The Hickman courier., 1876-07-28
ESTABLISHED 1859.

Mr.. Dawson, said the collector,
"they'vc run those tubs right under
your nose"
Mr.. Dawson came to hear Mr.. Joe
Childer's story he turned as white as a
sheet and was fit to drop.
Well, great hue and cry was made,
and the men were traced ever so far, but
it was no go. They'd got the tubs into
some place of safety, and neither our
men nor the coast guard ever got one of
them"
"But how ON earth was it done ?"
said I.
at came out some time afterwards,
through friend of mine getting
acquainted with one of the men.
The whole affair was arranged by
very clever chap. He heard we
and the coastguard had been warned and
were on the lookout, so he determined
to run the tubs right into the harbor.
Fpm the stern of the gig of the barque
! Either, OF Newcastle, which he had
sesrellcd 20 thoroughly, stout cord was
Ned below the watermark. When the
boat got to the landing far across the
habor and out of sight and sound of us,
iorty men who had come into the town
iIom different diret tions, and at differ, mt
times, came quietly down to the land
ing The cord hanging from the boats
stern after time brought up a stoutish
rope, and this was followed by a stouter
stu. Upon this the men hauled silent
ly but steadily, and the forty tubs of best
French Brandy, which had been sunk
Just outside the harbor, were pulled in
between the piers, under our very noses,
and taken away into the country"
All, sir, there was the funny thing.
That very night, by curious coinci-
dence, the police, two in number, from
information received. went off TO watch
house on the outskirts of the town,
Which was TO have been broken into that
night. The odd thing was that there
was no attempt 10 break into the house
at all. 1t was funny-wasn't it sir %
Talking about the coastguard, they
get done, too sometimes - said another
man. 81 | well remember, on the Kentish
coast, some years ago, there had been
many tries to run goods, but cOastguard
were all SO sharp there was no doing any
business at all. My brother-in-law, Jem
Mason, was chief boatman on that
station, and one hot summers day he
was on the lookout with his glass,
when he saw boat coming towards the
shore from smack which was stand
ing off and on good bit away. When
the boat got within a short distance of
the land, it turned sharp to the right,
and began pulling along the shore, and
at the same time n man took his hat off
and held it over the name on the stern,
so that YOU couldn't read it with a glass
from the land. When Jem saw this he
clapPed his glass together, ran to the
station, got two of his men to Join him.
and they began following the boat along
the cliffs as hard rs they could go. Well,
ar, II Is the very nastiest coast you ever
saw, high cliffs and valleys between, and
it was up one hill and down another, and
up another, until when the boat turned
into a sandy bay, about seven miles from
the station, Jem and his mates had
hardly strength left to 60 down and meet
il. However, by taking a couple OF
minutess breathing time, they did just
manage to get down to the beach as the
boats keel touched the sand. When the
men saw them they made an attempt to
back her off, but Jem had hold of her,
and they found it was no go. Jcm felt
well rewarded for all he had gone
through when ne found three nice little
brandy-tubs lying at the bottom of the
boat. 80 he takes all four men into
custody, and nicely they grumbled and
growled over their illluck, and cursed
Jem's sharp eyes, and 20 on. The next
thing was to get them all TO the station,
but when Jem proposed that they should
bear hand with the tubs, devil bit
would they. "No,' says they, hing it
all, they're your property now. and we
haven't nothing more to do with them"
So at last, Jem having made them give
him their word that they wouldn't run
away-and little use would it have been
for they were all well known to him-he
and his two mates were obliged to hoist
the tubs up on their shoulders and carry
them to the station themselves. The
tubs held about six gallons apiece, and
were no light weight to carry seven
miles on binding hot summers after
noon.
Well, sir, Jem says he doesn't know
to this day how he got over them seven
miles, but at last, dead beat, they did
just manage to crawl up to the station
and get those blessed tubs off their
shoulders at last. 1t was only the
thought of the share that would be COM
ing to them of this seizure that pre-
vented them from breaking down alto
gether before they got home.
AS soon as they recovered themselves
little bit they set to work to draw the
bungs and measure the stuff 1t turned
out excellent quality, but not so strong
as they hoped, for all three tubs was full
up to the bung with salt water; and
these three coastguardsmen had carried
these fine samples of old ocean for seven
miles along those awful cliffs.
"As soon as the bold smugglers had
seen how. well their trick had answered
they makes each of them as fine bow
as French dancing master and walks off. y
HOWJETTIES IRE MIDE
From the Washington Chronicle.
The workman empleyd by captain
Eads on the Mississippi river cities
!