"Flagrant Case"

When the S. S. George Washington hove into New York Harbor three weeks ago, an old lady sat bundled in an invalid's chair on board and an ambulance was waiting on the pier. Because she was indisposed and because she was Mrs. Lily Anheuser Busch, 85-year-old widow of the late Brewer Adolphus Busch of St. Louis, the old lady had "the courtesy of the port." Comptroller-of-the-Port Arthur F. Forran had furnished her with an "expedite" permit, so that she might escape the tedium of waiting while inspectors inspected 34 pieces of luggage belonging to her and her two daughters, Mrs. Charles Greenough of Manhattan and Mrs. Nellie B. Loeb of Chicago.

Mrs. Greenough and Mrs. Loeb were indignant and mortified, however, to find that before they could leave the ship, they must submit to the searching eyes and fingers of a female Customs agent.

The ambulance had to wait a (few minutes for Mrs. Busch who sat among her trunks until she saw them sent, not to her hotel but to the Appraiser's Stores--confiscated for examination. Courtesy of the port notwithstanding, Mrs. Busch & daughters were held suspect by the Treasury Department. A Chicago acquaintance of Mrs. Loeb's had, it seemed, notified the Treasury Department that Mrs. Busch & daughters would try to smuggle home jewelry and clothes.

Last week, Mrs. Busch & her daughters were obliged to pay $56,363 in fines to the U. S. Treasury, which followed its rule of giving publicity to "flagrant cases" of smuggling by persons "well able to pay a just duty." The fines represented the foreign value, plus duty, plus 100%, on a diamond bracelet* and various garments. Mrs. Busch's daughters received a thoroughgoing lecture from Supervising Agent James F. McConnachie of the Treasury Department. Mrs. Loeb's acquaintance in Chicago received some $14,000 as a reward for the information.

* Mrs. Busch inherited one-eighth of her husband's $50,000,000 to $75,000,000 estate. On their golden wedding anniversary--to which President Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Emperor Wilhelm and many another sent presents-- Mr. Busch gave Mrs. Busch a diamond-and-pearl studded crown of gold valued $200,000. August A. Busch, their son, protested last week that the gems seized from his mother & sisters must be parts of a "rope of diamonds" which his father gave his mother and which she had had broken up into bracelets in Germany this year.