The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, January 1885, No. 4

by Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Chautauqua Institution

The cargo while being discharged on the wharf is checked off by the manifest, so as to determine whether the cargo apparently corresponds with the representations of the master and his papers. The cargo being landed, the interests of yourself and other consignees become active. You go to the custom house in person, or by a broker, present the bill of lading and the invoices of your goods, certified by the consul; and you state under oath that you have certain merchandise in the cargo as set forth in the invoices, with the marks of the packages and description of their contents. This is called an entry of the goods. If approved, the papers are stamped, dated and numbered, and the value of the goods and the rate of duty are indorsed on the back of your invoice by the entry clerk. He then issues to you a permit to take away such of the goods as you choose, upon payment of the estimated duties thereon, and after compliance with the further conditions described below. If you choose to leave any of the goods for a season in government warehouses, you need not pay the duties thereon, but may give bonds for payment to be made whenever you do take them. This is a bonded warehouse, and when you take the goods it is called “taking them out of bond.” Often goods intended for re-export are left in bond until sent out of the country, and no duty is ever paid on such.

The correctness of these preliminary steps having been reviewed and vouched for by the naval officer, certain portions of the goods, about ten per cent., are sent to the appraiser’s office, as samples from which the value of the whole consignment may be appraised. Before the appraisal is made, however, you must go to the cashier’s office and pay the estimated duty on the goods wanted immediately, on their apparent value as shown in the invoice; you must also give what is called a “return bond” that you will not open the goods until ten days after the appraiser has passed upon the samples, and that you will return the goods to the custody of the collector if required during that time; this enables the government to keep its hold on the goods until the final adjustment of its claims. You now get your permit indorsed by the deputy collector and the naval officer, and take it to the inspector in charge of the vessel.

All your other papers are sent to the appraiser, with the sample goods. His examiner identifies the one by the other and he makes his estimates—a difficult and delicate task, sometimes. The changes from the invoices, either in the quantity or value of goods are noted, and the papers are returned to the collector’s office, where the work of the appraiser as to classification of goods and proper duties, to be paid is carefully revised. If the appraiser’s work be disapproved it is returned to him for correction. After he has amended it, it goes to the naval office, where the whole work is again revised. Then it goes finally to the Bureau of Liquidation, where if you have already paid the right duty you can get a permit to take your goods; if there is more to pay you pay it; if you have paid too much the amount of the overcharge is returned to you. If you be not satisfied with the valuation or any other feature of the adjustment you can appeal, within a certain time, to the Secretary of the Treasury, and if he sustain the collector you can still further appeal to the United States Court. Or if the valuation do not satisfy you, you can ask for a re-appraisement, or demand to have the goods valued by a disinterested outsider expert in such goods. Before him you can call expert witnesses and make as good a case as possible.

If you find any of your goods have been damaged in the voyage—say by bilge water or breakage—you can demand a reduction of the valuation (and hence of the duty) in consequence.

You have now done with the custom house, but it has not done with your papers. They are all gone over again in another way, so as to verify them; and then all the data are tabulated in such a way as to again prove the accuracy of the processes. There is another review of them before the much-tested documents are finally laid to rest. And as before noted, the whole account of the cargo is re-examined a year later.

With the kid gloves and finery in your trunk you will have less red-tape trouble. Inspectors from a revenue cutter have boarded the ship down the Bay, and taken a sworn statement from every passenger as to the number of pieces of baggage he has, and whether or no he has any dutiable goods therein. You may not know whether your goods are dutiable or not, and what is of more importance to you, you may not know that some things which are strictly dutiable in law and would have to pay if put through the custom house in an invoice, can pass free in your baggage. You shall see how and why this liberality of the government is exercised.

Now you and your baggage are taken off the steamer and transported on barges to the barge office at the Battery. Here the scene is as animated, if not as picturesque, as at Castle Garden, described in the October Chautauquan. A large rotunda is piled with long tiers of trunks, boxes and parcels, each ranged under a placard bearing the letter which is the initial of the owner’s name—so that it is easy for you to find yours, unless you are as uncertain as to the orthography of your name as Tony Weller was. A blue-clad, brass-badged inspector, holding your sworn statement in his hand, demands the keys to your trunks. The manner in which you comply will have much to do with the rigor of his investigation, as will your general appearance and make-up. These officials become as good judges of character by externals as do railroad conductors. One of the latter once said to me: “I can pick out all the fresh passengers in a coach as soon as I open the door, by the way they sit, look, and breathe. If they try to deceive, their faces will betray them; they look too unconcerned and innocent. If they feign sleep they overdo it; their attitudes betray them.” So an inspector here says that people’s words, movements, dress, all tell of them.

I can tell the incoming traveler an open secret. Uncle Sam is extremely liberal in the matter of baggage inspection. You would be surprised, sir or madam, at the things the inspector don’t see, if you simply throw yourself on the government’s generosity and act as if you expected to be liberally dealt with. You have only to remember that your foot is on your native heath, and you are an American citizen, one of the sovereigns. An inspector said: “This property is personal effects, and public sentiment is very sensitive as to domiciliary inspection and invasion of private sanctity. The inspector is given wide latitude of judgment; he must have it. By law, every pair of kid gloves that has not been worn is dutiable, but we began to allow a lady a few extra pairs, and finally the limit was set at a dozen. Although that is liberal, we find that plenty of ladies have more pairs in use; and if her appearance, dress, and the other contents of the trunks justify it, we pass as many as we fancy a lady in her station might possess. So of dresses, laces, fans, fancy articles, et cetera. Even piece goods not cut or sewed are under certain conditions ignored, if the owner declares they are for her own necessary use. So of cigars. Our rule is to pass a hundred duty free; but we don’t always stop to count them, if the passenger looks like a man of means and character. What would the seizure amount to if there were ten or twenty, or even fifty over the arbitrary limit we have fixed? The government does not do such ‘picayune business.’”

“Does not this leave the door open for smuggling?”

“Not much. A person can not get much through openly in a trunk that can affect the revenues or injure honest importers. The chief thing we need to prevent is passing goods intended for selling. This sort of fraud is usually attempted by deception, and we are pretty sure to detect it, either by the nervousness or appearance of the person, by the looks of the baggage, or by having been forewarned by detectives abroad, on shipboard or here. We get a moiety share of the forfeiture and fine, if we detect such attempts, and this is so large a sum that our interests are mostly with the government.”