Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-12

which the cash u expended, il more sctive than
at any other time in the year. Its business il
to ferret out illicit distilling, which is reckoned
to cost Uncle Sam S500, 0O6 year in the noun
tain regions Of the southern states alone. The
officers are usually led TO the stills secretly by
persons acquainted with their location, $50
being given to the guide for each whisky fac
tory thus made known. Such informers, who
| are mysteriously designated in the treasury ac-
counts as form 10 men,, are very commonly
murdered In revenge, recently the
case with q whole family massacred by the
notorious moonshiner fanatic Sims and his
gang.
II CONSTANT DANGER.
Some notion of the dangers encountered by
the revenue agents in this sort of work NAV be
got from the fact that during three consecutive
years twenty-five Of them were killed and
forty-nine wounded. They are obliged literally
to take their lives in their hands while travel
ing about among the rocky businesses where
moonshine distilling finds its chosen retreats.
In that country government officers are regarded
with such hostility that to wear blue clothing is
| to seriously risk being shot 81. They can never
tell at what moment while on the road
fusilade Of bullets may not greet them from
ambush. 1t is always in some particularly
| inaccessible spot that the unlawful whisky mill
is to be found. whether perched upon cliff
easily defended by Two or three persons against
a score of ASSISTANTS, secluded in "a cavern under
ground or hidden amid thick woods in q Jetie
between hills SO lofty that the curling smoke
tells no tale to the keeu-eyed hunters after for
hidden alcoholic stimulants.
A SIMPLE OUTFIT.
1t is IN such locality as the one last men,
| toned that the moonshiner usually sets up his
| little factory. There be finds y mountain
streamlet or cool spring. which supplies him
| with the prime and indispensable essential for
| his Enthusiastically. cold water. The process
OF dlStllling spirits Is simple and requires so
little capital for the purchase of u plant that
| any one who has a few dollars can go Into it.
| Such apparatus as the ''wiidcatter" SO called
| employs is OF the sirapiest description. A
copper kettle and coil of metal tubing is
| about all he needs, together with few wooden
| cashs. He fills the latter with ordinary corn
| meal, ground at the nearest mill, and pours
/ upon 1t some spent heer. The mixture fer
ments, and when this has gone far enough the
'mash" Is dunn cd by the painful into the
| kettle There it is heated with fire and the al
cohol passes over in the form OF r&poS through
| the coil OF tubing, which il sar:oa.ued by cold
water. The cold condeuses it into "a liquid and
| it comes out OF the other end of the tube in
the shape Of what is termed low wines" Then
1t is subjected again to the same process, thus
becoming high wines, or WHISKY.
MANY STILLS DESTROYED.
Six hundred and ninety-eish such stills we're
men who owned them were very far from re-
aiizing that, their business involved any moral
delinquency. 1t must be understood that the
view In which the moonshiners regard this
matter Is very different from the aspect Of the
case In law. They argue that every free citi-
zen has right to make q living for himself
| and his family in any way that he can. 50 long
| as he does not steal or trampe upon the rigntS
OF others AZ they Consider. man can Justly
be deprived OF the privilege OF making from
his own grain any Droduct that he pleases and
selling it. Accordingly, it Is not surprising
that these Ignorant and half-civiiized people
should defend, even With violence. their prop
erty from destruction BY Uni sd States osneers,
who coliii armed iutO their noun tain homes
and cut to pieces their apparatus, ruin their
business and carry them of to prison.
THEY ARE A PovERrY-srRicKES PEOPLE
depending mainly upon the cultivation of
| small patches OF ground for their subsistence.
70 illustrate their wretchedness Capt Davis,
the famous moonshine raider, tells \ story of
one Of these mountaineers whom he found in
the act OF driving a hog out of his potato patch.
The man was accomplishing this purpose by
wheeling dog in a wheelbarrow after the hog
Upon explanation it appeared that the dog was
too starved 70 be able to walk, but still in
condition to do the barking. Wages in that
region are only about so cents day. The tax
on whisky being 70 cents gallon. ii the illicit
dls:lller only produces one gallon a day he can
hire u farm hand to do his work for half dol
lar and yet have 10 cents clear gain by devot-
ing his own attention to making spirits from
cornmeaL The ouly difficulty is to sell the
product which must be disposed Of with ex-
t-aordinary precautions. No purchaser il ever
permitted 10 approach the still, and anybody
who comes upou Ii by chance is requested to
stir the mash, light the tire or do some such
task, being informed thereupon that ANY one
who assists in Unlawful distiiling is liable to
the same punishment AS the proprietor" This
Is . safeguard against informers.
DIFFICULTY OF LOCATING THE STILLS
Whom the governments frst began operations
against illicit distillers great difficulty was ex-
periencsd by revenue agents employed in the
work. The people were nearly all in sympathy
with the moonshiners, and informers we're
commonly murdered, though the retr:bution
melted out to them sometimes went no further
than the whipping of themselves and their fam
lilies, the burning of their houses and barns
and the killing of their stock. In such in
stances it was but rarely that the persons guilty
o. the outrages were punished. Under these
conditions it was BY no means easy to locate the
whisky mills. Nevertheless, within five years,
from 1877 to 1881, 5000 stills were seized and
5000 people were arrested for conducting them.
II it be reckoned that. taking the average, each
still produced five gallons q day. it will be seen
how enormous was the loss of revenue to Uncle
Sam. However. public sentiment underwent
change. 1t came to be realized that an unlav-
full still was pretty sure to demoraIize any COM
munity for three miles in every direction. Thus
ii happens that information ut present 10 OBJ
tanned with comparative sase, and the business
u suffering accordingly.
IN RKNorE MOUNTAIN HAsTNxssEs.
At the same time it IL even yet carried on 10
great extent in the more remote mountain
businesses. At the foot Of Q certain tree the
traveller 10 informed that his empty lug or aask
may be placed, together with money. He comes
back in little while and, a. il by magic. fpds
the receptacle filed and the money gone. Much
Of the moonshine 10 peddled from wagons along
the highways, the easks containing it being
covered with tnnocentlooking vegetables or
what not or two kegs in . long sack are dung
across the back Of . mule. Such couyoys are
apt TO Be conveyed BY desperate characters.
whom none but the bfavess Of revenue agents
VIII venture TO stop on the road, lest . responae
TO impairment questions be made with bullsts
In such cases the method adopted BY the
officers il ordinarily to .hold up" tho suspected
persons with drawn revolvers. the issus Of dis |
P1ees with noonshiners being usually datsr-
mined BY priority in getting he drop"
DIsauIskn A0HNTA
In Nat mountain ooantry IL has bssn sas- |
tomary for pears past TO regard any stranger |
found wandering about without sstsnsibk oc- |
cupation - ''rsvsnna." Therefore In the |
performance Of detective duty the agents have |
aasuned al sorts Of disguises. For some time |
thsy most frsqasntly pretended 70 b Asalers |