Smuggling Across the Border
A new team of customs officials is struggling to curb the flow of undocumented Chinese laborers entering the U.S. through the northern boundary, as local agitators reportedly run wild.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The change of the entire force of customs officers in this district and the appointment of men who must learn the ins and outs of the business, is being made the most of by smugglers. It is common talk among railroad employees that more Chinese than ever are being brought into the country, and scarcely a day passes but that one or more of these green celestials find their way southward from the boundary. Only a few days ago, the railroad men say, a gang of ten green Chinese came down from Sumas to various points along the line. Reports from the boundary are that 'Cowboy Terry' is running things there with a high hand. He plays the deadlier racket, terrorizes people, orders drinks in the saloons and refuses to pay, besides raising Cain generally. He makes no secret of his crooked work, and tells the inspectors they will get along all right if they do not meddle with him.
“Reports from the boundary are that 'Cowboy Terry' is running things there with a high hand.”
This report from 1893 reflects the intense anti-Chinese sentiment and border enforcement anxieties of the era, which followed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Today, the conversation around the U.S.-Canada border remains a flashpoint, though the focus has shifted from the targeted racial expulsion of the late 19th century to modern debates on international asylum and border security.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.