The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1879-12-24
Letter from sCIinch.'
AS TO THE REVENUE WORKERS.

AS TO THE REVENUE WORKERS..
LEE VALLEY, Tenn, Dec. 10, I'D.
To the Editor of the MOrristown Gazette:
As your faithful chronicler in these
ends of the earth, it becomes my duty
to pay my respects to the cdltdGt .eE-
treaaify of the ReUenue Department, (which
has for some time held reign of terror
over the Door people in this section,
and to acquaint the public with the
methods certain Deputy Q. 5. Marshals
and their stats of professional toatneases
have adopted to line their pockets Out
of the q. S. Treasury.
The victims generally picked up by
these harpies are the poorer and least In
formed class of renters, who raise few
plants of tobacco each year for their
own use, and who, with the liberality
common to poor people, will divide the
last pipe-full of tobacco with a neigh
Dor. These people are not able to pay
any cost, and the government becomes
paymaster for all the petty prosecutions.
HOW THEY ARE WORKED UP.
The cases are worked up thus: A
professional stool-pigeon witness will
| 20 about in the neighborhOod, in an in
| nocent kind of way, and is out OF tobac-
co of course, aud begs a little home
made from every one he thinks may
| have a twist or a hand; where he makes
| a raise he gets strangely liberal and in
sists on paying for it, then goes straight
| to a commissioner with his evidence;
a warrant is Immediately issued, and
! the deputy marshal zealnusly hurrles on
to do his duty, with his pet witness along
| for guard, and surprises the poor, lg-
norant. and honest mountaineer in his
/ off mr.
| more to a commissioner for prelimin-
| ary trial, or to take his bond to appear
at the Federal Court at Knoxville.
Some one may ask if there amt COM
missieners in each county to attend to
such matters? Of course there is, and
mArshals are instructed to take prison
ers before the nearest commissioner but
the 7piEsage is the main item in a mar
| shal's bill of costs, and the farther he
takes a prisoner the better it pays.
There is a commissioner in ROgersville
and one IN Hancock county, yet the
! deputy marshals operating about here
take their prisoners to Rutledge-tWice
or three times as far as necessary: Al 9
ssmpls of mQst of these tobacco cases,
| will give you one in fullI The victim Is
| a very poor man, and mentally 1mbeclie,
| named William Hicks, who raised 8
| small DAJCu Vi JODdCCO III AOSO3 OHS "a
deputy marshal Tom Jones regular wit,
nesses happened to be at Major W. W.
Willis one day and knew Of the Major
sending to HICKS for aome tobacco, and
saw the tobacco when it was brought
home. Major Willis tells me that Hicks
was not at home when he sent for the
tobacco, but that Mrs. Hicks sent him
some, and that pay was never named by
any of them, and that he has never paid
Hicks cent for it in cash or anything
else. Poor Hicks, however, was drag,
ged from his bed the other night and
marched off to Rutledge, barefoot, and
| a half dozen barefoot and hungry chill
dren crying after him. AS he has no;
vet returned home, and has no knowl
edge of what few rights belongs to him
| l presume he is now in Rutledge Jail, in
default of bail.
Of course, Iaost of those thinga are
done in the form of the y. s. Internal
Revenue law, but man of any human
feeling would exhaust every honorable
means of earning a living before he
would stoop to engage in such low per
secutions. CLNCH.