| Show It WHERE WOMEN I I WATCH WOMEN I l Ladylike Smugglers on the New I I if York Docks I I k VARIOUS FEMALE FADS i I I BOSTON WOMEN HAVE PECULIARLY PECULI-ARLY TENDER CONSCiENCES j n I I rcsx Makers ijelrtom Offeml These J Days Rich rjiilatlclnhinns Haven t Have-n Paatiion For SmuKsHnj Scotch Jjincii HOTV One Womnn Cleverly Worked the Inspector I is during the latter part of August and the first of September when the tide of travel is setting westward from Europe that Uncle Sam begins to cherish sharp suspicion of those of his daughters who have been summering abroad More particular does he have an eye to the lucky women whose amply filled pockets were pretty veil emptied in the enops that border the Rue de la Paix or Regent street and for the benefit of his treasury and to keep watch and ward of the possible gentle law brealers Zie empoys on his staff of custom inspectors i in-spectors eight women of which number num-ber one or two arp always on hand to greet every foreign passenger steamer arriving in the port of New York But he work of these inspectresses i is much of the time mere formality for whether because consciences are tender duties 3ighter or the dangers and penalties of pmuggling too heavy to be risked efforts ef-forts at evading the customs by women wo-men at least are less and less frequent They Bread the Fire There for example are our old friends the dressmakers said one of the most experienced inspectresses on the New York force a trimly gowned and bonneted with all the air of an expectant ex-pectant welcoming friend or relative of come home coming passenger she I awaited a ship on one of the North river < Jocks Bitter experience has taught them submission Once and again we have rouble with a venture come body but the losses have been so serf of late that smuggling no longer pays and between the modistes of New York and Paris a new system of purchasing pur-chasing and shipping has been introduced intro-duced Nowadays the fashionable American I drpsmaker undertakes rarely more j I than one trip a year abroad The Freneh houses send over by post sam ivIes I i-vIes of goods patterns etc selections i are made and then regular agents man j Age the delicate and dangerous business of shipping bringing the goods to the dressmakers very door at onethird the expense and worry she used to Jiave RUes That Pail I The favorite scheme for getting t through the hands of customs officers I I cheaply is to present false accounts oft of-t purchases made These bills are obligingly i I ob-ligingly made out by the Parisian houses giving the cost of the goods I It mported at onehalf the true price J ut tre custom house is apt to keep shrewdly informed as to how the importers I im-porters are buying j Professional packer who go from house to house and shop to shop preparing I I pre-paring the delicate gowns and hats for exportation are apt to give informa ton besides there are government watchers ever on the alert and before the artful little modiste ever reaches her native shores with her modest accounts ac-counts and neat explanations a pretty all estimate of the goods is already in our hands So after all when fashions change so rapidly when tears and legal processes have ben proved unavailing and not useful the dressmaker has almost al-most succumbed to the inevitable I Women Detectives I What we are chiefly watching for I now are the small attempts of private individuals who think it the slightest I I of sins to cheat their own government Women who walk down the gangplank home from their first voyage who have j been regaled by their fellow passengers i I passen-gers by artful tales of smuggling tricks discovered and treasured possessions i cruelly confiscated are apt to look anx j iously about for the dreaded inspec tress Cut that dragon is not so easily r cognized I c-ognized for women do not examine the luggage unless especially requested and she who gets through with the custom officers most rapidly is blissfully fully unconscious the while that a keened > keen-ed motherly looking person who stood near the gang plank looked every woman traveller with a searching glance First the faces then the I lancE irt te figures fig-ures and lastly the expression of all hose neat tailormade petticoats un derweoit the sharpest scrutiny Even a the women walk about on I the dock greeting friends and looking after luggage the surveillance is continued I con-tinued for the clever inspectress is a bit of 3 mindreader Years of experience experi-ence have taught her just how skirts should hang and bodices fit when there arc no superfluous undergarments worn and practice has cultivated in her so long a memory for names and faces that at a pinch she could almost ji A i I Li I 7 ii JA Case of New EnRland Conscience tell how many voyages every woman 10 the dates of sail Jias made her name sal la mae of the logs and returns and a list friends who saw her off each time on the dock and welcomed her return Detecting Small Smuggling All these qualities come into play warning has Information or when tio infOnnaton Warnmg lodged 10 against travellers and the been travelers Q her inspectress can be only put on guard by suspicion Immediately any doubts of an Individuals cherished a watch viduals honesty are chershed iduals her till all her luggage is is kept on ti al lugage examined and about to be carried out then the inspectress with all the man friend recalling herself to of on old wer O 3 frlenQ recalng ihe et travellers recollection steps up = most encouragingly she asks Is Gently encouraingl rnty sure quite sure she has net iar 1ur t4J l f v 1 c < > overlooked anything in her declaration As she talks she lays her hand on madams arm fingers lightly her skirts watches her face and can judge Jn a moment whether an interview in the dock office would be advisable I the dock office would be advisable If the traveller is not a tyro at smuggling burning blushes a gush of tears and a full confession con-fession in eight cases out of ten reward re-ward the inspectress for tears shake a womans nerves so 3he can no longer se Keep her secret back TTiicIe SaUL is Compassionate The favorite articles of concealment are breadths of French silk that tacked together form a sham under petticoat gloves sewed Into the back breadths of walking skirts lace laid in sleeve lEn ings or mayhap a beautiful altar cloth as was brought to light the other day IJJL I I = 4iA I Cei affiIIJI1iVfltffFJI1W1 1iiiJIillThll Ill U W 111f 4fAIllIllhIIiii It ttIllhIllhIll I U 1IIIIIIlIII I I bV y WILL YOU KINDLY HOLD THIS FOR ME is discovered wed in the side panel of a silk skirt Prompt repentance is good for the soul of the amateur smuggler and the government deals gently with such sinners I they will pay the duty I at once on the article found no one outside out-side that private office need be any the wiser for the seizure and it has been found that women caught in the first attempt rarely repeats the offense But a first success encourages them in future sinning and sometimes even the I n ff 1 4Ii 14 IiIlII Astonishing Disclosures inspectors are coolly outwitted every season by the same fair law breakers A Clever DOdge Now the average woman is more sorely tempted of all things to buy lace abroad and lace commands still a high duty One resourceful New York woman merely did her fifteen yards of old Valenciennes up an a careless looking look-ing paper parcel and actually gave it to the kindly inspector to hold while she elucidated the problem of her trunk Jocks lifted the trays in candid display of all her possessions relocked the boxes and resumed her little parcel from the man who had absentmindedly held i all the while the one dutiable article she had brought over IMInclcliihi Love Fine Linen Al women however are not as a tute a this ingenious American and those of her sisters who have brought unset jewels through in the tubes of their keys or the plugged feet of a little bronze Venus Women residents of the Quaker City have a passion for buying costly Scotch linen on the other side and are often detected in the act of smuggling it through free of duty I Recently a fat Philadelphian was trundled by two kindly inspectresses I out of the line of gangway passengers passen-gers to be relieved of something like twentyfive pounds of solid Scotch linen pinned and wrapped about her plump perspiring person The heat I and weight of the linen had almost brought on an apoplectic fit and not I only did shenot refuse to pay the duty but warmly thanked the inspectress for relieving her of her burden in time I An Unlucky Creole The Philadelphians case was just I paraleUed by the silly attempt of a majestic old creole lady to overawe the servants of Uncle Sam by her severe black eyes and splendidly pompadoured white hair but an interview in the private pri-vate office was suggested and from out that voluminous gored and well stuffed skirt of madams came nearly seven hundred yards of very fine lace and twosilver bon dishes Such genius as she had showed for storing so much 1 under her petticoats deserved a higher reward than discovery A Boston Conscience The unjustest subterfuge however of woman kind is when not brave enough to attempt carrying thIngS through themselves they pack dress goods among their husbands clothes and stuff obedient coat pockets with embroidered handkerchiefs and gloves The project is to have the loyal soul empty his pockets into those of a relative waiting on the dock Once a husbands kindly patience J caused a touching little denouement in that same private office She was t thin nervous little from Boston lhil uerous ltte person rom whose gentle brown eyes actually glared with uneasy terror behind her glasses as she came down the gangplank gang-plank and he was a tall thin docile American husband who walked like a major general on dress parade though his agonized expression much belied his martial bearing She was suspected but her luggage went through and when the inspectress advanced and made her stereotyped inquiry in solemn tones Bostons daughter declared so I roundly that all was well with her she was perforce let go Hardly were all the passengers dismissed dis-missed When the little lady came scurrying scur-rying back dragging the inspectress into the office burst into a flood of tears and owned up that her stout New England Eng-land training had reasserted itself and she wished to confess that on examination examina-tion ten yards of rick flowered Lyons silk would be found wound tightly around her husbands body The obedient obedi-ent gentleman was taken off by an inspector in-spector relieved of the straight jacket that the wife that morning had persuaded per-suaded him to assume for her sake and on paying this conscious debt the pair conscous went off with light hearts in spite of I lighter purses Now the truth of i was this worm of 1 husband through the pain and suffocation of his load had threatened to faint outside the ships covered pier a bit of a conjugal row had ensued his white face and reproaches re-proaches fled her really tender heart with fears and she repentantly paid the duty charges out of her own little allowances al-lowances lowancesMILLICENT MILLICENT ARROWPOINT |
