Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1899 — She Smuggled the Coffee. [ARTICLE]

She Smuggled the Coffee.

A woman who has just returned from the continent brought home with her some pounds of delicious coffee, whieh she came across in Paris, the like of which she had never drunk before. On the way over she made up hei mind that she wouldn’t pay duty on it, for she felt that no really patriotic English woman can conscientiously pay a tax on coffee, so she made herself a petticoat, and into the lining tbe-eof she quilted the coffee. When the steamer left Calais she put on the garment. To wear it was martyrdom. It seemed to weigh a ton. but she passed the customs house officers successfully, and in a congratulatory mood got into the train for Victoria. Her husband met her at the station. He marked her pale, worn look. As they stepped into a cab she told him the story. “I wasn’t going to let them get the better of me,” she said proudly. “Wasn’t it a lovely idea?” Her husband fell back on the seat and roared. "Lovely!” he said. “Lovely! I should say it was. Why. my dear, there isn’t any duty on coffee.”—Pearson’s Weekly.