Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1877 — Discomfited Smugglers. [ARTICLE]

Discomfited Smugglers.

The Custom House Steamship Inspectors have distinguished themselves by several seizures of smuggled goods. Last Wednesday evening the steamship Herder, of the Hamburg Line, arrived at her pier in Jersey City, and the steerage passengers were not permitted to leave the vessel until 3’esterday morning. As soon as the Custom-House officers arrived the emigrants were put on the wharf and an examination of their baggage was begun. Inspector Joseph L. Chapman, who is said to have made more seizures of contraband articles of late than any three officers in the service in this city, set his eyes on a fine large chest, neatly painted, owned by a sharp-looking young German named Wilhelm WeDdland. Mr, Chapman pushed through the soiled linen atop and his hand touched some hard substance. Chapman asked the owner of the chest aquestioD, and the emigrant, or, as he afterward turned out to be, smuggler, said that he spoke no English. Out on the dock went the miscellaneous assortment of luggage, and a false bottom, six inches above the real bottom of the chest, was discovered. In the space between the two bottoms was a quantity of valuable silks and laces tightly packed and in good condition. “ I will make you all right, boss, if you don’ go to makes me no trouble,” said the non-English-speak-ing German, but his chest went to the seizure-room and he disappeared. As Mr. Chapman passed among the passengers on the deck he noticed two singularly plump women. Their faces were sharp enough, but their waists and. skirts were suspiciously ample. They walked stiffly, too,, and upon the invitation of Mr. Chapman, walked into the cabin of the Castle Garden tender, where Mrs. Ferris was inspecting. At the request of the latter they unwillingly removed their dresses and petticoats, and the latter were taken in charge by the officers. Each petticoat weighed anywhere between thirty and fifty pounds. At the seizure room in the Custom-House they were ripped open, and enough articles to stare a ladies’ haberdashery shop were taken from between the finings. There were silk dresses, laces, edgings, lace, silk and Shetland shawls, and a thousand dainty knick-knacks, 80 per cent, cheaper abroad than here. The two women belonged in Memphis, Tenn., and they were allowed to part with only the loss of their petticoats. Another would-bc smuggler on the Herder was brought to grief. He wore a big German plush coat, heavy enough for a Greenland winter. Of course this attracted Mr. Chapman’s attention, and a quick clutch at the coat-tails was enough to show that it was lined with goods. The wearer was told to put on a summer coat, and his plush garment went to the seizure room, where an assortment of laces, silks, ribbons, neck-ties, etc., of a quality to match the petticoat stock, was taken from it. The wearer, whose name was not taken, was permitted to depart. A trunk containing 1,500 cigars was seized on the steamship Columbus, from Havana, which arrived yesterday. — N. T. World.