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those who defy the law by exporting or importing them are smugglers, still, the bulk of contraband consists of more ordinary goods and the bulk of smugglers confine themselves to more ordinary and easily handled commodities. Opportunity makes the smuggler, and as what is contraband one year or one day may not be contraband the next, the smuggling fraternity must of necessity be ready and willing to suit the trade to the needs.

CHAPTER II

SMUGGLER PIRATES AND PIRATE

SMUGGLERS

matter what else he may be, the successful smuggler must be a man of intelligence, wide experience and ready wit; self reliant, possessing more or less bravery; a good business man, and an excellent actor. He must be decisive, far seeing; a judge of human character, an accomplished liar, a suave talker; a man absolutely lacking in nerves though the epitome of nerviness; an expert in a hundred or more lines; something of a fatalist, an inveterate gambler, an inventive genius; a man with a wonderful imagination; far sighted, wary, subtle, creative; prepared to meet any unforseen emergency, dominating, and a scoundrel.

Few men possess all these qualities, and as as result, there are, thank Heavens, few successful smugglers, comparatively speaking. Of course many smugglers do not boast one-quarter of these numerous attributes and consequently they fail,

or abandon their chosen profession early in the game. And as men who have the qualities to make them successful smugglers can, or at least should, succeed in almost any walk of life, and with less risk and more honestly than by smuggling, there is many a good smuggler lost among the ranks of business and professional men and captains of industry.

Why, it may be asked, is it essential for the smuggler to be such a man of parts?

He must be intelligent to cope with intelligence. No stupid, ignorant man can hope to pit his brains against the customs officials or the secret agents of a government who are selected for their intelligence. And no man who is not intelligent can carry on a trade where so many factors are involved. He must have wide experience, a knowledge of transportation, of people, countries, laws, exchange, markets and a thousand and one matters which, to the ordinary mortal, are of no interest or vital importance. He must be quick witted, for oftentimes his freedom or even his life may depend upon an active brain, for emergencies no human being can foresee face the smuggler at every turn. Self reliance is of the utmost importance, for the smuggler, like every other crook, must rely upon himself,-or at most upon a few of his own kind. Bravery in some degree is essential, for smuggling always means risk and a coward, moreover, usually gives

himself away to an observant person. For this reason, too, he must be a good actor, a man who can assume a mask or another character, who can act the innocent, honest gentleman convincingly. He must be decisive, for often a hair-trigger decision means failure or success, profits or imprisonment. He must be far seeing to visualize not only his own actions and attitude under various conditions, but the actions of his enemies. A judge of human character in order to size up those with whom he deals, those whom he selects as confederates and those whose business it is to bring him to defeat. That he must be a good liar, one who can lie and yet lie as if telling the truth, goes without saying, while a smooth tongue, an engaging manner and an ability to converse on any and every subject often draws suspicion from him. If nervous he is lost, and nerviness and bluff go a long way. He must have an expert knowledge of the goods he handles, of the markets, prices, values, duties, laws, and of the means he selects for transportation, as well as in many other lines; a fatalist and a gambler, or his first few failures would discourage him. He must be imaginative in order to create situations, to make and lay plans, to devise new and ingenius means of evading the argus eyes of the officials: wary, subtle, taking alarm, being warned by little things, the least incident, matters that would escape the ordinary man, and he must be dominating

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BALTIMORE TOPSAIL SCHOONER-THE VIGILANT, ORIGINALLY THE NONESUCH This vessel, built at Baltimore during the middle of the Eighteenth Century, was in turn Smuggler, Privateer, Slaver and Pirate, and is still plying as a Packet Boat in the West Indies. At the right an Hermaphrodite Brig, a craft much used by Revenue Officers in chasing smugglers on our Atlantic Coast. (From a painting by the author.)

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