| Show for thu LW paper TALES STALES OF government CRIME copyrighted by frank 0 Oar carpenter penter 1895 1891 I 1 HE ous amounts of which uncle sam is robbed through custom house frauds will never be known T the he af pf government has it as employed emp loyes devoted to their detection and its spies are scattered all over the world its collections in the way of duties amount ed last year to more than coo and the expense of making these collections was almost six per cent of this vast sum the amount uncollected will never be known our custom house records are peppered with perjury and fraud many of the big importers are in in collusion with the european manufacture ers to evade the payment ot of duties they enter their goods at much lower prices than they actually pay for them notwithstanding the fact that if d discovered 0 vered they are subject to heavy y fines and increased duties I 1 saw a w a summary ot of the collections made by the treasury department luring buring the past few years of this sort son ol of fines dives and amounts arising from during the past five years the treasury department has collected more than in penalties and in the increase of duties this is a million od dollars ollars a year and it probably does not xe represent present one tenth of the actual amount that uncle sam is annually robbed of in this way the law as to the importation of goods is very strict A foreign merchant who ships hips goods her must first go before tt the e american consul f at the ports fro from m which he intends to ship the merchandise and swear as to the kinds quality and quantity ot of the articles he be proposes to ship to the united states he has to have three invoices describing the goods and giving their cost in europe the law provides that the goods must be entered jor for duty at the market price paid for them in europe and at the prices at which they are sold to other countries in many cases the goods are entered at a much lower valuation than this the european tEuro Zur merchant charges the importer a fair price but he makes out the bill for a lower price and the two try to cheat the government out of its duties at the present time the customs bureau has b its special examiners or detectives traveling about through europe and trying to prevest prevent this they are visiting big factories they are inquiring into the prices they are making their r reports I 1 to the consuls and it is their bus business ineis to find out how uncle sam is being cheated and prevent it they are not doing this but they are doing something but notwithstanding their efforts millions ot of dollars worth ot of goods are fraudulently imported every year and they strive in vain to mend this hole in uncle sams pocket enormous amounts of goods are smug sled aled into the united states by travelers every year it is estimated that iverc there are now in europe more than american who are taking their summer V vacations on the other side and who will return in the tall fall at a low esti citi mate ninety out of every hundred ot of these will bring bade back at least worth ot of european goods I 1 talked with a treasury department official about this matter yesterday and he said that atiat would be a low estimate you can easily see how these purchases w will ill run into the tens ot of thousands and into the millions the most ot of the goods will be dutiable and it is safe to say that the above amount will evade ane custon s at per traveler this means the introduction of worth of dutiable goads and at per person it would amount to worth these travelers will wid be met upon their arrival in new york and the will wid be passed as personal effects A woman has the right according to the jaw to a wardrobe corresponding with her station in life and it if she is well to do she can load herself with diamonds many a new york swell brings in or r ten suits of clothes and I 1 am told thit these are men who make vacation trips to europe on the basis that the expenses ot of their trip will be largely made up by the profits which will come to them through buying their winter cloth ing in europe ing anis nis is especially so when women are to be considered dresses cost just about half abroad what they do at home and they are smuggled iu by the tens ot of thousands I 1 was told the other day by a man connected with the customs that new york dressmakers often send the gins in their employment to europe with the proper measurements tor for dresses tor for their customers the dresses are made in the latest paris styles and are furnished to the americans at exorbitant prices the dress making girls pass pas them through as their own personal property and some ot of the maidens who on the big ocean ocean liners are looked upon as american Americ ein heiresses hen heit esses are smuggling milliners the government does all it can to prevent buch bubb importations it has its detectives on both sides of the big pond and the stewardesses ot of the steamships often give tips to the inspectors there are lemale female inspectors at new york who sometimes meet hese bese smuggling maidens upon their landing they may have gotten a pointer from the other side or the girls may have been to confiding in their talks with other people on the vessel it if they are suspected th they ey are taken with their baggage int a private room at the custom house if the girl giri cannot show that she is all right her wardrobe is sometimes taken from her if the inspect are pretty sure the bhe is a smuggler they may make her try on some of the clothes cloi hes A girl with a thirty tour four inch bust finds much trouble in exp eap aaning the possession 01 01 a forty two inch paris pans corset and a tall gabut maiden oi of five fivos leet ten looks very lunny funny when her form is clad in a paris pans dress made lor for one of the young ladies ot 01 the four hundred who measures five teet feet two the inspectors have to be very careful however in making suco suca arrests they must have something more than pure suspicion to depend upon as a the of innocent persons dersom is abla to involve them in great trouble the Aress dressmakers makers lot paris biris however seem to lo haye have no compunctions or doubts about otheir being able to delver del ver goods in america Ana erica and I 1 have heard english tailors say again and again that they could fill any orders that i would send them at london prices I 1 am told that there are english tailors who send their representatives to america every year to carry clothes over and bring new measurements back among the customers ot of these men are some 0 our most noted public characters and a list odthe names of names of american swells who get their clothes in this way would make interesting reading it is hard to get the real facts about smuggling from the officers ot or thle the united states irea trea usury our custom officials are to a large extent detectives and they will not permit their names to be used in connection with any an y information anich they give to the press they rhey anink that the exposition ot of the methods ot of smuggling would incite others to go and do jike likewise wise and the information which I 1 give in this article is based upon talks a number of prominent officials whose names I 1 cannot give the expectation ap ec tation is that a great amount of jewelry will be brought into the united states by the travelers this fall the good times are last throwing down the fences ot of economy and the savings of the past few years will cause a heavy european expenditure anere will be a good demand tor for diamonds with our approaching prosperity po and they will be bru tight in in all aft sorts ot of ways not long ago a young american swell attempted to evade the customs on a diamond present he was in europe and ne wanted to send these diamonds to miss fay templeton the actress he did aid not care to leave europe himself and amid he perhaps thought it sater safer to send the diamonds by his valet the young man arrived in new borit all ail right he was an ordinary looking fellow and be passed the inspectors without trouble As he hurried up the wharf however nis haste was noted by one of the officers whose sharp eyes also discovered that the young mans coat tails wobbled in a very curious way it looked as though there was something heavy in his rear pocket they called to him he stop stopped and they asked nim mm what made his coat bulge out in that strange manner he turned white it at the question and started to run ran they seized him and found the diamonds in his pocket they were con fisca ted ot course and the actress lost her ber jewels another prominent american who for some time was the head ot of an american exchange in london did quite a smuggling business in the way ot of diamonds lie he passed the customs several times and he finally anally became so bold that he boasted to his fellows that he could bring through any amount ot of jewels witti without out one day while taking a drink in the huffman hoffman house bar room the subject ot of passing the customs officers came up and this man said why gen gentlemen tiemen it is the easiest thing imaginable to skin those custom house officers they think they are very smart but they are as blind as hats bats I 1 cluid could give you a dozen doxen ways to get past paa them I 1 have brought in cleais and jewels wd ami I 1 have nervel bao why only asky 14 I 1 gift in a diamond id nea necklace klace aad hadit sold it to atit abig a big corset manufacturer who wanted it for his wife I 1 got i for that necklace and both the lady and myself made a nice thing off of it while the young man was saying this however it happened that a special treasury agent was standing nearby he inquired as to the smugglers identity he looked the latter up during the next few days and reported it to the collector the manager ot of the exchange the gentleman smuggler received notice to come to the custom house and before he left he paid tor that drink and indiscreet remark which followed it in the hoffman bar room the detective of course got his percentage and had the smuggler not been a man of aromi cence he might have gone to prison this man is by no means the first who has been discovered by the revinue officers by his boasting every year a number ot of smuggling operations are discovered by the crimi als being too free with their confidences both on the way across the atlantic and after they i have arrived an instance occurred not tong bong ago ol of a politician from one of the western states who got a valuable diamond through without paying and then sold it lor for after doing so he boasted to his fellows about it he hadan had an enemy in the crowd and this man sent ent a note to the new york custom house an inspector was sent out ut and theman was arrested he had to re ifune and instead of making a fortune delost be he lost one diamonds are smuggled in all sorts of ways they are so small that they can easily be concealed and it is not unusual to put them into soap to have them sunk between the soles ol of the shoes or in the padding of a coat the treasury officials say instances are known of men concealing diamonds land and pearls under porous plasters and cases have occurred where they have been put into raw meat and aad fed to dogs just before landing iding and the dogs thus brought off with the diamonds inside of them this last is something similar to a story which has aust come out concern ing the smuggling of opium from british columbia into the united states As the story gots it is docte doctored fied up and fed to old oxen who are then driven across the frontier and killed in order border to get the opium out of their stomachs any one who knows anything as to the horrible taste of opium and of the decided objection that any sensible sea sible ox would have to eating it would regard this story as decidedly fishy at least it is so regarded at the treasury apartment opium is smuggled however in all sorts of ways ane business has fallen on off some since the reduction of the duty from 12 to 6 a pound it still goes on however and great quantities are shipped into the united states every year it is estimated that pounds of the drug are used annually in the united states and a treasury official says that more than of our people have the opium habit in a greater or less degree there are hundreds of men and women who use laudanum and opium who are never suspected and the opium commission which was sent by england to india and which has just juat made its report states that moderate opium users att are just as common in ia the far east as moderate drip drinkers kers are in 41 this country and that one coa can esit eat a tie opium all his life without becoming an n opium drunkard at apy any rt rate inhere Is is a vast consumption of opium in t the united sates and it is es estimated t that at least pounds of that used are smuggled across the northern frontier from british columbia this escapes the duty and at the old rate it would represent a loss to uncle sam of i 1 a year and at the present duty of a year the opium is brought in in the crude state from china or india and is manufactured at the great factories along puget paget sound into opium for smoking and medicine the british own the factories but the chinese I 1 am told do the work it is said that hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested in the business and fortunes have I 1 am told been made by smuggling the drug into the united states for many years there was a great opium ring on the pacific coast the department knew that it was in operation but it could not get evidence against it it was so strong that it bribed or intimated the agents about two years ago however sufficient evidence was collected tor for the demanding ot of a special grand jury at portland and this grand jury found indictments against twenty seven persons among whom were an ex collector of customs and an ex special agent A few months later another grand jury found additional indictments and forty persons were charged by the two juries with conspiracy to smuggle opium and chinese laborers into the united states As the matter went on it was found to be even more serious than nad been suspected the trials established that in the twelve months preceding pounds of opium had been smuggled into portland alone this should have paid a duty ot of 18 oooo and it was also shown that the same ring had during that time smug aled in i chinese laborers in the ring were some prominent men of the states oi of washington and oregon and of the forty seven of the smugglers pleaded guilty and three others were convicted it is a curious thing that ex custom house hous e officers frequently engage an in smuggling the ex collector ot of this portland ring was probably tempted by the money made in the successful smuggling of opium which passed under his eyes while in office to engage in the same business A similar case occurred not long ago at puget sound an ex official had smuggled smuggle ed in a lot of opium in in cans he was suspected and the cans were captured and put into a government warehouse upon being taken he did not deny having the opium but said that he hid had gone into the scheme in order to detect other smug lers and that he was still working for the united states this was not believed by the inspectors and they kept a close watch upon him and the opium it was afterward found that his friends had bad bribed the janitor and they were discovered removing the opium and putting blocks of wood into the cans this was found out before the trial had it not been so the ex officials would have said that they should open the cans in court and upon the wood being discovered the story of his being a bogus smuggler for the sake 01 his detective scheme would have seemed true and he would probably have escaped another case of at a custo customs mr becoming corrupt was that ot of a |
