Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1894 — VALUABLE SEEDS. [ARTICLE]

VALUABLE SEEDS.

The Clever Ruse of a New York Smuggler. “This stone was smuggled on the first trip of the City of New York made to this side of the Atlantic.” George Meigs, of New York, tossed a sparkling, uncut diamond in his hand at La Normandie as .he spoke. “I bought it as a memento of the best piece of work I did while in the customs service. Don’t think I’m bragging when I tell the story. We had been having a great deal of trouble with diamond smugglers. Dead loads of fine new stones were being offered by Maiden Lane brokers, and the service knew they had never paid a cent of duty. Every boat coming over was closely watched and suspects were put through a course of sprouts in the searching line such as they had never imagined possible. Boot heels were bored to find hidden gems; trunks searched for secret drawers; clothing examined in every portion and cakes of soap in the possession of suspected passengers cut up and mashed flat, but to no apparent use, although several cakes of soap were found to contain liberal supplies of the sparklers. One day, in my walks up town, I saw a goodlooking woman talking with apparent familiarity to a well-known diamond broker at the 28d street entrance of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and as I approached I heard her tell him to be sure and be home to dinner. That remark assured me that she was the broker’s wife, and then it suddenly struck me that I had seen Her face before. I put on my thinking cap and soon remembered that she had recently made several trips to Europe. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind to search her baggage pretty thoroughly if she ever made another trip, and then turn her over to the lady inspectors for closer investigation, for her husband had been one of the brokers who had recently been selling numbers of diamonds at very low prices. Two months afterward the New York came in on her initial trip and who was a passenger on bokrd of her but my Mrs! Broker. No passenger ever submitted to a more thorough search with better grace, and I was knocked out when she was reported clear of all contraband goods. I knew as well as I was living, that she had smuggled dla-

monds somewhere in her possession, but was at my wits' end to discover them. She was about to leave the office when I suddenly noticed that the hat she wore was trimmed with grapes. There were several compact bunches of them on her bonnet, and with a sudden impulse I politely asked her to let me examine her hat She gave me one look of malignant ferocity—l can describe it in no other words—and then fainted dead away. While the ladies-were bringing her to, I broke open one of the grapes and found a diamond imbedded in its interior. This is the stone. Every grape had a diamond for a seed, and the gems altogether were worth $17,000. The duties and penalties wege paid, and her husband sold me this gem in admiration of my ‘gall, ’ as he termed it.”—[Washington Star.