El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-20
E Mrs. MCCfure'S Stove g
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

DreauWlnueE Oh Il ldmliy III WHICH, INV
were several mouths to fill.
The family had remained in the east
when Tim started for Mexico in search
Of employment, but now that his AFFINITY
and faithfuness had been rewarded by
rapid promotion from fireman to engineer
and thence to foreman of the roundhouse
he was receiving a monthly stipend that
would enable him to establish his house
hold goods in Paso del NOrte. So lin
sent for his family.
They arrived in due course OF time, ana
Tim proudly headed the procession that
wended it's way from the depot to the
adobe house he had prepared for its dom
iciIiation He had furnished the house as
luxuriousIy and artistically as his purse
and taste would permit, but ne had been
able to accomplish but little, If viewed
from the standpoint of the average Amer
lean woman, and Mrs. Mcclure was one
of these.
Her disappointment was keen, never
theless she made a brave effort to stIfie
her feelings and succeeded fairly we'll IN
doing so until in her inspection of the
premises she arrived in the kitchen. There
the tiny sheet iron camp stove and the
meager array of culinary vessels that net
her view caused her utter collapse.
'Oh, Tim, Tim she gasped, chow ever
will 1 get enough cooked for the children
on that-that tOy!
1T isn't much of a stove" Tim admit
ted. stroking his chin ruefully, but it is
the best that money would buy in Paso
del NOrte. You know, my dear, cooking
stoves are little used in Mexico.
"Well. why on earth did you not order
one sent out from st. LOUISE reJoined
Mrs. Mcclure
.'Such a stove as you are accustomed
to would cost 500 to put it in the house"
i AIr.c
Clure contemptuously. ''Why, Tim, you
can get an elegant stove and all it's furni
ture for only $50"
I'm St Louis, but not here" replied
Tim. But say the stove, laid down IL
Ell Paso, Tex, just across the river.
would cost not more than $40, 1T woulI
cost $50 more to get it brought over
here"
What gasped Mrs. Mcclure. Sixty
dollars to move a stove one mile! Tim
Mcclure, have you lost your senses!
mo, my dear, not quite, l hope" Tim
replied humbly. But you do not seem
to know that an import duty must be
paid on everything brought into Mexico,
and on stoves the rate is about 100 per
cent of their value
1t required a lengthy explanation of
the tariff question and his most solemn
assurances to persuade her that he was
not testing.
"Why, Tim she exclaimed when he
had finished, ''it's an outrage, and no
better than highway robbery! Can't we
have the stove hauled across the river
some night and the customs officers know
nothing about it? 1t seems to me that
we could, and we don't care whether the
government of Mexico has any money or
not
1t was not a sense of the moral wrong
of smuggling that caused Tim to hesitate,
for he was novice in the art of clan
destinely introducing articles Of mer-
chandise into the cactus republic, but he
knew that the entire frontier was pa
troIled night and day by a numerous and
vigilant customs guard, past whom it
would be all but impossible to smuggle
10 cumbersome thing stove.
He finally hit upon the plan of taking
the stove apart and lowering it, piece by
piece, into the tank of eel Buey," the
sturdy switch engine, on some occasion
when it would be on the Texas side of
mansions of the stove Mrs. Mcclure
wanted, he found that the larger parts
would not pass in at the manhole.
He would have given up in despair had
not his better half kept the subject fresh
In his mind, not only with words, but
with the poor quality of the meals she
set before him as well.
AS d last resort, he decided TO confer
with some of his friends-those most
adept at eluding the vigilance of the GUS
toms guard. At his request the men he
selected gathered in his office one morn
ing and conference that lasted an hour
or more followed. Every face was smil-
ingly confident when it was concluded
The schemell win, Tim, never fear"
cried one of the party. The guards
thinl; they're getting mighty smart, and
+I,r-,-
all the old tricks, but they'll never sus-
pect this one. just make bold play and
bring over the stove in broad daylight
right under their noses, and they'll never
see it"
The stove was at once ordered. and
when it arrived in Ell Paso the car in
which it came was switched, at Tins re-
quest, to the connecting track, there to
await the unloading of the stove. Along
in the afternoon of that day the switch
engine, with Tim standing on the for
ward foOtboard, went scurrying across
the river. 1t was gone but short time,
and when il returned it was observed by
those of the railroaders who We're idling
about the yard that there was something
queer in its appearance.
Standing on the truck platform of the
engine, just in front of the boiler, was a
dark object that seemed to be a part of
the engine. Within it a fire was burning
hercely, and from its slender pipe, which
passed up along the engines smokestack,
a roll of black smoke was pouring out
and mingling with that of the engine, to
all appearances emanating from a single
chimney.
When the engine had reached the Gus
tom house track, it came to a standstill.
and the guards. who were always swarm.
ing at that point, gravely and somewhat
examined it for articles of
a dutiable character. They discovered
nothing, in spite of the united smoker of
the Americans who witnessed the scene,
and the engine was allowed to proceed to
the rOundhouSe, where it was received