notice to cabin passengers, February 23, 1875

notice to cabin passengers.

The baggage of passengers will be landed upon the steamship wharf as soon as practicable after vessel is docked. But before any baggage is delivered each passenger will be required to make, under oath, an entry of his or her baggage, and a separate entry, also under oath, of all articles contained in his or her baggage which, by United States laws, are subject to duty, and to pay such duty, if any.

The blank forms of the entries to be made will (if practicable) be furnished to each passenger after the vessel leaves quarantine by the customs officers, who will also give the passenger all necessary information relative thereto. In case no customs officers come on hoard at quarantine, the forms of entries will he furnished when the vessel arrives at her wharf.

The senior member of a family coining together, if sufficiently acquainted with the contents of the baggage of the whole party to make a sworn statement of the same, may be allowed to include all such baggage in one entry.

Whenever any trunk or package brought by a passenger as baggage contains articles subject to duty, and the value thereof exceeds $500, or if the quantity or variety of the dutiable articles is such that a proper examination, classification, or appraisement thereof cannot be made at the vessel, the trunk or package will be sent to the public store for appraisement.

The attention of passengers is directed to the following laws of the United States, and the regulations of the Treasury Department, relative to the importation and entry of baggage:

Section 2505. The importation of the following articles shall be exempt from duty:

* * * Wearing apparel in actual use, and other personal effects (not merchandise), professional books, implements, instruments, and tools of trade, occupation, or employment of persons arriving in the United States. * * *—(Revised Statutes of the United States.)

Section 2799. In order to ascertain what articles ought to be exempted as the wearing apparel, and other personal baggage, and the tools or implements of a mechanical trade only, of persons who arrive in the United States, due entry thereof, as of other merchandise, but separate and distinct from that of any other merchandise, imported from a foreign port, shall be made with the collector of the district in which the articles are intended to be landed by the owner thereof, or his agent, expressing the persons by whom or for whom such entry is made, and particularizing the several packages and their contents, with their marks and numbers; and the persons who shall make the entry shall take and subscribe an oath before the collector, declaring that the entry subscribed by him, and to which the oath is annexed, contains, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a just and true account of the contents of the several packages mentioned in the entry, specifying the name of the vessel, of her master, and of the port from which she has arrived; and that such packages contain no merchandise whatever other than wearing apparel, personal baggage, or as the case may be, tools of trade, specifying it; that they are all the property of a person named who has arrived, or is shortly expected to arrive in the United States, and are not, directly or indirectly, imported for any other, or intended for sale.—(Revised Statutes of the United States.)

Section 2802. Whenever any article subject to duty is found in the baggage of any person arriving within the United States, which was not, at the time of making entry for such baggage, mentioned to the collector before whom such entry was made, by the person making entry, such article shall be forfeited, and the person in whose baggage it is found shall be liable to a penalty of treble the value of such article.—(Revised Statutes of the United States.)

• Article 399. “Professional books, implements, and tools of trade, occupation, or employment,” are understood to embrace such books or instruments as would naturally belong to a surgeon, physician, engineer, or scientific person returning to this country. * * * —(Customs Regulations, 1874, p. 192.)
• Article 400. Jewelry that has been worn or is in use as a personal ornament may be admitted free of duty. * * * —(Customs Regulations, 1874, p. 192.)

Duty must be demanded on all watches but one brought into the United States by a single passenger. If all the watches are old, the passenger may choose the one to be treated as personal effects. If some are old and some new, the new are to be included among those treated as subject to duty.—(Synopsis of Decisions, 1868 (170), p. 52.)

* * * So far as wearing apparel is concerned, only those articles which have been in actual use are exempted from duty. * * * New articles of clothing which have not been in actual use abroad, and not necessary for the present comfort or convenience of the owner, are chargeable with duty; and the fact that they are intended for the future use of the person who brings them, or of another person, and are not for sale does not exempt them from duty.

Tourists and passengers are, therefore, cautioned to preserve the proper care, when arriving with articles claimed to be free as personal effects, in making a separate statement of their effects which have been in actual use abroad from those which are new, in order that the customs officers may readily decide what portions are liable to or exempt from duty.—(Department Circular, dated February 23, 1875.)