St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-28

went to his ordinary customers. In
took charge of the dairy, and they
confiscated the COWS on the part of
Uncle Sam.
1000 WHISKY STILLS.
The increase of distilling in the
Southern mountains during the past
year is enormous. The stills are scat
tered through the mountain districts
of every Southern state, and the reve-
nue. deartment has never had it's
hands so full as now. The commits
sioner Of internal revenue tells me that
the agents have never done SO good
work as they are now doing. Col. Col
quit, the chief of this branch, was
for years in the field as a special
agent. He has the moonshine districts
mapped out, and there is a black list
at the treasury department containing
the names of the suspected charac-
ters. Congress has set aside $4,000 a
year for the pay of spies and hired in
formers, and Uncle Sam is now spend
ing, all told, about 100000 annually to
put down the business. Still there are
more stills now than ever before. One
y
The outlook is that there will be nearly
1000 wiped out during the coming year.
and the number destroyed last month
was 1914. 1t is hard to estimate the loss
| which Uncle Sam sustains from these
moonshine stills. A few days ago a
wagon load Of whisky, containing 100
gallons of liquor, was captured near
Greenville, S. c. The tax on this alone
haI
1000 stills which will be captured this
year to continue in operation. 1t is a
small still which will not produce five
gallons of whisky daily. These 1000
stills would produce 10000 gallons a
day, on which the tax would be $11 ,0OO
Eleven thousand dollars day is more
| than $4,0G0,000 per year. This will be
| the saving in revenue, by the breaking
up of these stills. There are, however,
in all probably, hundreds which are
never discovered, and the loss is in
| calculable
| HOW THE MOONSHINERS WORK.
| 1 asked Col. Colquitt to give me some
| idea of oe moonshine stills of the
South. He replied: 'They. are rude
affairs, and the average still does not
cost more than $50. 1t usually con-
sists Of two barrels, one of which con-
| tains a coil of copper pipe connected
with boiler on the top of an oven,
like a bake oven, near by. In the
other barrel the mash is kept. This
mash is made ct cornmeal. 1t is fer
mented into a kind of a beer. This
beer is put into the boiler, and as it
gets warm it rises in vapor into the
pipe AID flows off into the coil. Cold
water from mountain stream is kept
running through the barrel over the
coil, and as it falls upon it it condenses
! the vapor into liquor. The whisky has
| to be distilled twice before it is ready
for use. 1t costs only few cents a
gallon, and it requires no capital to
| speak of to make it. The mountain
GERS bring their corn to the still and
trade it for whisky. They receive a
gallon of whisky for a bushel of corn
The moopshiner can make three gal.
Ions ouI of every bushel, ard he has
two gallons of clear profit. This he
sells to his fellow mountaineers at s.
per gallon. So, you see, the profits are
large. When we discover a still we
chop it in pieces. If we find a wager
load of whisky we break the barrel:
and let the liquor run out upon the
ground. We locate the still by mean:
of spies, and the revenue agents hav,
a standing price Of $40 for each still
that is pointed out to them. Ten dol
lars is a great deal of money in tn,
Southern mountains, and sooner O.
later the moonshiner is bound to hav
some one inform upon him. The bust
ness is very dangerous, however. Nov
and then the moonshiners fight tn
revenue officers, and the man who fol
lows them takes his life in his hands
have been shot at number of times
but so far have escaped being hit.
1.-THE moonshiners bate the spie