thousand kroner on coffee deal,