Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-04-01
,. THURSDAY. APRIL 1. 1897.

print the menu in full. nor do | desire
to cause the mouth of the distant
reader to water in vain sympathy.
We who were present did ample JUS
tice to it. and well was it that two full
hours of toasting. felicitation and
speech-makiug followed: a too early
retirement might have induced dreams
not in consonance with the event. To
the youog lady in whose honor the
banquet was given I wish health.
prosperity and long llfe-the compen-
diun of all there is that is good and
all that should have escaped animad-
| version of the Israelitish wiseacre:
! '.All is vanity and vexation of spirit"
who, however. included all the bless
ings of life because he had abused
them all.
Next to this State. Georgia is said
to bear the palm for .'blockading. "
Her high hills and low wales are full
of Illicit stills, and it keeps the reve-
nue. agents on the jump TO induce de-
cent respect for Uncle Samuels regu-
lations concerning the making and sale
of spirits. Jim Brown, John Taylor
and Tom johnson are not classical
names, but they figured prominently
in a recent incident in Clayton county.
IT, ;rro,,,;4, IF Tho hlcoL o5ap IL rr0-
verbal in this section, and this Incl
dent we'll illustrates it. The three
men above named were arrested and
taken to Atlanta, being accused of
making moonshine liquor, but they in
troduced about twenty-five Witnesses
their friends and neighbors - who
swore they were not guilty, and the
Judge had to turn them loose.
The accused had been arrested on
Sunday Sabbath raid having taken
uu due advantage of them while their
thoughts were no doubt spiritually in
clined in the ethereal rather than the
material sense-aud taken to Atlanta
that same evening, their trial and dis
charge resulting next day.
All of the prisoners are well-known
citizens of Clayton county, and Brown
especially is member of one OF the
best antilles in the county. His faith
er is wealthy planter living just be-
low Jonesboro. He and several of
Browns brothers have occupied high
positions in Clayton and Browns faith
err represented Clayton in the legisla-
ture at one time.
The stills which the young men
were accused of operating were found
in very unusual place, and their dis
covery was made in rather surpris-
ing and exciting manner to the Of
ficers who located them.
The stills were hidden under ground.
So neatly were they hidden that it was
the barest accident that they were dis
covered at all. The revenue men had
received tip that distllIery was in
operation on Browns farm. They
went down to JonesbOro Sunday and
drove out to Browns place. After a
thorough search of the whole place
and some surrounding farms the Of
fcers started across the pasture used
by John Taylor, but a part of Browns
land. There was a small thicket of
trees an underbrush in the pasture
through which the officers had to pass.
While walking through the place
one of the men uttered cry and when
the others looked to see what had hap
pened they saw him disappear through
hole in the ground.
The officers were startled and scar
ed. They thought that one of their
number had dropped into an old well
and was probably fatally hurt. They
were reassured. however, when they
heard his cheerful voice, just little
tinged with excitement. as he shouted:
live found it boys; she's down here!"
The officers were at first at a loss to
understand what it was down there in
the bowels of the earth that their
friend. seemed so particularly pleased
find, bat suddenly it dawned upon
them that they had located an under
errn11u5 distilIarv
They investigated and found that
the hole in the ground was a deep pit
covering a considerable area that had
beeu dug out evidently for the very
purpose for which it was in use. In
the pit were three stills and any num-
Der of barrels of fermented beer. All
the paraphernalia used for running a
distIllery was hidden away under the
ground.
The officers Investigated further and
found the furnace near b. the beer.
1t was also neatly covered up.
The distillery was among the most
complete ever found by the revenue
men. With the three stills in opera
tion at one time the moonshiners could
run out many gallons of whiskey in
one nights work. The three stills
were used to quicken the operation.
IT,. boar vraS mt in the first and the