The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-01
rom BY 4 MooNsHINER.
A Revenue Detective Who Came, But
 Did Not Co Away.

Did Not Co Away. (From the Detroit Free Press,l "Sit down, sah-sit down." said the grim-faced old man to me as we were returning to his cabin after visit to the Illicit still hidden away in tho deep and dark ravine.
 sat down on a mound in little glade In laurel thicket' while he seat ed himself on rock, and after we had filled and lighted our pipes, he said:
 "The guy'ment's agin us fur makin moonshlne whiskey, but yo' kin see fur yo'self how it is. We kin raise con about yere, but thar's no market fur it. If we turn 1t into whiskey we kin git some money out O it, though never | knowed moonshiner to make over a | dollar a day in the best of times. It's jest changin' about so we may live, but ma&in whiskey is against the law. and the guv'ment hunts us down as If we was wolves. All the whiskey made fur twenty miles around this spot wouldn't sell fur two hundred dollars, and yit fifteen men hey been sent to state pris- on, a dozen mo kept in jail fur months, and twenty families bin put to it to sell off everything to pay lawyers. l tell yo', it's wuss nor wah times, with the guerrillas ridin' about and robbin' and killin"
 And there's no money in making | moonshine whiskey?" I asked.
 "Yo' see, it's this way" he replied. 'Yo' hev to pay cash fur a still. We'un is pore folks around yere, and five or six men must jine together to buy. It's also agin the law to sell the | whiskey, and we must let it go to traders fur what they will pay. It | must be toted over the mountings on our backs, and by the time thet we've got shet of ten gallons and divided up | the money, no man has huff to buy a | pound O coffee If the guv'ment was | to let us go ahead and hey free swing, | 1t would be clus work to make a decent livin'''
 But you were going to tell me about the revenue spies"
 Yes they cum sneakin round now and then,' he slowly replied. "The 1 last time I saw one was about a var 1 ago. He cum along purtendin to look l fur iron and coal, and he stopped over | at &Joe Rutley's fur a hull week. He l talked far huff, and never once did he say anything about moonshiners, but the boys suspishune him and kept their eyes open. The stranger would be out lookin' around all day, but he wasn't | t,aNx cnh Iot was all a blind. He was jest tryin' to locate our still, and he was brave man to cum up yere among us when he knowed what the penalty would be. l He must hey travelled around heap, for it was six or seven days befo' he hit it right. Joe Rutley follored him fur two days and knowed he wasn't arter coal or from
 Then he knew you suspected him?" I asked
 Reckon not. No, we never let on by word or look To see, this we're path is the only way to git down to our still, and in that bresh heap over thar we had man on the watch. Of a, Satur- I day, when fo' of us war down thar at work and the stranger out lookin' fur coal and iron, sunthin' happened. The spy found this path whar' 1t starts in l by the rocks and knowed that it led to game. The sentinel heard him cumin' though he was on tip-toe, and got ready fur him. Arter a bit the feller showed up right we're in this openin' and he looked this way and that, and had cunnin' smile on his face. To kin see that we had to cut sum trees and trim off sum branches and as the ravine is right down thar, it was easy fur him to figger it out Dye see that mark on that chestnut?'
 Yes plainly"
 And the scratch on that soft rock ?"
 Yes
 Wall, he put 'em both thar with his knife, sos to make sure when he cum agin Then he was ready to go. He hadn't follered down into the ravine but he knew what was thar"
 t''And so he went away"
 ''Yes, his soul went away!'
 'You--you mean--?"
 But his body stayed right yere!"
 You don't mean that he was shot down!' I exclaimed as I rose up.
 "Yo' are standin' right on his gravel said the old man as he knocked the ashes from his pipe and led the way along the path.
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