Smuggling even the simplest items is fraught with dangers. Here we learn the lessons of preparation and trusting those in the planning process.

Moral: Never trust a stranger or madman.

“A story is told of a lady who tried to smuggle a clock across the Canada border. She gave the clockseller particular directions to fix the alarm apparatus so that it would not strike; but the Cannuck, being somewhat of a wag, set the alarm to make it strike at the moment he knew the lady would arrive at the Custom-house.
“The lady fastened the timepiece securely to her hoops and started on her homeward journey. Arriving at the Custom-house the officer found nothing contraband among her effects, and was passing to the next traveller when a loud wh-r-r-r was heard under the lady’s skirts. The strange noise was kept up for the full space of a minute; but to the lady it seemed an hour, and she became tremulous and excited.

“The Custom-house officer, not daring to lay hands on the woman ‘save in the way of kindness’, obtained an iron rod, with which he felt around the crinoline for the concealed clock, and succeeded in bringing it down.”

Kentish Chronicle – Saturday 16 September 1865