Show Z I 1 4 I 1 by E 77 0 A rw A FLO A R r 21 v T 41 YOUNG MAN just graduated from col cot lege arrived in van comer couver com er in search of a modest business op port unity this means that he e had a little money a few hundred dollars perhaps if he had had no money he would have been merely in search of a job but he had enough to en able him to be moderately independent that Is he could take the time to look about him tor for something that seemed to hold out some promise for the so it was a modest business anity and not merely a job that he be was seeking but modest business opportune op ties seemed to be scarce that sea eon son at any rate be could find nothing that held out the promise he deemed necessary yand and he lie finally decided to see what he could do on the other side of the line he still had a little dionel none and chicago looked pretty g od to him he ile would see what there was for a young college graduate in chicago naturally he be told his vancouver friends of his new purpose he had found no vancouver opportunity but he had found a few ver friends and the circumstances wo ild seem to indicate that these friends were not among the lending witting citizens one of them was prop erly solicitous for his financial welfare on so long a trip why vv by don t you make your 7 9 he tickled to death to do it returned the college man promptly it its s the first ray of sunlight I 1 ve seen but how take a little opium back with you very ver likely the friend did not lead up to the point with these exact words I 1 was not there and I 1 cant can t say positively just how the subject was broached but somebody with whom the college man mah became chummy did suggest to him that it would be a shame for a man in his francial condition to waste money on a trip to chicago when he might just as well make some on the same trip opium smuggling however did not look like a good and safe investment to the college k man an it seldom does look enticing to the man to whom it is proposed for the first time somehow it carries with it visions of all sorts of unpleasant things including revenue cut customs officers and jails the college man ruan had to be convinced but his friend con vinced him easiest thing in the world for a man like you said the friend A chinaman cant smuggle he s always under suspicion besides it a harder for him to get across the kne line anyhow then there are lots of others who are always under suspicion when they get near the border but you have everything in your favor the fact that you should want to go to chicago or anywhere else Is quite nat braland ural and nobody will give it a passing thought the college man was tempted but he was curious to know how much there would be in it for him you make it all said the friend barring a little comaj ton to me for arranging it tor for you nobody is going to employ yo i to do the job but you can do it yourself you buy the opium lere and sell it in chicago you can get names and addresses here before leaving of people who will buy bucit it from you in chicago they may even be notified noti fled that you are corn coin ing it can all be arranged easily you a get it over the line and there will be no trouble about the rest of it the college man not only assumed all the personal pei bonal onal risk but he also assumed all the financial risk he ile bought 25 pounds of opium and received his instructions it lt would have been cheaper of course to lave delivered the opium at seattle or port land A man regularly engaged in the bus bud ness probably would have tried seattle al il 0 though the risk would have been greater at ft d that time but the college man was going to chicago anyway so he decided to try portal t N D and he was so successful as a result of his instructions that the opium was safely stored away where nobody but the porter of the car could find it when they crossed the line this added a little to his expense for the porter naturally had to be remembered but he had been informed that it was by far the safest plan when you could get hold of t the right porter arriving in chicago he ambled down south dark clark street and presently he had con eliminated summated a little deal that left him somewhat better off financially than he had been when he purchased the opium at vancouver in ether other words he bad had more than covered his expenses there Is one peculiar thing about smug gling it never seems to be wrong dangerous it may b out never wrong an ordinary mor tal tat so honest that he will cheerfully tender LA A iia y ab V lao f 6 av 41 r ee r W R his fare to the street car conductor who has overlooked him and that s going ao ome me will not oni only y cheat his goy gov by smuggling but actually boast of it proudly as a laudable achievement ladies of irreproachable charac ter aej and connections will tak tako more pride in a smuggled frock or necklace than in any other possession and men of high repute have been known to hearken to the lure of 70 ava J F f j the fellow who says he has a consigning consignment consig nin ent of smuggled cigars this is worth remembering in the case ot of the college bouth if his vancouver friend had suggested that he make expenses expenses by cheating a storekeeper or flimflamming a farmer there would have been an immediate estrangement and probably a fight but to beat uncle sam did not disturb his conscience in the least that was merely a game an interesting game in which he matched his wits against the gov ern ments s and it was so interesting and so easy that he did it again why go to the trouble of looking for a modest business op port unity when it was possible to make from to per cent on money briefly invested and haap 0 sq much fun doing it the college man did not go again to van couver but he went to winnipeg regina moose jaw and to oti er towns that were nearer chicago he ile used various routes and resort resorted cd to various schemes tor for getting his stuff over the line he used neche and emer son both almost due south from winnipeg he ile brought opium over the line in the bottom of a coal box ind concealed almost every other place that the ingenuity of a complacent rail road man could suggest he brought it over with horse and buggy taking the train again far enough south to escape the train inspect tion he ile had occasional assistance on both sides of the line for the game of beating the government is always alluring all tiring but he brought the stuff over the line himself he tried al at most every possible pos ible method and place along the border between portal and emerson and because he changed methods and places fre he made things quite interesting in a small way for uncle sam it is one thing to know with reasonable certainty taint that a man is engi engaged ged in an unlawful business and quite another to catch him in the act and get the requisite proof so uncle sam had reason to give some thought to this cae but one day the college man ambled into a chinese store on south dark clark street chi cago ago and offered to sell some opium he never had bad sold any here before just why he should have tried it this time I 1 cant can t say tor for he certainly had other markets but there doubtless was some reason that seemed to him sufficient chent perhaps his other markets were glutted perhaps he had been informed that he cot child id get a better price here any how bow it was the b g mistake of his caleer as a smuggler the chinaman dickered with him found out all he could and told him to come back in an hour this particular chinaman was not in the business of buying or selling contra band opium furthermore a chinaman who is not in the business occasionally finds much advantage in being on the side of the g govern overn ment he ile might not have betrayed another chinaman but he had haq no scruples in the case of a white man no wantee said the chink when the col lege man returned the college man was naturally annoyed he ile tried to argue that the chinaman had agreed to take some ot of the stuff but you can t argue successfully with a man who wont won t un d ersland e r s t and a anything thing tie he doesn doean t want to this china man had s spoken p 0 1 e n very fair anglish be f fore 0 r e but no want ee was now the limit of his vocabulary the col cot lege m man a n relieved his mind 0 of f some burn man engaged in a legitimate business in winnipeg sheild go frequently to st paul but hp he was too cautious to stick to one method of smuggling and what went through in a pullman car waa was n merely incidental to what crossed the line in other ways he ile sent it over in loads of wheat and wood and other commodities hunting tor for opium in a load of wheat is no easy task and a man Is unlikely to undertake it unless he be I 1 as pretty good reason to believe it is 13 there in the open season this man was also a great sportsman and his hunting was all done close to the border A man in search of prairie chickens may drive from manitoba into north da kota at almo almot t any point along the line and there Is nothing in it to occasion surprise he ile kept so close to the line that he was always getting over it just what atha aroused the suspicions of the united states officers I 1 am unable to say but one day one of them was waiting for the hunter unfortunately for the officer it Is all prairie here and the hunter saw him furthermore there was something about uie situa tion that made the hunter suspicious and he promptly turned and headed back for canada the officer started after him the hunter urged his horse to a run and it Is asserted in winni peg that his cart bumped the bumps for something over a mile in a way that loosened all his teeth however he crossed the line a few hundred yards ahead of his pursuer then he returned to winnipeg put the opium back in stock and announced that so far as he was concerned the firm had retired from the smuggling business which was ale after a man Is once spot ted the only way for him to avoid trouble is to quit another smuggler did a thriving basli ess at st john N D he ile was purposed pup rup posed to be a farmer in that vicin ity became well known and popular at st john and made regular trips to that town for the entirely proper pur pose of shipping butter eggs and other java 6 na 4 A 47 10 0 e 4 aex M k 21 2 1 r r t 4 al 1 y I 1 1 I 6 2 vcr f P V faz fa Z c baj ing thought about the chinese in general and then left the chinaman signaled to a couple of men arross across ta tie e street who thereupon shadowed the college min to his hotel it Is not enough to arrest a smuggler he must be taken at a time and place that will uncover the contra band goods that he happens to have on hand when the college man opened the door of his room in response to a knock two men con fronted him one of them blocked the closing of the door with his foot and the other reached in and got the college man then they searched his room and found the opium which was clearly contraband because it lacked the stamp that uncle sam puts on the duty paid article the college man got a term of years and the chinaman got his moiety moiety in t tl is li instance istance is what the court awards the man who p ts th a smuggler and smuggled goods witt in the reach of the law its size depends largely upon the valt valie e of the goods seized the courts are inclined to be generous how ever and the moiety for smuggled opium not infrequently has reached a thousand or two thousand dollars the college man stuck to the business too long which is a failing of most smugglers it is so easy at first that they think it will al ways be just as easy quite forgetting that the dangers and difficulties increase with each trip for a man cannot cross the border often without becoming an object of suspicion so I 1 nele sam usually gets the smuggler in the end although it occasionally happens that the litter pitter is frightened frigA ened out of the business before he is caught there is a cae cace of a winnipeg man for in tance who was a member of a firm that dealt largely in opium the winnipeg sales were not sufficient tor for this firm and besides there was something alluring in the price at which opium could be sold on the other side 0 the line men would cheerfully contract in win for opium at this price if it could be delivered in the united State sand the firm went into the business f so delin deehring ring it the partner in question took charge of this detail of th ohp busin pis and he was most ingen lous IOUs in his methods he ile made many busi bust ness trips to st paul and there was taini nothing suspicious in tie vie tact fact that a farm produce to market no one Is likely to be cusp clous cious of a shipment of butter by a farmer whom everybody knows but this par nicular farmer got opium from the other side of the line and this opium was shipped witt with his farm produce my information as to bin him and his methods was secured on the canadian Can adlar side where they are not particularly interested in the enforcement of united states laws and I 1 cannot say positively whether he was ever caught but I 1 understand that he was these stories and particularly the story ol 01 the college man serve to illustrate the varl ous features of the opium smuggling business for one thing contrary to the popular belief the chinaman does not engage in it at least not directly he la Is usually back of it the story of a sensational ce coe at seattle will illustrate this it relates to the days when there was a big enough profit in opium smuggling to warrant a wholesale business beffie the reduction of duty made it so much of a one man criter enterprise prise and there was a fleet of small bats boats operating in puget sound also there was a united states inspector efi engaged in the business he reasoned that he was there to watch others but that there was no one to watch him which is where he made his mis take for he was caught one night in a launch with 20 worth of the stuff immediately there was great excitement in chinatown no chinaman wa waa on the launch but nevertheless chinatown was so deeper desper abely worried that some of the leading mer chants met in haste and put up the amount of the inspector inspectors s bond he might tell som something you know he be might uncover those behind him those who were putting up the money and taking the opium it was much better that they should lose both the opium and the amount of therond the bond and that he should have a chance to skip they did I 1 lose ose both and he did skip but it is worth remembering that he was brought back from mexico some time later he also stuck to the business too long and uncle sam Is tireless in pursuit when he has evidence against an offender the korean is the greediest and the big gest e er in the world most any man in korea will eat anything he can get and he will take a dozen meals a day if he has the chance |