The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-12-20
SCHEMES or RUM RUNNERS.
Continued from Page One.)

ders One of the most interesting cases
| brought to the attention of the officials
i was that of 4 rather stout woman who
/ was seated in a railroad train Ell route
| from Montreal to Boston. The customs
! officer, while examining her belongings.
/ noticed her unusual size and upon inyeS-
| tigation found that she wore a specially
constructed coset. equipped with 10 peck
cts, into which 10 quarts of liquor had
been fitted snugly.
Another instance was cited wEefe q
customs officer on q train coming into
Vermont noticed woman who carried a
good sized bundle. When interrogated
as to it's contents she said it contained
meat which she had obtained at a
butcher shop lust over the line The
that her statement was correct except
that she omitted TO state that the meat
was wound around a quart of Canadian
liquor.
Perhaps the most clever instance of
smuggling over the border was that Of a
man from Canada who boarded q train in
that country with quart bottle of
whiskey in his pocket. When the train
approached the boundary q customs Off
Ger boarded the coach in which the man
was riding. Taking off his oyercoat, the
officer hung il on a hook near the for
ward end of the car. The officer then
went into the baggage car, and while
be was there the rum runner put his
bottle in the oyercoat pocket of the Off
Ger. In few minutes the officer made
his search through the car and after he
went into the next coach the rum runner
extracted his bottle from the officers
coat and then regained possession of it.
The most humorous case told was that
of a party of Italians enroutc to Vermont
from Canada. The officer came into the
coach in which the Italians were riding
and one of the latter was bpsily engaged
10 1NaEr NfvazNEH
officer made his Inspection and later
came back to the foreigners, saying TO
the musician
Perhaps you think can't play that
accordion"
The officer then took the instrument
from the players hands and started to
play. Ii occurred to him that the in
strument was somewhat heavy for
musical instrument. Upon turning il
over he found four cleverly concealed
screws, which when taken out released
gallon of high wine"
Most of the rum running is DONE OF
course, by means of automobiles. Here
no attempts are mnde, except in few
odd cases. TO especially conceal the
liquor. Rum runners know that all the
roads are not guarded, because there are
not men enough to guard all the roads
They await their opportunity by finding
out on which road the officer is stationed |
and then make their way across the |
border over different road Every |
officer has a certain amount of desk work |
and regular inspection duty TO perform. !
Whatever he does in the way of road |
work, or examining automobiles, is extra |
and he is not paid cent for that end /
Of the game. In one section of the Yer
mont border four officers have 4 line OF /
13 miles TO guard and over the line in /
that distance there are eight main roads. /
In another section the officers comprise /
nine men and one woman, and at that /
point not only are there many roads to /
watch but inspections have to be made /
of all passenger and freight trains. ex-
press and mail matter. Consequently |
the force is not sufficient to cope with the |
situation.
In most of the automobiles which are /
captured the booze is found in the ton
neau. Recently an officer caught an |
automobile in which the footral in the /
tonneau had been removed and the floor |
curved up so as TO form footrest. |
Underneath the floor at this point was
compartment in which was found several |
bottles of liquor.
Attempts are even made 10 ship booze |
by freight. The most migrant case
brought to the attention of the officers
was that of a fiat car carrying a load !
of bundles of four foot laths. Concealed
in the interior We're IL boxes, each box
exactly four feet long 10 correspond
with the laths and each one containing
five dozen bottles of Canadian whiskey.
The whiskey was consigned to a reput |
able firm in Boston which il was found
had not ordered any laths. The name Of
the shipper was fictitious, consequently
there was no way 10 trace either the
real consignor or consignee. II is
thought probable that the consignee was