Birmingham state herald., 1896-05-30
CHRONICLES OF ANN|STON Cute DistiIIery Unearthed in
 Shadow of Town. INCREASE IN REGISTRATION MT. Armentrout Suffers Relapse-Wife Mur- derer Lewis Johns Taken Away-Ram-
 sey in More Trouble.

rocky and almost inaccessible gulch on the opposite side of the mountain east of and just two and one-half miles distant from the city, big moonshine' whisky distil- lery was found and destroyed late yes- terday afternoon by United States Depu- ty Collector James F. Green and Deputy Marshals John W. Daniels, D. S. Jackson and John w. Barker.
 The site of the moonshinery was about half mile from public and much tray- eled road, and less than that distance from the beautiful and picturesque home of Col. E. Locke on Point Lookout. Ap- pearances about the still indicated that 1t had been in frequent and recent opera tion, but all was quiet when the officers approached, the operators doubtless be-
 ing "moonshiners' in fact as well as in name. The distillery, which had capac- ity of fifty gallons, was snugly, shrewdly and even scientifically arranged. It was
 in the midst of big rocks at the bottom of
 gulch by beautiful running stream, a stovepipe carrying the smoke up into the thick foliage of beech, where 1t could hardly be discovered. The apparatus, however, was crude and cheap. No prod- uct of the still was found, and neither was there any material, either raw or in process of evolution, in sight. No arrests have been made. It hasn't been many months since mysterious still was found
 
 house, on West Tenth street, but while it was a question whether or not it was intended to manufacture any whisky in the Parker house basement, these noun tain fellows have really been making ten or fifteen gallons of the stuff a night Hence, while Anniston may not have good reasons for claiming "moonshinery" in the city, there is no doubt but what there has been one operated within two and a half miles of town.
 hui hi h1Ind dnr ctr hap al 6:30 o'clock Thursday evening the light ming did peculiar thing at the rectory of the church of St. Michael and All Angels. About the time it began rain ing Mrs. Green the wife of the rector, sent a servant upstairs to close some windows. The girl entered one of the rooms, closed the window and went to lower the sash at another, when there was vivid fash which illumined the room a sharp, terrific report, which so badly frightened the girl that she screamed. Mrs. Green went up to see what had happened and found that out of pane in the window which had been- closed a round piece of glass the size of a silver dollar had been cut and thrown to the floor unbrolSen. The pane from which 1t had been taken was shattered in every direction, however. The only other evidence of the presence of the electric bolt in the room was the fact that the paint on an oil stove sitting near the window looked as if it had been charred by fire.
 Unofficial reports from the various beats show the total registration in the county this year to have been 56S6, against 54S7 two years ago. The official and complete report of registration will probably be secured in a few days. Mir s. G. Armentrout, who was severe ly injured about the head and shoulders by being thrown from his horse Wednes- day afternoon of last week, is still very
 low. It is believed that he has been gradually improving, but yesterday the
 symptoms were not so good. He has never fully regained consciousness and a
 physician remains with him nearly all
 the time.
 Sheriff W. F. Dickinson of Talladega
 county came up yesterday and carried
 back with him Lewis Johns, a negro
 wanted for wife murder at Childersburg.
 l.. R. Ramsey, the West Anniston mer-
 chant. whose store was raided about two
 weeks since and found to contain great
 quantities of goods which had been stolen
 from other merchants in this city, Alex
 andria, Eastaboga, Munford, DeArmau- vile, Iron City and other places, and who
 at the time was arrested under various
 warrants charging him with receiving stolen property, and against which charges he waived preliminary examina- ton and gave bonds aggregating $1550. is in trouble again. Having been rearrest- ed few days since on five warrants, four charging him with burglary and one with grand larceny and receiving stolen prop erty, he was arraigned before Justices A. F. McGhee and Thomas w. Coleman, Jr., today and other bonds aggregating $1200 were required of him. These make grand total of $2750 of bonds, but the lat ter batch he hasn't succeeded in making yet.