Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-02-03
CHAPTER l
When Eranee,ine Come Home

smuggling. Its thousand avenues are
now here, now there.
The Red lane crossed the border at
Beaulieus Place this night.
The Lane was blatantly open. They
who came along IL were unabashed,
unafraid.
Great wains rumbled and creaked on
the hard clay road which led through
Monarda clearing. Transfers shouted
at straining horses and beloved their
songs. From cast to west the pro-
cession moved-from Canada into the
States.
The plot had been ripened carefully,
the word had gone out to the SNUG
glers, the seasons killing was on in
earnest.
There were potatoes, there were oats
and general produce OF farms-com-
modities cheap on one side of the
line, but made valuable by the magic
of passing an iron monument set in
a granite block at the side of a wood
land highway. The iron post marked
where free trade ended and the tariff
began. 1t might be said to mark the
tomb where Reciprocity was buried!
1t was the boundary post.
Droves of cattle shufiied along the
clay road in the gloom. Sheep and
horses came. too.
Given 500 miles of frontier III Gus
toms district-woods and water at the
edge of things-and deputies cannot
frustrate all the tricks Of the
smugglers.
Deputies are few and scattered. The
smugglers are many and persistent.
And their stratagems are many, too.
About once in so often the great coup
lis executed-the Red Lane is thrown
wide. No lawbreaker is furtive and
fearful that night
This night it monopolized the high
way through Monarda clearing past
Beaulieu's Place.
The deputies had herded and run
north. chasing rumor. They had been
carefully fooled. The smugglers are
GOOD for at least two new ruses in
season. And when it was certain that
the deputies were chasing the false
scent in the north, then promptly
along the clay road of Monarda was
the Red Lane opened, and the oats,
the potatoes, the sheep, the cattle, the
boxes of this and the barrels OF that
which the smugglers had been hiding
at points of vantage for weeks all
came across in gay and noisy pro-
cession.
Beaulieu's Place is an institution Oh
the border as well as the Red Lane,
for the Monarda road is a thorough
fare which unites populous sections.
One of the popular "Come-all-ye'
songs Of the border celebrates Beau
lieu's Place. Men who ride high on
the jogging seats of the great wains
: bawl it Justify and with a zest of dec
laration which indicates that its SEN
tinients are approved
Come afl ys teamster lads SO bold oh, couis
wan Whoa the nags at Beaulisus Place
where the morson flows so free.
do not care damn
work for Uncle Sam.
Red Lane.
Red Lane
that's the road for me.
And not one cent OF duty
For the country Of the free.
Beaulieu's broad door of planks was
wide open. The light of smoky lamps
sp!ashed upon the gloom at door and
dingy windows.
Teams halted in the broad yard and,
while the sweating horses puffed, the
drivers fiocked in noisy comradeship
in the big, low room where Vetal Beau
lieu sold to all who were thirsty.
Men who were not teamsters were
there. There were woodsmen who
were spending their money in pro-
longed debauch. Little knots of them
chung together, wavering on unsteady
feet, wailing hoarse choruses.
One group was prosecuting Jump
era French Canadian who leaped
and screamed and failed his arms
about him whenever a tormentor
yelled sharp command TO "Strike."
When the Jumper" drove his fist
against some unwary mans face, great
laughter convulsed the bystanders.
Tobacco smoke in whorls and strata
drifted above the heads Of the men.
Only one man in the room was
silent, sober, saturnine. This was
Vetal Beaulieu, sturdy little publican
with bowed legs, crisp, grizzled beard
masking all his lower face. His hard
eyes took all in. His hand, dripping
with liquors, stuffed bills and coins
into his trouser pockets.
There were crackers on plates upon
q huge truck or table on wheels. This
was in the center OF the big room.
There was cheese on plates. There
were many bottles and few jugs on
the wheeled table. Whisky in queerly
blown glass bottles which resembled
dumb-bells. gin in high-shouldered bot
ties, rum in tall, goose-necked bottles
which were labeled "Vieux Rhum." :"
There were decanters, glasses. and the
impedimenta OF a bar. all disposed on
the wheeled table, or truck.
The truck was astride line done in
dingy paint. The big room was bi.
sected by that line.
One end of the room was decorated
with English flags which surrounded
o chrome of the ruling British SOW
ereign.
nh - .th.y .na ,f fha raou disnlaved