The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-08-28
Plenty of Crooked Whiskey.

The forthcoming report of the commits
sioner ofinternal revenue will show an
enormous increase in illicit distillation.
When the tax on distilled spirits was in
creased 20 cents gallon new incentive
to fraud was added to that which the in
ternal revenue authorities had already
been compelled to constantly fight. The
temptation to cheat the Government was
very great when the premium offered was
400 per cent, and was sufficient to over
como the scruples of several hundred
people in the mountain regions OF Ton
nesaee kentucky and the Carolinas, but
whom another 100 per cent was added 1t
seems to have turned the scale with the
city people. "Every man has his price,
it is said, and, while 400 per cent seems
to have been satisfactory figure with
the mountaineers of the South, tho city
people did not yield to temptation until
500 per cent was bid. Then they fell and
the "sleuths" of the inspectors dlrlslon
have been compelled to give their atten-
ton to the great cities, and especially TO
New York and Brooklyn, ever since:
Some of these trained men walking
about the streets and outskirts OF New
York or Brooklyn, with keen oliactory
nerves constantly on tho alert. often
''scent" an illicit still, and, wetting the
finger and holding it up to determine the
trace and finally locate the very spot
whence it emanates. Sometimes this is
in the basement of big tenement house;
sometimes in a factory of some sort;
sometimes connected with dairy, and
more frequently beneath or in easy reach
Of a sugar refinery.
Tho report to be turned in shortly after
the lst Of July will show an increase OF
probably 60 per cent Of arrests for illicit
distilIing. And, instead of only the names
of a few Southern States figuring in the
list, those of the great States OF New York
and Illinois and others at the North will
appear in it. The seizures Of illicit stills
now run from one hundred to two hum
dred per month, and for the year about
to end will aggregate nearly two thou
sand.
The average Northern moonshiner
shows more cunning in his methods than
do those of the South. This Is doubtless
because of his more varied training, Tor
the Southern moonshiners are as rule
countrymen who have been in that line
of business perhaps half their lives. On
the other hand, the average illicit distil-
Ter at the North is city-bred man, be-
longing to the class whose ways are shady
generally, and with his superior training
and association is able to devise some
very shrewd ways of concealing his
operations. One ofthe devices which was
very successful, too, was to run an illicit
alcohol still in connection with dairy.
The Brooklyn man who invented this
plan had quite successful experience.
He made his alcohol, put it into milk
cans, slipped his cans into his milk
wagons with those containing milk, and
was thus able to run them out and fur
nish them to regular line Of customers
some time before he was discovered.
Others operate in easements of buildings
close down among the wharves along the
river. The incoming vessels which bring
sugar always have more or less broken
packages and leakage, which make it
necessary to wash out the accumulated
"swsetness," and although it is usually
filthy mess it furnishes material for the
illicit stills.
They buy these washings for trife
and are also able to buy molasses TOR
very low rate. The result is that their
alcohol costs them probably not more
than eighteen of twenty cents per gallon.
AS the legitimate manufacturers cannot