New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 27, 1925, Page 23

Pely Smiding dmovs: Covert I SIS 1S CIDREN US. CUSTom OFFICER * A FAT, puffy gentleman tiii. ciir A in the Custom House in New On the desk of an official lay two beautiful Bpanish embroidered shawls. With the fat, puffy The corpulent one had a slight gentlernan was -his lawyer and a relative. business matter to attend to in the Gustom House, with the goods had Over them was one of those he.corsets He had been caught Around his stomach .le had the shawls wrapped used by fat men sometimes to fool their feminine admirers, He had returned from Europe,and at tempted to gmuggle the wraps, but s spectors Wer not to be fooled. rpeyed An Outside he was a big man fn New York's business life. Confidentially be. tween the reader and the gatepost he is the oper- ator of a string of hotel§ in Manhattan, But here he was @ meek man indsed, trembling, afraid. BECAME INDIGNANT His lawyer at first made a bluster. told that $140 would get the wraps out of the custody of thie government and also pay But they de- They were imposed for att ted smuggling. murred. hed worn off, and demanded their wraps, saying they meant rio wrong and coyld prove it. They were indignant after the first fear Very well, would they want to go before the The cus. oy were district attorney? They would, indeed. toms official start®d on their way to the district attorhey Again fear pressed a buzzer and sodn must have crept into théir souls . person is EXAMINING A COOLIE © BELONGINGS _—¢ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A LINER COMES IN for in @ few minutes they were back agaln, eager to @ay the price, the penalty, anything to get out And they were but one case of many that is daily being uncovered by the United States gov- erfiment. This is the ssason of returning tourists. Unecle 8am generously has made his laws so that time a prison sentences aré mnot imposed every aught attempting to smuggle. There is o stiff Qne, a warning, and the culprit is allowed to go his or her way. ¥UMBER CONSIDERABLE he persons caught trylng to smuggle into the United States were brought to and sentenced to prison, there would not be enough room for all of them. Compared with the number of travelers, the number of would-be smugglers is not large. In Citizens itself it ‘s an astonishingly large ar who otherwise would not think of king the laws of the land, try to get away with a fur cdat a diamond or a ruby without declaring it and paying the duty. Women offenders are just as nun s A% men They are, moreover, harder to handle. Men ca be relied upon £o keep fairly calm when be questioned after being caught, but women become Lysterical. And jumped from a hotel window and They faint “somelimes once a woman lled hersell because she feared the questioning and prose cution that was to come the next day Jewelry and articles of clothing are the two calf i i iy M! favorite itemk fortourists 3o try to =muggle 130 this country. Dope comes next The tourist, knowing that diamonds are road than here, and that her bits of clothing are also in- much cheaper thinks st natural to bring them in un lared He knows that uncut diamonds. will bring a duty of 20 per cent, and that stones set in gold or platinum wiil force payment of a duty of 75 to 80 per cent of their original There 't mentioning on which there yme to the entire value of the art So he stills his conscience and tries to slip past the inspectc That he doesn't is due to an efficient espionage system which this country maintains abroad. It works like this An agent ! and M bought & number of diamends or a fu England, or F South Amerlca toms officials here know of it, and the indi- idual's declaration is scrutinized for these articles. FUR COATS It they aren’t declared the returning to iz searched and the jewelry or clothing found A considerable number of fur coats have been seized by the government inspectors. Usually the label had been cut off anlf a do- The claim is jnvariably c one sewkd on that the coat had been purchased in this niry before leaving But never has a woman gotten away with it The government is too well armed with evid and in the end the would-be smuggler coughs up the required amount of duty, plus the penalty There is the case of Miss ——— ———, who re turned on the.cquitania. In her t declared. this ssion was She claimed Afte; was a fur coat which w t had been taken fro ountry con siderable questioning she admiitted it pur- (Copyright, 1224, NEA Serv INSPEC TORS EXAMINING BAGGAGE OF IMMIGRANTS chased abroad. The coat was appraised at a for- ¢ign value of $75—duty $57.50. After a hearing the woman was told that in order to regain possession of the coat she would have to pay the home value. This she refused to do and re od the matter ha put befors district attorney, & welieved she was entitled to the coat after paying the duty But the district attor upheld tha customs men. Then she demanded a reappraisement. This was granted with the resuit that th was raised to $100. And so, aiter foo for five months in a vain effort to ad matter, sha abandoned the ‘coat One strange case was aitention. A nursa was leaving the baggage er proved to ba & v But qu eloped the f made a trip to E and that ope several weeks previou upon her arrival as a passenger she ‘had smuggled in the fur coat wearing. She deposited $130, the home valu the garment, Many peopie try country to smugele diamonds inte CONSCIENCE FUND GROWS tell the story of one They clgaret manufacturer. H made a trip to F bought up & number of diamonds and s them into this c But after he got them So he ser in his consc! o pain hin for $1000 into t But the “Still Small Voice" 4 beg a check He could not:sleep. 8 more, taking the trip he declared ther paid the duty willi But—and comes here t in—some ne he t succeeded in br ice, Inc.) No. He was arrested and forced to pay plus the penalty for the full value or el # | S0 CLSTOMS INSPECTOR BOARDING A LINER Alibi [HE life of a Customs House Toflkwl isn't without Its funny side, its humorous twist, its genuine and heafty laugh. Alibis offered by would-be smug glers, not hardened eriminals, but 1se law-abiding persons, oft- times are emough to bring many a laugh, One of the favorite alibis offered by married men, caught with jewels or apparel hidden about them, is that the stuff wasn't intended for the wife, but for another woman. . 0. MAN from a southern state re- A He had & bright red shawl hidden under his cently was caught. coat, When questioned by officials he whined that it was meant for an- other woman, and that he didn't want his wife to know he bought it. This alibi is offered more times than any other, especia the Auty joivels are concerned o more— Many peopls try to sneak booze to take care of that first unlawful entry into this country Another time by ag had b failed to reveal ¢hese art ¢t tiat at offirm, ) ber ents abroad t ought some g was ative THEY WERE SEARCHED be done except to an inspect had a diam paid t explain what she did ¢ are found is han t ns abr they » s are found, the person on inspactors he a d re were tipped off ain man and his wifs in They titted laughing iled rath into this country. They have it in imitation cigars, in fountain pens, wrist bags. Ther claim—when declaration gy znt—t was intended for the trip were asked ; across in cass of liness replied in the Inspectors alwayy are suspicious when a traveler remarks with apolo- getic Jaugh that he or she has gained That s always gives them away. A 7t on the trip to Europe. search almost eiways uncovers soms smuggled article Siehe diamond sewed recoversd and LE SAM'S inspectors develop @ “sixth sense.” One inspector, g about it, remarked that he with tha could give no particular reason to a count for his many catches He just ing—when a pe ich Inspec “feels "—figuratively speak on is about t to put something over, Catching & would-be smugz very Aiffi job. It is note pos to search each passenger. Or directly suspected of concea valuables are subjected to this e barrassment. Intuition, a t read character—these must be relie pon largely by inspectors. The: me expert. interesting point spectors. While responsibility ave cou as their watcl every moment of their working when a would-be smuggler doesn't deserve it. he I given every courtesy.