The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-11-28
LITTLE MART DODSON

Among the Red Knobs of the Tennessee
valley the people are mostly of the poorer
class Of small farmers. Along the railroad a
"Red Knobbers is known by the purple hue
Of his boots, usually wen stained by the hem-
attic dust of his matrimonial acres Lying
at the foot Of the Chilhowee mountains, the
rocky businesses behind them were long Che
congenial sphere of the moonshiner's hidden
toll and trouble.
Little Mart Dodson had peddled wildcat
whisky from the time he became able to
take q three gallon keg along the country
roads after dark. He had been arrested,
bound over before commissioners, tried, re-
leased or convicted so many times that the
varied phases Of federal Justice or leniency
had long lost the spice Of novelty under a
monotonons conviction OF their tyranny and
general fntility as related to moonshining in
general and Lite Mart in particular.
But Que summer there came a lady and her
daughter from Chattanooga to board at
Hawk Cliff, a ragged spur of the Chilhowees,
where mineral spring or two bubbled out
from beneath the precipices.
Mrs. Baird needed some pure whisky for
medicinal purposes. Following the instruc-
tions of the ''Widder Green,n with whom
they boarded, Agnes, the daughter of the
former, left bottle and some money one
night in cleft of large rock, called the
Devils Anvil" On going back the next
morning she found the money gone and the
bottle flied with mount'in dew.
Little Mart air always up ter time,n said
ha ar,ea -, At.o4
rock every Chuesd'y night ez regular as
clockwuk"
There was no society in social sense at
Hawk Cliff, and Agnes, lively girl not yet
out of her teens, when not reading to or witt
ing upon her mother, found herself at some
loss to pass the time. There was no one to
dress for or flirt with, and the country folk,
ever suspicious Of social superiority, were
shy and eyasive. She sought solace in long
rambles over the mountains, and though
warned against the danger of getting lost,
ventured further and further with feminine
perversity, until ono day she found herself in
that inevitable predicament.
A thunder cloud had yelled the sun, the
blue sky was vanishing, and the very depths
of the mountain seemed to moan softly as
though the earth was feverish and in dread.
Agnes stood at the juncture of several wind
ing ravines, all equally wild and misleading,
with great forest trees frowning over her,
and without.a definite idea ma to her nronar
course.
oval. mis-. air We sure mug lost or what
air the mntterp
The sound of any human voice was well
come in that solitude. Turning she saw be-
fore her Short stout, freckled face young
man. having n sack swung over his shoulder
with a key in each end of it. In few hur-
ried words she explained who she was and
that she was lost.
"Yo,re n good three mile from tho Widder
Green,s.n he said en- was n poin, tbe
yutber way.n
Agnes INSTANTLY suppested n necuniarv in.
dncement as n reason for ending nor home
hut the Young fellow looked at the clouds
and said burriedlv.
"You lest wait byur a minute.n
Then he disanpeared round a hinge bovlde,
before AGNES could demonstrated Tn two
minutes he reanneored ninns his saclr and
keos with the remark;
sNow. miss. we mus, hurry fer CIT ter the
Hanpin, Rock afore that shower vets MS
They plunged into n wild ooroe-tba vary
ono AGNES would not have taken N left IN
bereelf'-and coon came unon a trail that
wound here and there among the ridges over
rocks. through sbadowy laurel brakes and
across several small brooks The rain nm.
nrooched aud the p,,ide KENT increasing III
speed until Agnes pantipe and stumbling.
was about to ask him to 20 slower. But at
this iuncture a sudden turn round a beetline
croe broucht them ont on a ROCKY nlatfor,a
fronting the valley living along the foot OF
the mountain.
Overhead the cliffs projected 90 that they
xvere sheltered from the drons already fall.
inr The Young man bronebt her drink
from, a spr;ap near bv. and she sat down "a
survey In security the solid wall of gray rain
now sxveening over the distant, knobs and mn
the intervening valley.
~ don't believe / know your name.n she
remarked. as he stood awkwardly gazing al
her as uron a new revelation in tho line Of
feminine loveliness
sim Little MART be replied.
"Oh, to be sure; you arc the person who
put the whisky in mammals bottIe.p
"Wal, now, miss, I'd DO purity fool tel
own up ter sech as that he returned, with
however, q very knowing look.
II suppose you are afraid Of detection; yet
you need not fear me. But don't you wish
you were in come nicer business3 Have you
ever thought OF tho trouble whisky bringi
upon peopleq
Mart could not say that he had. yet for the
first time he felt vague shame OF his occu
patton, but said:
"Pore folks has ter make money somshou
'thout stealth, itr
"Yes. but would rather make itany Other
way than by breaking the Laws to sell people
that which Injuries them"
Somehow Mart felt that the usual argu
nents in favor OF moonshining would moi
have much effect on this refined, delicate