Little Falls herald., 1900-08-31
STILLS IN BIG CITIES.
UNCLE sAM's CONSTANT SEARCH FOR
ILLICIT WHISKY. -: !

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everybody Immediately has an idea that
he is referring to the moonshiners Of Ten.
nessee, North Carolina and other parts Of
the SOUTH" said an old revenue officer the
other day. The average person would
probably be surprised to learn that the
person who gives the government the
most anxiety in eyading the tax on whis-
ky is not the picturesque mountaineer
of the southern states, but apparently
the we'll to do citizen of New York, Jer-
sey City, Philadelphia and Chicago. It1
takes more men to watch these metro.
politan moonshiners than are detailed in
half the rest Of the country, and l ven-
ture to say that more corn juice escapes
paying its quota into the treasury of
Uncle Sam in Chicago alone than in
put together.
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 mountainee: looks on
and considers the breaking up of wild
cat distilling as an 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 and that he might as well pay the
penalty without adding any more offenses
to the charges already against him.
l.. L..
it still in the city is in or near saloon
The d;stiller thus has 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
stean1ing sour mash. Many Of these
stills have capacity Of from 80 to 40
gallons day. When you figure the tax
thus eluded, you can see whether the oc
cupation is profitable.
''The moonshiners of the south show no
more ingenuity in hiding the stills than
those of Chicago. l remember one still
which. bothered the boys for years. They
had spotted the locality, but could not
find the place exactly. There was sa
loon which was doing a lourishing 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 a stock.
"We had searched the place time and
time again, but all to no purpose. Final
ly we got one of our men put in there as
helper in serving the free lunches for
which the place was famous. He staid
there for three months without getting
on to 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 all underground pas,
sage, which led for hundred feet or more
until we got directly beneath Jewish
synagogue. Here we found barrel upo1
barrel of fine whisky that had been stored
there for years. There was also a COM
plete distilling apparatus. although it had
not been used for some time.
"Another still that gave us good deal
of trouble was in one Of the biggest Office
buildings in Chicago, down in the base
ment. The janitor was an old distiller,
and he had gathered some of his friends
to carry on the graft. ! doubt whether
we would ever have caught these people
If the snap had not been given away by
one of the partners, who was dissatisfied
with a division of the spoils. We arrest
ed the men without any difficulty, and
they served their terms without grunl-
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 it were possi-
Die to dispose of the product. That is
where the men get caught most of the
time, as it is not possible for us to find
every plant merely by the scent of the
fermenting mash. A great many tricks
are planned, and some Of them work for
awhile, but they don't last. have seen
men walking along the street with an in
nocent looking joint Of sto7epipe in their
hands. Now, there is nothing suspicious
about joint Of stovepipe even if it :c not
more than three feet long. But it docs
not weigh much, and when man carries
IL as luOuSu ue were luSSlIlS DdS Ol
shot man in my business begins to Won
der what is inside of it. 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 moonshlne, and they won't enter in
to negotiations unless they are certain Of
the men with whom they are dealing.
The surest gr~ # that has ever been work
ed was one that had long run in Chica-
go about five 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 moonshine out in beer
kegs and loaded them on his wagon as if
he We're only taking away empty casks.
He would take them around to the place
and leave them. The saloon keepers who
were handling the stuff always put beer
In the kegs after they had emptied out
the whisky and in this way deadened the
fumes Of the stronger liquor. One of our
men who was inspector at the brewery
had q pretty keen nose, and he suspected
that something was wrong. He started
little investigation himself. and his in
Quiries resulted in our mailing all of the