The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-09
TOLD BY A MOONSHlNER.
A Revenue Detective Who Came But Did
Not Go Away.

"Sit down, sah-sit own" said the
grim faced old man to me as we were re-
turning to his cabin after visit to the
Illicit still hidden away in the deep and
dark ravine, says writer to the Detroit
Free Press.
l sat down on mound in little glade
in laurel thicket, while he seated him
self on a rock, and after we had filed
and lighted our pipes, he said:
"The guv'ment's agin us for maxim
moonshine whiskey. but you kin see fur
yo'self how it is. We kin raiss CON
about. yere, but thar's no market fur it.
If we turn it into whiskey we kin git
some money out o. it, though I never
knowed a moonshiner to make over 81 a
day in the best of times. It's jest
ohangin' about so We may live but
maxim whiskey is against the law, and
the guv'ment hunts us down as if we
was wolves. All the whiskey made fur
miles around this spot wouldn't sell for
5000. and yit 10 men hsv been sent to
state prison, adozen mo- kept IN Jail fur
months and months, and 90 families bin
put to it to sell off everything to pay
lawyers. I tell yo'm it's wuss nor wah
times, with the guerrillas ridin' about
and Robin and KILN.
and there's no money in making
moonshine whiskey?'' asked.
'tYo' see, it's this way" he replied
You hev to pay cash fur a still. We'uns
is pore folks around yere, and five or six
men must jine together to buy one. It's
also agin the law to sell the whiskey,
and we must let it 90 to traders fur what
they will give us. 1t must be toted over
the mountings on our backs and by the
time we've got shet of 10 gallons and
divided up the money no man has inf
to buy pound O. coffee II the guy 'meut
was to let us go ahead and hev full
swing, it would be clus work to make n
decent liyin'.
"out you were going to tell ME about
the revenue spies.
Eyes, they cum sneakin' round now
and then,' he slowly replied. "Ihe last
He cum along purtending to look fur
iron and coal, and he stopped at Joe
Rutley's fur whole week. He talked
| ia 'nuff and never once did he say any
thing about moonshiners, but the boys
| suspishuned him and kept their eyes open.
The stranger would kbe out lookin'
around all day, but he wasn't arter coal
blind. He was jest trying to locate our
| still, and he was brave man to cum IN
here among us when he knowed what
the penalty would be. He must hey
travelled 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 iron.
CITIZEN he knew you suspected him ?''
/ asked.
Reckon not. No, we never let on by
| word or look. Yo' see this yere path is
| the only to way get down to our still and
| in that bresh heap over there we had a
| man on the watch. OF a Saturday, when
| TO- Of us war down thar at work and
the stranger out looking fur coal and
this path whar' 1t starts In by the rocks
and knowed that it led to game. The
sentinel heard him cumin', though he
was OH tip toe and got ready fur him,
After bit the Teller showed up right
yere In this openin' and ne looked this
way and that. and he had a cunnin'
smile on his face. Yo' kin see that we
branches, and as the! Tavine is right
down thar it was easy fur him to figcar
it out. Dye see that mark On that chest
nut?'
eyes plainly"
"And Che scratch on that soft rookp'
eyes"
| "WalI, he put 'eIn both thar with his
knife SOS to make sure when he cnm
again. Then he was ready to 90. He
| hadn't follered down into the ravine bnt
he knew what was thar"
"And so he went away2"
eyes, his soul went away"
"You-you mean-p'
"But his body stayed right yere. -
"You don't mean to say that he was
sotsdown," I exclaimed as l rose mn
"Yo' are standing right on his grave y,
said the old man as he knocked the ashes
from his pipe and led the way along the
path.