Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1913 — COFFINS USED BY SMUGGLERS [ARTICLE]

COFFINS USED BY SMUGGLERS

German Authorities, However, Penetrate Trapping of Woe and Find Saccharine. Berlin.—Smugglers of saccharine, on which there is a high import duty. In Germany and a higher one still in Austria, are ever Inventing new tricks to elude the authorities/ A short time ago the Inhabitants of a Bavarian village on the Swiss frontier were amazed to see a modest funeral procession, coffin, pallbearers, mourners and undertaker, all in order, pass through the village with policemen and Inspectors acting apparently as honorary escort. A halt was made at the police station, the coffin was opened, and from It about 100 pounds of saccharine, which the smugglers had attempted to Introduce In this way. At one of the railroad stations In Berlin, one of the roomy furniture vans which in Europe are filled with household goods, loaded on a flat car and shipped to any desired city, was opened accidentally. Railroad employes were surprised to find it loaded with broken furniture of no value. As the car came from Switzerland, the police were called in, and a thorough examination for illegal articles was made, but without effect. Finally a policeman noticed the unusual thicie ness of the walls of the van. Inve? tlgatlon showed a space two Inches wide between the side walls and a commodious secret garret under the roof packed with saccharine. The same van had made the tripbetween Schaffhausen and Berlin at least once before, according to the railroad records. Van and contents were confiscated, but the consignee disappeared.

Most of the saccharine smuggled into Germany Is destined for Austria, the smugglers finding It much easier to hoodwink Austrian officials with shipments from Germany than elsewhere. Besides, the Austrian duty is higher. A classic trick, now exposed and no longer practiced, was to send candles to be blessed to the pilgrimage monastery at Elnsiedein, In Switzerland, after which they were exported to Austria. Here they went, not to the pious, but to a refinery, to be melted up and the saccharine in them removed. Both the monastery and tho customs were for months taken tn by this device.