The Silk in Her Bustle: A Port Townsend Smuggling Arrest
A customs inspector grows suspicious of Mrs. M. E. Collins’s unusually pronounced bustle aboard the City of Kingston—and finds a bolt of contraband silk.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
PORT TOWNSEND, March 10.—[Special.]—Inspector Frank Loftus, on duty aboard the steamer City of Kingston, made a seizure today and also took the guilty party into custody. The prisoner is Mrs. M. E. Collins, of Victoria, more or less known all over the Sound, and her crime is that of smuggling in a bolt of fine silk. The officer knew that bustles had gone out of style some years ago, so when Mrs. Collins came up the gangplank of the Kingston this morning with an unusual development of that portion of her dress his suspicions were aroused. Careful inquiry developed something contraband, and a bolt of silk cloth was what it proved to be. When the vessel crossed the imaginary line in the straits and ran into American waters the smuggled goods and smuggler were both seized, one in fact and the other by arrest, and were upon arrival here taken to the customs house.
Mrs. Collins at one time conducted the Clarendon hotel in this city and some gay revels occurred during her management, notable among them being a ball given in honor of the “Spider and Fly” company. Wine flowed freely and a disgraceful session resulted, the sharp criticism of which nearly resulted in a duel between a well-known newspaper man and an officer of one of the Bering Sea patrol vessels, rendezvoused here at the time. That dance killed Mrs. Collins’ business and she departed soon after, leaving numerous mourning creditors.
At a hearing before United States Commissioner Culver the prisoner was held for trial in the sum of $500.
“The officer knew that bustles had gone out of style some years ago, so when Mrs. Collins came up the gangplank of the Kingston this morning with an unusual development of that portion of her dress his suspicions were aroused.”
Port Townsend was then a customs port and steamer gateway between Victoria and Puget Sound, making it a natural site for smuggling. The bustle—already passé—became the tell. Border enforcement and fashion have changed, but the cat-and-mouse between inspectors and travelers has not.
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