The Smuggler

Streetartfestival Exomusée

”Le Locle has the particularity of being a border town, and this border is formed by the river, the Doubs, which meanders between the cliffs and the forest. In the 17th century, smuggling developed widely there, to escape taxes on various products such as salt, sugar, coffee, tobacco, tissues (lace and fabrics), hunting powder, matches, playing cards and of course gold watches. All this passed under the fir trees... At the time, this constituted a means of subsistence to improve the daily life of a large part of the population condemned to misery and precariousness.

To avoid customs officers, smugglers used trained dogs as carriers of goods. The dog was taken to an accomplice, on the other side of the border. There it was kept a day or two without food; then goods were tied around its neck and around its body, and it was released in the middle of the night. The animal, hungry, hastened to cross the border to return to its master. The dogs were provided with collars, even small saddles, bristling with prickles so that the customs officers could not seize them.”

Source: IG Jussi TwoSeven