"YOUR HATS, PLEASE."

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 44, 2 December 1913, Page 10

"YOUR HATS, PLEASE."

CUSTOMS MID. j "Your hat, if you please, madam; we must havo that aigrette/' was tho quaint but startling demand made by the Customs inspectors yesterday of all ladies disembarking at New York with forbidden plumes in their headgear (sttited the New York correspondent of 'The Daily Mail' on October's). It was tho first day of the new tariq, which prohibits tho importation of all feathers plucked from live birds. The first victim was a Frenchwoman dressed in the height of fashion and wearing a small velvet hat decorated with a valuable aigrette. Standing with several other passengers from the steamship Lornine, awaiting tho inspection of their luggage, she saw 'that sho was beinT scrutinised. Then fearlessly a. veteran inspector, armed with his new book Of instructions, stopped forward and made his demand. Mmo. Bovilaqua was too startled to reply. Next moment the inspector | reached forward and extricated, tho feather before explaining the provisions of the new law. "My milliner never told me a word about- the new law," exclaimed the lady furiously. Amid a storm of acrid adjectives aimed at the "chivalry" of the "gentleman" who drew up the tariff, a dozen more ladies were despoiled of their feathers. Soon a large heap of aigrettes and stuffed birds cut or torn from feminine hats, was adorning tho Customs table,-and was promptly nicknamed "Exhibit No. 1 of Uncle Sam's new tariff." When the Campania arrived the inspectors went zealously to work again, raking women's trunks in their search for illegal headgear. Many pounds' worth of plumage w:u confiscated. Tho fair owners of the contraband property, it i.s understood, will be given an opportunity of returning their feathers to the dealers in Europe. The author of the clause forbidding their importation is Dr William Hornadny, director of the New York Zoological Garden. It is safe- to say that, within: a few days he will he denounced far and wkle by thousands of American women returning from holiday in Europe. Yesterday was an extraordinarily busy day at the Customs House. I'Voni ■lB bonded warehouses in the city importers withdrew between £BOO,OOO and £1,000,000 worth of goods and paid duty amounting to £ll-1,000. During the'coming week £8.(X)0,000 worth will be withdrawn. It is expected that between now and the end of the year steamships will do the greatest freight business in the history of tho Atlantic trade. The "fly in the oitment," so fat as tlie Administration is concerned., is the clause in the new law giving a rebate of "> per cent, on duties on goods imported in American ships. Those nations, including Russia and Germany, which are without a special treaty exempting them from this treatment arc reported to be already preparing orotests to the American Government.