Wessington Springs Herald

A PECULIAR MODE OF SMUGGLING.

In the days when high-heeled boots were the pride of fashion there was a shoemaker in London who made a fortune by the sale of the best Paris boots at a price which all his fellow-tradesmen declared ruinous. He undersold the trade and obtained troops of customers.

"Those boots must be stolen," said his rivals; but there was no evidence that they were; certainly they were not smuggled boots, for anyone could satisfy himself that the full duty was paid upon them at the custom house. The shoemaker retired from business with a fortune, and it was not until some time afterwards that his secret was accidentally discovered. It was then found out that although he had paid duty for the boots, he had not paid it for everything that was in them. There was a heavy duty payable on foreign watches; and every boot consigned to him from Paris had contained in its high heels a cavity exactly large enough to hold a watch. The great profit obtained by the trade in smuggled watches made it possible for this tradesman, when he had filled up the heel, to sell his boots under prime cost. This was worth while again, because, of course, by the extension of his boot trade he increased his power of importing watches duty free.