DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4301, 4 January 1875, Page 3

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.

There is, says the Boston (U.S.) Commercial Courier, a very important traffic carried on in diamonds over the various European lines to this country, and, as the duty is 10 per cent. ad valorem , the sharpest watch iff kept upon those suspected to be engaged in it. By means of agents abroad the collector’s office has often information by cable of the departure from the various ports of suspected diamond smugglers, and is prepared to intercept them. In nine cases out of tea the stones are concealed upon the persons of the passengers. When this becomes a certainty the passenger is arrested and taken to the Searcher's Bureau, in the Custom House. Here, if found necessary, the party is stripped to the skin, and his clothes examined inch by inch and seam by seam ; the heels are taken from his boots, his hair and beard are combed, and every means taken to discover the hiding place of the secreted treasures. Once this mode of search used to be ‘ tolerably successful, but now it rarely serves any purpose except in the case of raw recruits to the smuggling ranks. An old bird is caught with chaff but once. A Hew York Jew, who was reputed to be in the business of smuggling diamonds, used to cross the water on the Ounard line from three to four times a season. Two years ago, in the early part of the season, he was seized upon Ins arrival and taken to the searcher’s room. Nearly SIOOO worth of precious stones were found secreted in the lining of his boots. He returned to Liverpool by the same steamer, and four •weeks afterwards again landed upon the company’s wharf on North River. He was again seized and subjected to the same rigorous search, but with no success. The Jew took it smilingly and philosophically. When lie took his leave, he said, “Better luck next time, gentlemen. I shall go back by the same steamer on business, and when I return you can try it again.” The officers mentally determined, if he did, they would try it again. Upon inquiry, it was found that he really had engaged a return passage, having held his stateroom for that purpose. Two hours before the sailing of the steamer, he was driven down to the pier in his carriage, his wife and daughters with him to see him off. When they returned, they earned with them over SIO,OOO worth of diamonds, which had lain secreted in his stateroom during the whole time the steamer had remained in port. Before his return to New York, the collector was notified by one of the revenue agents abroad that “ Max Fischer would return by the , which would leave Liverpool, October 25, with several thousand dollars worth of diamonds.” In due time the Jew arrived, and for the third time was escorted before the searcher. He was evidently not prepared for such persistent attention. He seemed nervous and agitated, and finally attempted to compromise. He was politely informed that that was out of the question. He was again put through the searching process. His pocketbook, which was first investigated, revealed a memorandum showing the purchase of eighteen diamonds of various sizes and prices, amounting in all to about $12,000. When this came to light, the Jew begged with tears to be allowed to compromise. A deaf ear was turned to his entreaties. His coat was removed, and the lining examined. Nothing there. Then the waistcoat. As the searcher passed his practical fingers along the lining his heart gave a tremendous thump as lie recognised the feel of something pebbly, like little rows of buttons. The garment was hastily ripped, a strip of chamois sldn withdrawn and unrolled, and there lay, one two, three—eighteen? All there. “You can put on your coat and waistcoat again, Mr. Fischer,” said the searcher, blandly. “ Good day.” Without a word the Jew departed, took a horse-ear home, kissed his family, ate a rousing dinner, repaired to the bath-room, and after soaking a rather capacious plaster across the small of his back for a few minutes in warm water, peeled it off, and with it “ eighteen diamonds of various costs and prices.” What the searcher and collector may have said or thought when they found their seizure to be nothing but clever glass imitations, worth from 10 to 13 cents each, nobody knows, as, although the seizure was loudly heralded, the finale was never made public.