Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1922-12-22
SCHEMES OF RUM RUNNERS.
Continued from Page ~

came back to the foreigners. saying to
the musician:
Perhaps you think l can't play that
accordion"
The officer then took the instrument
from the players hands and started to
play. 1t occurred to him that the in
strument was somewhat heavy for 4
musical instrument. Upon turning it
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 made, except in a 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 fndiny
out on which road the officer is stationed
and then make their way across the
border over a different road. Every
officer has q 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 a cent for that end
of the game. In one section of the Yer
mont border four officers have a line of
IL 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 ut 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 Natter 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 footrail in the
tonneau had been removed and the floor
curved up so as TO form footrest
Underneath the floor at this point was n
compartment in which was found several
bottles of liquor.
by freight. The most fragrant case
brought to the attention of the officers
was that of fat car carrying load
of bundles of four foot laths. Concealed
in the interior were 13 boxes, each box
exactly four feet long to 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 to trace either the
real consignor or consignee. 1t is
thought probable that the consignee was
an employe of the Boston firm, who used
his firms name with the idea of taking
care of the shipment when it arrived in
Boston
How many people know that every
package sent by mail out of Canada to
this country is opened and examined
That is exactly what is done. Every
fpeigth train that crosses the border
. into Vermont is put on siding and the
cars opened and examined. Usually, if
car contains number of barrels or
boxes, one ont of. 10 is opened. The
work of examining all this mail and
freight is a mountainous and tedious
job, yet it has to be done. and ii takes,
of course. much of the time of the Gus
toms officers.
The officers are of the opinion that
much booze also is transported by vav
Of Lake NomnhrpNp~o0 49, o'-e - ..'',
plain. They are of the opinion that the
supply Of booze cOintu+ -. % al, 10.
has diminished somewhat since the adj
vent of prohibition, but there is still n
lot of it coming over. Most of the booze
used in this country, they assert. comes
from foreign lands and much of it is
coming in through the eastern ports.
The situation in their opinion, never
can be fully met until there are enough
men along the border so that every inch
Of it can be protected and every means
of conveyance inspected and examined
including some means of watching the
traffic. on Lake Champlain.
Several months ago, according to one
of the officers here, boat was enroute
up the river to Lake Champlain and il
was so heavily loaded with booze that
II capsized and the cargo dumped into
the water.
With these various methods Of trans