Insult

One wet day the good ship President Madison steamed into the port of Yokohama. Americans were aboard, and a customs officer thought it his plain and insulting duty to breathe a little anti-exclusion spirit into his work. He examined the freeborn citizens of the U. S. for all the 60 seconds of the 60 minutes of an hour, forcing them, among other things, to stand on a wet wooden platform in their bare feet.

The result was that the aforesaid freeborn American citizens sneezed a complaint to the U. S. Consul at Yokohama. Later, the Japanese Director of Customs apologized to the Consul for the discourteous treatment accorded to the Americans by the customs officer and stated that he would remove him from his post.