178 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [May 



DUTY ON $12.00 @ 35 PER CENT $4.20 



and asked me to write my name in approval thereof. I 

 declined, and appealed to the Collector, whopresented him- 

 self. This I did, notwithstanding-my belief that a Collector 

 knows absolutel}^ nothing-, whatever is known in the C. H. 

 being- known by the subordinates. This was the signal for 

 four or five clerks to rally to the support of the figure-head 

 whose only claim to office so far as I know is his knowledge 

 of ward politics. 



To my emphatic statement that I knew these objects 

 entitled to free entry and that scores of lots of such goods 

 were entering free all over the country, one of the b)'- 

 standing mouthpieces of the collector proposed that I pay 

 the dut\' and go into an effort to get this great and glorious 

 humbug of a Customs service to pay it back to me. Think 

 of a collection agent on being told that his claim was base- 

 less saying- such rot even to women and children! And 

 Dorsey Claggett did not correct his over zealous clerk. I 

 did. I said that I supposed the Collector wished to ascer- 

 tain his duty and perform it properly without complicat- 

 ing matters in that wa}'. He consented to be flattered in 

 this manner. Thereupon the law was brought out and 

 here is the clause under which the bill had been made out : 



Schedule B., Tf 102. — Glass and Glasswake. — " All 

 stained or painted glass windows, or parts thereof, and all 

 mirrors not exceeding in size 144 sq. inches with or with- 

 out frames or cases, and all manufactures of glass, or of 

 which glass is the component of chief value, not specifically 

 provided for in this Act, thirty-five per centum ad valorem." 



The glass in this lot of slides is not worth over one 

 dollar. If they are to be taxed as "manufactures of g-lass 

 or of which glass is the component of chief value," then an 

 honest collector would appraise the goods at their value as 

 manufactured glass or at about one dollar ; but this incom- 

 petent (I will not say dishonest) man took the invoiced 

 price of $11.71 as slides and put the 35 per c^ViX glass tax on 

 it ! Then he had the gall to ask me to pay it and try to see 

 if I could get it back again. 



