Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1903 — CAPTURES TO ESCAPE. [ARTICLE]

CAPTURES TO ESCAPE.

Experiences of Treasury Agents in Running Down muggier*. The former Custom Inspector was talking of jewel smugglers, says the New York Evening Post. “You hear a lot about the cleverness of the Treasury agents In running these fellows down, but their cleverness isn’t a marker to that of the folks who make a business of bringing things in. Cases of detection are few and far between; just thiflk of the thousands of cases which are never detected! Indeed, you are -up against it’ when you deal with those people. They’re just as clever as you are, a whple lot cleverer, some of ’em. “I remember one case which beat us badly, although we had our eyes wide ppen and thought we knew all about ft. Word came from Paris that a man we’d been suspicious of for a long time was coming over with a handful of cut diamonds. We were told it would be useless to search his clothing or luggage for them, because he-would have them under a porous plaster on his back.

“So we laid low and waited for the man’s arrival. He canje as smiling as a basket of chips, and we nailed him. He declared he knew nothing about jewels; said he hadn't one in his baggage; we could search it if we pleased. But we didn’t please; we took him into a stateroom and told him to undress. Then he began to get nervous. He said he had rheumatism in his back, and the stripping' would be the death of him. Finally we came to the porous plaster. There it was, and there were little bumps all over its surface. We knew we had him, and he, apparently, knew it, too. When we suggested removing the plaster he almost wept; perhaps he had once tried to take one of them off. Eventually we compromised by puncturing the little bumps on the plaster and taking from each a fine, sparkling diamond. The man was fairly beside himself, because the value of the gems must have been nearly $75,000. We had a clear case, and we marched the man off triumphantly. —■ “Next day we learned that every one of the ‘gems’ was a bit of cut'glass—the man had brought In a fortune in gems in his valise, which we had never opened. We also learned that’ h<* had sent us the ‘tip’ about the porous plaster.” ■ ■■ -