St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-11
ILLICIT WHISKY.
How the Government Officials
Find 1t in Cities.


Four men walking quietly along a
street in South Brooklyn in the early
morning a short time since attracted the
| attention of a reporter who was passing,
| says the Brook Ign Standard Union. All
| of them seemed to be afflicted with the
| sniffleS, as every HOW and again they
stopped and shifted the morning air in a
vigorous manner.
The reporter recognized them as we'll
known agents of Uncle Sam, and in
qulred of them the reason that induced
| them to draw into their lungs more than
| the necessary amount of material morn
ing air.
They winked knowingly and replied,
wait and see," The reporter followed
them on their smelling tour for some
time, when the m0nOtOny of the proceed
ings was varied by one of the men eX-
claiming, Look, there it's" at the same
! time pointing at an oddly constructed
| pipe that ran out Of hOusetop near by.
| A few minutes later the officers had
| quitely descended upon the place. bat
| tered in the doors, arrested a half-dOZen
men and were i'll possession of costly
Illicit distillery. 1t was the OdOr of the
steWing liquid that the officers had fol-
lowed and located.
Then followed the grand destruction
of hOgsheadS of mOlaSSeS and of liquor,
which was turned into gutter and al
lowed to run in sewer, to the horror Of
neighboring residents, who sighed at the
thought of many good drinks that were
gone forever.
The reason of the destruction of this
material is that the government finds it
does not pay to remove it. The expense
is more than can be realized by the sale.
The molasses used in these illicit dis
tilleries is the waste that is gathered out
of the bottoms Of vessels that carry the
stuff. 1t is mixed with bilge water and
dirt, but it makes Just as good liquor
as high-priced mOlaSSeS would. 1t is
lators, who pump it out of the vessels,
dirt, water and all, and barrel it for the
use of the men who defy the law and
take the risk of Imprisonment by manu-
featuring liquor without license.
''How do we find these places out?"
said one of the officers to the reporter
in response to query. Usually through
women. Most of those places are run by
IriShmen, and sometimes the men diSa-
gree with their wives and beat them
That angerS the women, who, out of a
sheer desire for revenge, come to us and
betray their husbands. Often it is the
$50 reward, however, that brings about
the discovery of these places. A man
at work in them becomes hard up and
he knows by giving information he can
get $50. So he seeks out an officer and
puts him on to the place, and after ii is
seized the officer gets him his $50. They
are cunning fellows. Often when we
go to seize the distilleries the men who
lodge the information with us lead
the neighborhood against us, to kill
us and are most vociferous in their
shouts, and afterward they come and
express great glee over the acting which
enables them to throw off suspicion.
Many of the places are discovered by
tracing out the odor, as you saw us do
ing this morning, When the still is
working the odor cannot be kept con-
cealed, and with our highly cultivated
noses for whisky we can run it down"