The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-02
MOUNTAIN STILLS.

MOUNIA1N SIILLSs
How Whisky is Manufactured In the Noun
tain Regions of Georgia-Habits of the
Illicit Distillers-vast Extent of the
Crooked Business.
ATLANTA (Ga.) Cor New York Herald.l
/ doubt if any section was ever SO thor
oughly infested with Illicit dealers as is
the mountainous region running through
North Georgia and the western end of
both the Carolinas at the present time.
Italy, in the palmiest days of brigand-
age, never had one-half as many men
who were defying justice. They haunt
every hillside during the night time, and
people the friendly shadows of every
vale during the day. They have regular
camps, with sentinels thrown out to halt
all passers-by and throttle the revenue
spies. The mountains are filed with
caves and "burrows," in which the
wretched men hide when pursuit be-
comes too hot and the pursuers are of
overwhelming strength. 1t is impossi-
BILE to calculate as to the number of these
illicit distillers; there are thousands of
them; they swarm amid the almost i'm
penetrable Businesses of the Blue Ridge
chain of mountains in countless bands
Beyond the reach of railroads, away be-
yond even the desultory stretch of "the
wagon roads, where they can be reached
by horsemen or pedestrians only through
certain hidden paths, they plant their
primitive "stills" in natural or artificial
snuggeries," and soon have crooked
whisky gushing from every rock. They
live as wild and restless life as the trap
pers of the Upper Rocky mountains.
/ al og
good hunters. A more athletic, hardy
and self-reliant people can be found no
where. The mountains abound with
game of all sorts, even up to bear and
panthers. The distillers are about the
only inhabitants of these inaccessible
parts, and hold them inviolate by a sort
of Alexander Selkirk title.
Occasional parties of hunters from the
cities stray into these mountains, and as
soon as they make it perfectly clear that
they are in no wise connected with the
revenue service, are received with most
cordial hospitality. Guides are furnished
them and the best game haunts are free
ly pointed out They are handsomely
entertained by the outlaws, and are re-
galed with what is peculiarly exilar-
ating to Southerner-namely, home
made rye whisky that was distilled in a
mountain cleft, under the winking stars,
and has never been debased by one OF
Uncle Sans revenue stamps. But n
man who looks like u revenue informer,
or has not clear titles to being a'"good,
square man, had better not venture into
this wilderness. Our brawny rustics feel
no more hesitation i'll Z" shocking" "A rev.
enue informer or any man who looks like
one than you would have in kicking q
little pebble from your path. They are
law unto themselves up there, Not
long since the State Geologist, with q
force of some ten men, carried in three
wagons, struck one of these mountain
'nests, and, without suspecting that his
labors were being carefully spied upon
from behind every bush, went quietly TO
work. The distillers stood it for some
time, and then coming out in some
force they notified the astonished scientist
: that he must get up and travel. After
, some argument he succeeded in convinc-
ing them of his thoroughly pacific de-
signs, and was then not only permitted
to proceed, but was almost overwhelmed
with various sorts of crooks" that the
3 simple-hearted mountaineers would bring
to his camp.
Some idea of the extent of one of these
"squads" may be had when we state
. that the revenue officers, with a com.
a pany of troops to back them, frequently
/. destroy from forty to fifty stills and from
1 10000 to 10000 gallons of crooked
, whisky, besides capturing anywhere from
l twenty to eighty distillers at one single
: raid. The great bulk of illicit distillina
a is done, however, in much quieter anC
a more unobtrusive way than this In the
, vast area of the section of the three States
u referred to, the settlement is very sparse
b. and the people as class exceedingly
e poor. The enormous profit of distilling
s without the ceremony of stamp" hal
!, tempted great numbers of these squali(
e people to engage in the business. As
a consequence there are little stills, tucked
d away snugly under the overhangin,
e banks of nearly every creek or branch
IS Hundreds of families have their worm a
IS work somewhere, the wife or daughte
|, usually stationed on some adjacent hill
q top to announce by a boot or whistle tn
). coming of strangers, and the father man
= aging the "still with his rifle throw
into the bend of his arm ready to max
it "speak to any newcomer this side O
blue coat The whisky thus made j
D.. carefully packed away in old-fashione
- - wagons, frequently being hidden under
. load of chickens and eggs, and carted OF
% to neighboring town or to the city c
= Atlanta, where it is quietly and surrepti
- tiously sold.