The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-07-27
A C~OASTGUARD STORY.

A COASTGUARD STORY.
One November evening last year
found me, an elderly London lawyer,
standing at the end of one of the two
long piers which form the entrance TO
an important packet port on the south
coast. While / was peering intcntly
into the darkness q man came up and
stood beside me and looked out to sea.
At the same instant one of those sudden
squalls which are so common ut that
tim of year came racing past us, and
the binding rain beat upon our faces.
"Iou had better come into our watch
house for Il bit, sir" said my friend
sits close by. I'm n Custom-house
officer" And walking rapidly on he
brought me to a neat-looking small
house, built just where the pier began
to branch off from the harbor into the
sea. Opening the door he showed me
into a good-sized room lighted with gas,
and with Il capital fire blazing in the
CRATE. On benches round the fire were
three or four men dressed in uniform
like my friend, and in n bed-berth hard
by another man was snoring away in
happy peacefulness, recruiting himself
for his turn of night duty.
"a fine night for smuggling, / should
fancyP" suggested.
"Well, sir, in old times it would have
been," said one "but there's no snug
Cling nowadays to speak of-just a
little trumpery bit of baccy now and
then, hardly worth taking-is there,
Frank" addressing the man opposite.
Frank, with infinite disgust, agreed
to this.
"YOu see, SIR" he went on to me,
"these Liberals go on cutting down the
tariff so that there's nothing left how
just cigars and spirits, and so on. Not
but what the ladies do their little bits of
smuggling still, and dearly they love it,
too. Why, sir, to this day they're Won
derful clever in concealing lace and
French gloves, although there's been
no duty on them for years. We often,
when we're examining the ladies'
trunks, find two or three pair of gloves
in an old boot, or some lace, perhaps
scwed up inside a petticoat. We never
says nothing, and they go home and tell
their friends how clever they've been
and done the Custom-house."
"Still," said another man, who had
been silent until now, 1--WE do a bit of
business now and then. Last year, sir,
twelve casks of pitch came over in one
of our steamers with q heap of other
goods. They pour the pitch hot into
the casks, and when it cools it's as hard
as stone almost. Well, there was nc
examining this pitch except you took q
pickax and broke lthe whole cask up,
But the Collector invented a kind OF
auger that, with a little oil, went right
through the pitch in no time. We tried
these said casks with this, and in the
center of every one of them was a tir
case with thirty pounds of good cigar.
in it-three hundredweight altogethe,
a very pretty haul for u.s."
"That was better than your drawing
room furniture, jack" said a youns
ofiicert to one much older, who sat on ,
bench near me-.
"Never mind that" growled the ole
nan.
"What is thatp" said I.
swell, sir, t'srather hard upon Jacl
there to tell it; but you see, sir, he wa
at a large port in the North, and a gen
tleman comes down to the Office ant
says that he was expecting what h,
called a sweet of drawing-room furni
ture-beautiful walnut wood he said
'and all for a wedding present for hi
sister, who was going to get married
Would they take great care of itp He,
be so much obliged, and any expense
They told him they'd look after it, bu
they weren't allowed to take any thing
The next steamer, sure enough, the ful
niture came, and a lovely set it was =
such couches and easy chairs and sofys
Well, sir, our men took the creates
care of it, and saw it all packed safel
in the railway truck and sent away, an
we shouldn't have heard any thin
more about it, only, at one of ther
large railway functions where luggap
trains often have to wait for a Ion
tim there was a policeman who
served his time to a cabinet-maker, an
he got wind of this furniture, and mu.
get a look at il TO see what sort of wor
them foreigners turned out. So he &c
to the truck and took up a bit of tarpal
lin and examined the couch, whic
happened to be at the top. 'Prett
work. said to himself; 'but, my wor,
what a scat! they do stuff well ov,
there. It's a queer feel, though; l VOL
der what they stuifs WITH Well, 81
his curiosity got over him, and he lool
out to see II any one was coming, wifi
out his knife, and cuts a little slit whel
it wouldn't be seen, and pulls out,
his great wonder, baccy! Every bit
1t was brimful of excellent baccy. 1
they seized the whole lot; but, lol
what a wipe 1t was for our men-Ja,
there, and his matesl"