Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-08-28
STILES I. |. 1 i'm BIG I. .ES.
UNCLE sAM's * NsTAfsT sEARct1 FoH
# n I, II ilLiclT NH NJ ssSs

UNCLE sAM's COZ INSTANT sEA Rc. Foaa
% iLLiclT WHISKY u IL ,ssssss
It Takes lTore Men sto vvatoAi II Il III
F, MetroDolitan MoonskineT a
Are Detailed X Half u All Il tk
Rest = 90 7cosntry. @ u. n. ss II gS
when ! man speaks Of Illicit distilling,
everybody immediately has an idea that
he IL referring to the moonshiners OF Ten
nessee, North Carolina and other parts u
the SOUTH" said A old revenue iomcer ths
other day. The average person would
probably be surprised to learn that the
person who gives the government the
most anxiety In evading the tax on whia-
| Ky Is not the picturesque mountaineer
Of the southern states, but apparently
the we'll to do citizen Of New York, Jer-s
,sey City, Philadelphia and Chicago. II
takes more men to watch these metro
politan moonshiners than are detailed III
half the rest Of the country, and I ven
ture to say that more corn Juice escapes
paying it's quota into the treasury Of
Uncle Sam In Chicago alone than in
North and South Carolina and Georgia
put together. .'':s,
'There is nothing romantic about your
| city distiller. he does not have the for
ests and the caves in which to hide his
calling. He seldom fights when the off,
GERS Of the law interfere with his occupa-
ton. Just now can recall but one raid
In Chicago which resulted In any ones
getting hurt. Your mountaineer looks on
revenue officer as his natural enemy
1 onS noroiAovo ~ 1>Ss
| cat distilling as IN interference with his
vested rights. His Chicago compeer takes
the matter more sensibly. He knows
that he is violating the law, and when he
Is caught he merely figures that he is out
Of luck md that he might as we'll pay the
penalty without adding any more offenses
to the charges already against him.
1.-The most frequent location Of IN illic-
! It still In the city is in or near saloon.
| The distiller thus has a market for his
! stuff. and he can carry on the business
with less chance of detection. The odor
! Of old beer kegs and the other refuse
| which assails the nostrils is likely to
| throw an officer off the scent of the
steaming sour mash. Many Of these
! stills have capacity Of from 30 to 40
gallons day. When you figure the tax
| thus eluded, you can see whether the &C.
| cupation IL profitable.
"The moonshiners of the south show no
more ingenuity in hiding the stills than
| those Of Chicago. I remember one still
which bothered the boys for years. They
| had spotted the locality, but could not
! find the place exactly. There was So
! loon which was doing fourishing busi-
| ness and to our certain knowledge they
had not bought barrel of whisky for
years. When they caught on to the fact
| that we were watching them, the proprie-
| tors made bluff at laying in n stock.
eve had searched the place time and
| time again, but all to no purpose. Final
| ~ we got one Of our men put in there as
| a helper in serving the free lunches for
| which the place was famous. He staid
there for three months without getting
on to n thing that would help US out, and
| II we had not been so cocksure that we
| were right we would have given up In
disgust.
AT last our man gave US the tip that
he had landed, and we swooped down on
the saloon. We put the proprietors OF the
saloon under arrest and went down into
the cellar. where we found a trapdoor
that was hidden with wonderful cunning.
This opened into an underground pas
sage, which led for hundred feet or more
until we got directly beneath Jewish
synagogue. Here We found barrel upon
barrel Of ,1ne whisky that had been stored
there for years. There was also COM
plete distilling apparatus, although It had
not been used for some time.
Another still that gave US q good deal
of trouble was in one of the biggest Office
buildings in Chicago. down In the base
ment. The janitor was IN old distiller,
and he had gathered some of his friends
to carry ON the graft. I doubt whether
we would ever have caught these people
II the snap had not been given away by
one of the partners, who was dissatisfied
with division of the spoils. We arrest
ed the men without any difficulty, and
they served their terms without grum-
bling. The reason for this was that the
janitor and one Of his partners had bank :
ed over $4,000 apiece as result Of three
years work at their still.
"There is no doubt that there would be
money in illicit distilling If 1t were posi-
bic TO dispose of the product. That is
where the men get caught most Of the
time, rs it Is not possible for us to find
every plant merely by the scent Of the
are planned, and some of them work for
men walking along the street with an in
nocent looking joint of stovepipe in their
hands. Now, there is nothing suspicious
about joint of stovepipe even II it is not
more than three feet long. But it does
not weigh much, and when man carries
1t Us though he were Juggling bag Of
shot a man in my business begins to won
der what Is inside Of 1t. We don't bother
the fellow until we are pretty certain,
and it is about even chances that we find
long, slim demijohn inside the pipe.
Saloon keepers are pretty shy of han
ding moonsbtne, and they won't enter In
to negotiations unless they are certain Of
the men with whom they are dealing.
The surcst gr" It that has ever been work
ed was one that had long run In Chica-
go about Eve years ago. The driver Of a
brewery wagon was the man who attend
ed to the distribution. He called at the
saloon where the whisky was distilled
and carried the rnoonshine out In beer
kegs and loaded them on his wagon as II
he were only taking away empty casks.
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