Kilties must pipe up duty on uniforms
Friday, 15 January 2010 00:00
Clippings from the newspapers of January 15, 1904.
Toronto Mail and Empire. A Canadian highland pipe band on an American tour faces U.S. import duties of $600 on its new “gorgeous” uniforms instead of just $1.50 for a temporary permit. The band, known as the Kilties, donned its new uniforms, imported from Glasgow, at Sault Saint Marie. They paid a duty of $47 upon entering the United States. U.S. Customs authorities claim the uniforms were under-valued and want to collect $600. “Had they known it, the Kilties could have paid an export fee of $1.50 and had the use of these uniforms for six months, under the law regulating foreign troupes playing in America. Now it will cost them $600 and an appeal to Washington.”
London Advertiser. “Notorious eloper and alleged thief” Henry Herbert Pigott, and Charlotte Bryan have been captured “after a long chase on dogsleds through a wild, mountainous country” near Princeton, B.C. Pigott caused a sensation in 1901 when he eloped with Bryan, his wife’s niece, together allegedly stolen securities worth more than $500,000. Piggott bargained for his liberty in exchange for the securities, but was turned over to the police, and detectives found the papers.
Toronto Globe. A Hamilton jury, after investigating the escape of a “desperado,” recommends that the jail gates “be placed in proper order.” Other recommendations include appointment of a night watchman, storing tools so that they can’t be used in escape attempts, and not piling firewood in the jail courtyard.
Peterborough Daily Review.Of 10,690 samples of western Ontario cream tested for purity, 9,020 were found tainted, according to a report released at a conference of dairy producers. “The taint was largely due to careless or ignorant handling of the cream,” says the Daily Review.
Halifax Herald.Britain’s Prince Arthur of Connaught and his companions “will travel incognito across Canada” for more than two months. “The prince is quite a young man and does not care for public functions.”
Toronto Star. “Several prominent” New Yorkers are petitioning Washington, seeking to retain possession of smuggled furs if they pay the import duties. The furs were purchased from a Montreal fur house, which undertook to deliver the furs free of delivery charges and import duties.
Montreal Star.Mrs. Joseph Herrie, St. Paul, Minnesota, thinks that an aged hermit found by hunters in the woods near Hull, Quebec is her 74-year-old husband, missing for 14 years. Mr. Herrie left San Francisco in 1890 to arrange a return of their family to St. Paul, but never arrived there. Mrs. Hurrie thinks her husband became insane and wandered about until he wound up in the Quebec wilderness.
Winnipeg Free Press. “There is quite a bit of sickness in this locality at present,” notes a report from the village of Starbuck. “Nils Brindleson lost his second son Jan. 3 from pneumonia; C. Anderson, the painter, is in St. Boniface with the same ailment and also C. Brindleson . It looks like an epidemic, as all these cases started in the section house here.”