The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-08-18
WHISKEY IN BAGS
Policeman Harms Smelt a
Rat and UneaTthed a
Private Still.
In FULL OPERATION
The "Moonshiners' Captured and
Their "Candy Factory Ex-
posed to Daylight.

NN
of the Fourth precinct. Shortly after
five O'Clock Harms was walking along
West Side avenue in the vicinity OF the
West Bergen Station, on the Newark
& New York Railroad, when he noticed
two men, each carrying a sack, coming
up the avenue from the direction or
Culver avenue. He was about to pass
them by when he noticed that one of
the men stopped and hesitated and eyed
him rather sharply. This aroused
Harms suspicious, and he ordered the
man in question to halt. As he did so
the other man started to run away. "A
bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush," reasoned Harms. as the saw the
man disappearing up the street, and IN
a jiffy he had his prisoner across the
street and in Skillman's hardware store.
Hastily shouting orders to the clerk
in charge not to release him, the ponce
man darted out of the door and MADE
wide tracks for the other fellow. After
q hot chase he caught him. The second
prisoner soon Joined the first, and an
examination of the bags revealed that
each contained a ive-gallon demiJohn OF
whiskey. The prisoners refused. to tell
kwhere they secured the stuff, and Harms
t~elephoned for a patrol wagon. On the
RTay to the signal box he met a woman
5Nho told him that his prisoners had Sc
cured their whiskey from a building at
No. 81 Culver avenue, so in sending
in his message Harms asked for help,
and Captain McKaig and Detective
Gus Hottie responded.
The prisoners were locked up at the
station house. where they registered as
a Cannon street. New York. and Her
man Sachs, eighteen years old, OF the
A RAID PLANNED.
When Captain Mckaig arrived, Harms
repeated what the woman had told him.
but Captain McKaig decided to act at
once, and planned d raid. Harms. Hol-
tic and the Captain approached the
Captain broke open the front basement
door, Hottie jumped the back fence,
and Harms remained on. guard outside.
As the Captain entered the hall a young
woman came from a rear room, and, in
broken English, demanded to know by
what authority he entered the house.
Captain as soon as he entered the nall,
and, without explaining the object of his
the front room. There he found nearly
a dozen barrels. all of which were full
of mash"
In the rear room was a still in full
operation. The still was heated to a
high degree of temperature, and to all
appearances had been abandoned some
what hurriedly. In this room there were
q half dozen barrels of mash. and in a
closet was a five-gallon key full of whis-
key. There were measures, guageS and
other paraphernalia necessary in the
manufacture of whiskey. The windows
were all shut. and the shutters We're
barred. The windows opening on the
street We're covered with shades of black
muslin. After placing the woman under
arrest, the officers proceeded to search
the rest of the place. The house is a
four-story brick structure, and isthe end
house of a row of four dwellings,. The
second floor the officers found vacant,
and the third floor was fitted up as liv-
ing apartments. A bed and bureau were
Chairs were in the other. On the the table
were the remnants of "a meal. The top
floor was as bare as the second, and, al
though the officers searched. as they
thought, all over, they found no other
pels0H FOUND 5HG IN pFA9ln Closer.
BY this time the Fifth precinct police
had been notified. and Sergeant cannon
and Policemen Green and Ernst arrived
upon the scene. TIL house being in the
Greenville took charge. Sergeant Gan
non. while investigating the third floor,
rear room. He opened the door and
found a small man buried underneath d
huge pile of clothing and rags. The man,
closet for over an hour. was as anxious
TO crawl out of his hiding place as the
Sergeant was to grab him. He was al
most exhausted from the close con-
hnement, and his first act was to take
a tea pot from the stove and emptied it
of its contents. This revived him. and
Sergeant Cannon toLk him downstairs.
He said his name was David Jurvitz, and
gave his age as thirty years. He said
that he was a Russian, and came to
West Bergen three weeks ago. He said
the woman was Sophie Clark, twenty
s Six years Olu, ana InaC- he lived With
her, intending to marry her shortly. He
denied his guilt, and feigned surprise
when Cannon told him that there was a
still in the house. He declared that he
and Sophie were engaged in the dress
making and tailoring business, and that
he did not know that whiskey was being
made downstairs. When asked why he
no answer.
At the station house the police learned
that Shalt had a son named Louis liv-
ing IT New York, and Detective Hottie.
believing that the son knew consider
able about the still. sent him a despatch
telling him that his father was in trou-
BILE and wanted to see him at the Fourth
precinct station house; Young Shalt
received the despatch all light, but in
stead OF going to the station house he
went to the Culver avenue still. While
a citizen. who notified Policeman Mac
key. Louis was arrested, and he. too.
was locked up in the Fourth precinct.
Sophie Clark and Jurvitz were taken
there later in the patrol wagon. The
prisoners We're all charged with violat-
ing the United States internal revenue
law, and will be turned over to Deputy
United States Marshal Peter DAILY.
THE SON CAUGHT.
AS soon as Inspector LANCE heard of
the raid he went to the still and in
structed Captain Nugent to keep two
policemen on guard there until the
United States Marshal takes possession.
Policemen Green and Ernst remained
on duty until midnight. when they were
relieved by Policemen Burke and Bose.
dHL
first put in operation three weeks ago,
when the house was rented after being
vacant several months. The people re-
siding in the other houses in the row be-
came suspicious when truck after truck
drove up to the door and unloaded bar
rels and boxes, and they We're also un-
able to explain the queer odor emanat-
ing from the basement of the house;
but when they were told that candy was
being manufactured there, their suspic-
ions were allayed. The still in the mean
time was producing from fifteen TO
twenty gallons of liquor a day. Police
man Mackey, who arrested young Shalt.
lives almost directly opposite the still
but he, like the other residents. was
with the story that CANDY
was being manufactured there.
BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS.
When the patrol wagon containing tha
prisoners stopped in front of the Weldon
Building this morning, a crowd Instant
ly collected. Captains A. McKaig and
Thomas Nugent, with Detective a.
Hottie and Officers Harms and Mackey
escorted Louis Shallit, father, and Louis
Shallit, his son, handcuffed together;
David JurvitZ, who was found hidden in
a closet. and young Herman Sachs,
were also handcuffed. Mrs, Clarke, the
housekeeper of No. 81 Culver avenue, a
slim little woman with dark hair hang
ing down her back, and evidently of
Italian birth, followed closely guarded
by the officers.
rroo.Abnr thax, oooondad to tba f.,,4L