The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-16
A BUNT FOR INCONSISTENCIES
Revenue DIFFERS Engage in a Non
Productive Raid.

the Daughter of u Maker oil ilIicit
Liquor-T'he Girl Came Disguise
ed rs "a Hoy ana Played n Shabby
Trick ON Chief Raider Bell.
One of the prisoners at the spring term
of the Tennessee Federal Court in 1889,
arraigned under the general charge OF
Illicit distilling of liquor, was young
woman. On the court calendar she was
Lou Quinn, but somebody had written
1.-The Little Wildcat after the name, and
the sobriquet chung. Sitting in the pris'
cners' box, in the midst Of ninety and nine
rough, wid-eyed mountaineers, she might
have been murderer or a robber, ana
looked the part, but she was only the hrst
woman ''moonshiner" the officers had ever
hailed TO court, and it was this distinction
and not the brilliant hue of the homespun
she wore or any personal grace or woman
ly charm that drew the stare of the court
loungers in her direction. The men
around her were old offenders for the most
part-lank, cadaverous dirt-eaters, with
their own ideas concerning the rights OF
mountaineers to life. liberty. and the max
ing of "moonshine'' The woman was with
them and one of them. 1t may be added
that ninety of the men were convicted and
sentenced 20 various terms of imprison-
ment in the penitentiary The Little
Wildcat" was acquitted. The jury was
made up of old men, some Of them with
daughters, perhaps about the age Of this
girl before them; the district attorney was
a young man and unmarried; SO, somehow,
the case was never made out as clearly as
it might have been, and the girl walked
away and went back to the mountains.
The case itself was pretty enough, as
far as such things go, and simple nough
after it was understood, but it took three
Of the Oldest men in the service three
months to understand how they had been
outwitted by backwoods girl.
1t happened in a part Of east Tennessee
which is supposed to have given birth to
the original moonshiner, where raw liquid
fire which comes from cornmeal was for
years and years the coin of the realm.
The Illicit stills in the mountains around
Knoxville and Fayetteville and McMinn-
vile have been fields of battle and blood
shed many times. Wherever there was
band of 'wildcatters' there was fear and
anxiety among the law-abiding citizens.
To incur the enmity of one was to invite
the vengeance of all. Men who turned
states evidence against the moonshiners
often found themselves homeless in sim
gle night and hangman's moose swinging
at a mans front gate in the early morning
was not considered a good omen. But
such lawlessness is not rampant now
There have been no desperate battles be-
tween revenue raiders and the noun
taineers in some years. Most of the dis
tillers operate under the law and live de-
Gently and quietly. A reward Is given Tor
ALL information which leads to the arrest
of wildcatters or the destruction OF their
stills, and the Government is relentless in
prosecuting offenders. Tho chief raider
of the district is man who has been in
the service many years. He is tall,
sinewy. robust and fearless. His name is
Bell. but in the mountains they call him
"Old Red" possibly because of his COM
plexion.
Planning an Expedition.
On cold, dreary day in March, 1885,
'oId Red and Bill Robertson and one
Jenkins were talking politics In the reve-
nue. office at Nashville and laying plans
for various spring raids which We're to be
made as soon as the weather permitted
Robertson is the man who shot his way
out OF the famous raid OF '93 in the noun
tains near McMinnyille, when five of his
companions were killed from ambush. Like
his friend Bell, Robertson had keen eye
that looks straight down a gun barrel and
hits where it looks, flushed countenance
which he attributes to long exposures
and hardships-and a fierce, red NOUS
tache jenkins is low, dark, and quiet and
Itrnp Ia lie In
guide and scout in Tennessee, and Stands
in with Uncle Davy'' MINI, the revenue
collector. The three men had been talking
for long time and il was almost dusk
when the door opened and boy, rather
short and stout and shabbily dressed, en-
tered the room and walked straight to the
chief raider As Robertson said after
ward:
When he come cross the room seem-
ed as how he'd been shot from t'other side
o. the hall. He marched up TO Red spank
as you please. and he SEE, SEE he: Air
you Mister Bell?' An Bell looked at um
IS if the old oman was roua'. and he
SEE. That's right. That's me- An the
boy SEE. SEE he. in a kind O. whisper: 4
knows wher' big still is errunnin' down
hum. It's old 81 Quinn's. How much'll
you give to git ther'? We'd been after old
ST Quinn quite a long spell an had made ii
hot enough without provin' nothin' SOS "a
could jerk um IN. So Red thought a
minute and seZ: I'll give fifty dollars
It's lot O. money fur country boy, bur
he looked sharp enough, and If we landed
old 81 Quinn along with his truck it would
ave been worth five times the money"
The bargain was struck and the boy
promised to meet posse at point in the
public road twenty miles from McMinuv II
whenever he should be needed. When III
raid was agreed upon several days later 1t
was the writer's good fortune 70 b. inv ted
to go along as one of the posse. There's
prospects for some fun" Bell said before
starting land you get S. per day for ex-
penses. Bring along your gun in your hip
pocket and be at the depot at O'clock in
the morning
He was the only one of the men in SIGHT
when the train pulled into the station. A
colored boy brought a leather bag into the
car, which might have been for golf sticks.
But IL was not. Bell said that the othcr
men would get on somewhere ZIP the Rad.
At Tul,ahoma we charged cars and Jenki;
and Robertson came frcm di @eFent co ca S
and stalked indifferently atcut the p "a
form. No one of the party spoke to the
other This was for the good of the cxae-
dtion Bell said. 1t was all mys ,erious,
solemn and strange. At o'ciock in tie
afternoon we reached McMinnville. Tn re
are three obstetrics in the town, and The
officers went to different houses. | TO =
lowed Bell TO the Dew Drop Inn Y. e
clerk winked knowingly when Bell gave a
fictitious name and asked Who is il to be
this time?"
Rider on n White Mule