GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 



47 



United States Custom Regulations 

 as to Baggage. The following articles are 

 exempt from duty : Wearing apparel and 

 other personal effects (not merchandise), pro- 

 fessional books, implements, instruments and 

 tools of trade. 



To ascertain what articles ought to be ex- 

 empted as the wearing apparel and other 

 personal baggage, and the tools or imple- 

 ments of a mechanical trade only, of persons 

 who arrive in the United States, due entry 

 thereof, as of other merchandise, but separate 

 and distinct from that of any other merchan- 

 dise imported from a foreign port, shall be 

 made with the Collector of the district in which 

 the articles are intended to be landed by the 

 owner thereof or his agent, expressing the per- 

 sons by whom or for whom such entry is made, 

 and particularizing the several packages and 

 their contents, with their marks and numbers ; 

 and the persons who shall make the entry shall 

 take and subscribe an oath before the Col- 

 lector, declaring that the entry subscribed by 

 him, and to which the oath is annexed, con- 

 tains, to the best of his knowledge and belief, 

 a just and true account of the contents of the 

 several packages mentioned in the entry, speci- 

 fying the name of the vessel, of her master, 

 and of the port from which she has arrived ; 

 and that such packages contain no merchandise 

 whatever, other than wearing apparel, personal 

 baggage, or, as the case may be, tools of trade, 

 specifying it ; that they are all the property of 

 a person named who has arrived, or is shortly 

 expected to arrive, in the United States, and 

 are not, directly or indirectly, imported for 

 any other, or intended for sale. 



Whenever any article subject to duty is 

 found in the baggage of any person arriving 

 in the United States which was not, at the 

 time of making entry for such baggage, men- 

 tioned to the Collector before whom such 

 entry was made, by the person making 

 entry, such article shall be forfeited, and the 

 person in whose baggage it is found shall be 

 liable to a penalty of triple the value of such 

 article. 



"Professional books, implements, and tools 

 of trade, occupation, or employment," are 

 understood to embrace such books or instru- 

 ments as would naturally belong to a surgeon, 

 physician, engineer, or scientific person re- 

 turning to this country. 



Jewelry that has been worn or is in use as a 

 personal ornament may be admitted free of 

 duty. 



Duty must be demanded on all watches but 

 one, brought into the United States by a single 

 passenger. If all the watches are old, the 

 passenger may "hoose the one to be treated as 



personal effects. If some are old and some 

 new, the new are to be included among those 

 treated as subject to duty. 



The United States Supreme Court has de- 

 cided that the free list includes (1) wearing 

 apparel owned by the passenger, and in a 

 condition to be worn at once without further 

 manufacture ; (2) brought with him as a 

 passenger, and intended for the use or wear of 

 himself or his family who accompanied him 

 as passengers, and not for sale* or purchased or 

 imported for other persons, or to be given 

 away ; (3) suitable for the season of the year 

 which was immediately approaching at the 

 time of arrival ; (4) not exceeding in quantity, 

 or quality, or value of what the passenger was 

 in the habit of ordinarily providing for him- 

 self and his family at that time, and keeping 

 on hand for his and their reasonable wants, 

 in view of their means and habits in life, even 

 though such articles had not been actually 

 worn. 



The Law of Finding. The law of 

 finding, though not prescribed by statute, is 

 well denned by precedent. It may be stated 

 thus : The finder has a clear title against 

 the whole world except the owner. The pro- 

 prietor of a hotel or a shop has no right to 

 demand the property or premises. Such pro- 

 prietor may make regulations in regard to 

 lost property which will bind their employees, 

 but they cannot bind the public. The law 

 of finding was declared by the King's bench, 

 England, ovei 100 years ago, in a case in 

 which the facts were these : 



A person found a wallet containing a sum 

 of money on a shop floor. He handed the 

 wallet and contents to the shopkeeper to be 

 returned to the owner. After three years, 

 during which the owner did not call for his 

 property, the finder demanded the wallet and 

 the money from the shopkeeper. The latter 

 refused to deliver them up on the ground that 

 they were found on the premises. The former 

 then sued the shopkeeper, and it was held as 

 above set forth, that against all the world but 

 the owner, the title of the finder is perfect. 

 And the finder has been held to stand in the 

 place of the owner, so that he was permitted 

 to prevail in an action against a person who 

 found an article which the plaintiff had origi- 

 nally found, but subsequently lost. The police 

 have no special rights in regard to articles 

 lost, unless those rights are conferred by 

 statute. Receivers of articles found are trus- 

 tees for the owner or finder. They have no 

 power in the absence of special statute to 

 keep an article against the finder, any more 

 than the finder has to retain an article against 

 the owner 



