Evening star., 1937-04-11

peculiar about the sound Of the rat
tllng aroused the fathers suspicious.
He slit open the celluloid and founa
1t filled with precious stones. It had
been the woman's intention to retrieve
the celluloid rattle once they were
safely ashore and replace it with
silver one she had ready TO offer the
child.
T IS sometimes estimated that only
one-hundredth of the amount of
goods smuggled into the United States
is intercepted by customs officials.
That is to say, smugglers get away
with 100 times as much as they
forfeit by seizure. There are two dis
tlnct types of smugglers at present.
One group runs bulky merchandise
across our borders; the other group
tries to bring in small articles Of
value through regular ports of entry
Not so many weeks ago customs
men at the Canadian border inter-
cepted truck at Mooers Forks. N. Y.
1t was found to contain 81 cases Of
Canadian butter. and each box was
wrapped very carefully in straw, so
that at first glance the truck appeared
to contain load of straw. Other
foodStuffs have been intercepted on
the way into the United States from
Canada. In March Of this year 500
pounds of Canadian beef were taken
across the river at Van Buren, in
Maine, on handsled From the
vicinity Of st. Agnes and Dundee. at
Fort Covington, N. Y, many Canadian
cows are illegally imported. On one
such occasion, 10 cows were driven
into a farmers barn by Smugglers.
who feared pursuit. and the farmer
had no knowledge of their being there
until informed by Federal officers.
Narcotics have always played an
important role in the life Of the Gus
toms inspector, for the ingenuity of
man o'erleaps itself in deviSing new
ways Of getting dope into the country,
1t seems. On one occasion II sacks,
containing 597 cans, or 3,7809 ounces.
of opium were seized on board the
steamship Maron. 1t was found that
Ma Chung, a Chinese sailor, had
brought them from the Orient, con-
cealing the cans by sinking them in
a tank of oil. When he neared New
York he removed them from the oil
tank and carried them aboard in suit
cases containing false bottoms. But
not before a customs official turned
his eyes upon him.
CHINESE are often offenders in
dope cases. and, according to Mr..
Shamhart, they are the greatest
poker faces" on record. Not by the
blink of an eyelash do they admit
completely even when the cases are
found in their hands. They play
dumb says this customs official, to
an extent incredible to the Occidental,
and are stoical and unemotional when
captured
One of the largest jewel seizures
of last year. A lady's fitted handbag
was the container. The bag, of usual
size, was carefully fitted with toilet
articles, and to the casual observer
contained nothing but the garments
of woman's wardrobe and toiletries.
But it seemed to New York inspector
that the bag was a trif1e shallow for
its outside size. So he measured, and
measurements revealed a false bot
tom. Under this false bottom we're
concealed 339561 caratS of diamonds,
in l8 packages, and they were valued
at S286, ,346. Perl Weinberg of the
Bronx had brought them over on the
Normandie.
Gem smuggling, however has de-
clined in recent years, although it
was once estimated as a $50, 0,000, 900
business. The chief reason advanced
for the decline is the reward Congress
now allows for tips" on struggled
gems. jewelers. or other individuals
who proffer information that leads to
confiscation of smuggled gems re-
ceive one-fourth the value of the con-
fscated jewels under this new law.
Many more ilhcitly entered Jewels
are, therefore, reported by jewelers.
than formerly, for the gems are
brought to them frequently for ap-
praisal.