Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1910 — BRUTAL CUSTOMS MEN. [ARTICLE]

BRUTAL CUSTOMS MEN.

What Happened to a British Sailor Who Went Ashore at Batonm, . Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, at a dinner In New York, defended the customs officials of the port, says The hjew York Tribune. “These Intelligent young men,” he said, "In a difficult position conduct themselves adroitly. The stories are false that make them out to be brutal and indelicate. If it were Turkey now! “In the days before Batoum fell to Russia,” he resumed, “a sailor on an English ship lying In Batoum harbor went ashore and bought himself a pair of trousers. He put the trousers on. His old ones were quite worn out, and he told the dealer to throw them away. Then he started forth into the street proudly. “Soon he met a group of customs officials. They stopped him, and their chief said: “ Those are new trousers you’ve got on?’ “ ‘Yes,’ said the sailor, ‘I just bought them.’ “ ‘Then,’ said the customs chief, ‘you must pay duty on them.’ “ ‘But I’ve got no money left,’ said the sailor. And this was true. His last copper had gone to pay the shopman’s bill. “ ‘No money?’ said the chief. ‘That’B very bad for you, then. You’ll have to leave the trousers with us in that case.’ “ ‘But I’ve got nothing under them,’ objected the sailor. “ ‘Never mind; we won’t look,’ and the chief and his men all repeated that there was no sea would none of them look. “ ‘But other people may look!’ shouted the desperate sailor. “The officials shrugged their shoulders. “ ‘That,’ they said, ‘is no concern of ours.’ “And so the poor sailor was forced, willy nilly, to leave his new purchase behind, and to gallop to his ship as best he could, making up In speed what he lacked" in drapery.”