The Opelousas courier., 1894-05-26
A BUILDING.
A Customs Officers Discovery Near
the Mexican Border.

One of the most remarkable seizures
ever made by a customs officer in any
part of the country was recently
made by Mr.. T. G. Hannum, a special
inspector in the office of Special
Agent Wagstaff at Ell Paso, Tex. Mr.:
Hannum is an old Pittsburgh and
Washington newspaper man. MI.
Hannum was directed to go over into
Arizona and look into certain matters
indicated in a letter from the Treas
ury Department. But the knowledge
of it never came to the public till q
few evenings ago. when Mr.. Hannum's
enjoyment of the ludicrous overcame
ais modesty to such a degree that he
related the story to a trio OF friends
"Well, l got over to Nogaies," said
he, land transacted the business L
was sent to look after, and was pre-
pairing to leave without any dream
of becoming a marked mar in the
Government service. But one morn
ing a fellow came to me and remarked
in a most mysterious and confidential
way that he could put me onto
something OF course, in my inno-
cence I had no idea what he meant
unless he had some new and more
deadly method of mixing drinks: But
that interested me, and | kindly al
lowed him the use Of my ear. jerking
his thumb over his shoulder toward
the Custom House, he Kissed, Snug
gled.' AS he pointed exactly in
the direction of the Custom House,
I was surprised and shocked. Then
l thought hat in all probability he
was an EXCLUSIONS officer and wanted
to get even with his successor. But
on closer inquiry I found that he was
intending to point, not at the Custom
House, but at a brick s~torehouse be-
yond."
"What kind of goods do they
smuggle?" asked.
"'They don't snluggle goods he
theoretically declared, but the house
was smuggled.'
"To say that I was interested is
putting it mildly. l knew at oncet that
if he was not a most glorious liar
had a great SCOOP and went in to
examine the subject. The house he
pointed out was a long brick one and
situate a few doors from the Custom
House and in the same block. The
idea of a man smuggling a brick
house into this country. and that,
too, under the very nose of the GUS
toms collector, began to be very funny
to me, and I went at it with a great
deal of interest. | found that, as a
matter of fact, the owne of the house
had been doing business in Mexico,
which was some ten or fifteen feet
away, and that he had concluded to
move over under the waving folds of
"Old Glory He could not sell the
house at a profit, and did not care to
build another, so he simply tore it
down and moved the whole outfit,
goods and all, into the United States.
The goods went through the Custom
House all right, but the secondhand
house was carried over without no
tice.
"'Well, Iseized the house and put
it in the hands of a newly appointed
Inspector that had been discovered on
aranch, and who was not familiar with
the commercial terms. | told him to
take care of the house, but not to in.
terfere with the stock When he
came to report to me next morning
he said that the house vas still there,
but that he could't find any stock
except three ducks and two pigs in
the back yard"
After the laugh had gone round
the story-teller joining in with his
peculiar, open-mouthed, quiet smile
he added: "But | collected the
duty on a whole house, and that is al
my fellow-servants can accuse me Of
having done wrong in the way of work
that remunerates the Government
-[El Paso (Texas) Times.