And Police Curiosity Unearths the Reason Tokyo, June 20.
"Curiosity" on the part of the Tokyo Police has led to the uncovering of an ingenious scheme to smug-Ble rice from the countryside into the city.
Japanese men and women who profess a sudden overwhelming love for the beauties of the countryside have of late been leaving the capital regularly for brief hikes to villages in the vicinity. These hikes, according to the police, turn out to be more than pleasure jaunts, however, for the hikers return with knapsacks full of rice.
This small scale smuggling directly contravenes regulations governing the transfer of rice from one prefecture to another. As a result, 56 "hikers" have been caught red-handed, each carrying a load of between 5 and 24 quarts of rice.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.