The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-07

much all myself. he said when we ex-
amined the stills proper. Beyond ques-
ton he had done a good job
First he had chosen the biggest trees
he could find. They must have measured
eight feet through in the rough. From
these he had sawed sections perhaps
twelve feet long and hewed them four
square to a nicely. The surface, indeed,
was nearly as smooth as if it had been
planed. Then from each he had aided
out huge, cup-shape trough, deepest in
the middle leaving the sides perhaps five
inches thick For one of them he had
also hewn out heavy timber cover, eX-
actly fitting its cavity. Then he had set
the uncovered one plumb upon a solid
foundation. over that placed the second,
sc that its flat bottom would form a
cover to the other, and caked the seam
as a sailor call1s a snip.
MECHANISM OF THE STILLS.
I'm the bottom of the lower still he
fitted a faucet for the drawing off Of the
spent mash. After the two were in place,
one on the other, he cut a hole through
the bottom of the upper one. and fitted
into 1t a solid plug with a handle reach
ing out through the cover He also fitted
in two irregular copper siphons. Their
open lower ends projected little under
meath. their upper ends ran down almost
to the bottom CT the upper still and were
closed across, but had each a small
square opening a little way up the STEM
Through them the distilletion from the
lower still came up to pass into the goose
neck. The latter was, Of course, of cop
per. and connected with the worm after
the usual fashion.
.eThere was a wheezy pump for filling
the stills and ridiculous pot of steam
engine to do the distilling. pipe from
it ran in through the wooden side, and
the way the live steam made the mash
hiss and bubble was simply amazing.
The singllngs which came out ran slow
er than hope deferred. Four days IN
the week the old fellow let them ac-
cumulate. Then he washed up every
thing, turned the singlings back into the
still, and at the end of a long day had.
may be, key full of whisky. Some
times he put 1t In barrel first charring
the inside with a fire of fragrant hard
wood, made further Odorous with gums
of various sorts. But commonly he did
not risk so much in enc place. Kegs
were more to his mind-kegs charred az
were the barreIs-or even runlets, hold
ing no more than three gallons. Into
each of these he put a very little bright
straw, a generous handful of sun-dried
peaches, and pellet Of sugar as big as
a marble Time did the rest. Save I'M
der great stress, or greaL temptation, lie
never preached a key under five years
old. He would Of course, sell raw
whisky to those who chose to buy, trust
ing to their own palates or consciences
as to when the drinking would be- He
had a cavescellar hard by his house that
would have puzzled Sherlock Holmes to
find. The mouth of 1t was overhuns
with the most battered and ordinary
looking blackberry clump, and the hill
behind was really not hill to speak of.
No water ran in it since vent had brok-
en- lower down. 1t was neither cool nor
warm, but always airy. In summer the
sun shone in 1t for an hour or so Sach
day. May be that had something to do
with the way his whisky ripened. Any
way, 1T was nectar, with flavor of am
brosia thrown IN.
1--WE went home hot-foot and set up
two timber stills as quick as we could.
One was for singlngs. the other for
doubling up. They worked to admira
ton, made whisky for us that soon gave
US bulge on our competitors. The old
noonshiner. for Masonry,s sake and
some further considerations, came down
and showed us some of his fine arts.
Still our whisky never quite came up to
him, whether as We thought, through
lack of mountain water, or, as he said,
because of revenue faint, i cannot under
take to say. Ii was good; away be-
yond copper-distilled; but even in good
whisky there are degrees of excellence.
WHISKY FROM A SAWMILL.
"A fellow in the next county saw our
stills, and straightway set up something
that beat us and the moonshiner hollow.
He built a sawmil upon a frequented
road, right out in the open country.
When it was built he hauled to it the
very biggest logs he could find. and all
day long his crew tugged and swore,
and his engine painted and puffed. but
somehow these heaps of big logs changed
to lumber mighty slowly. He was al
ways behind on orders. Everybody
wondered at that. There wasn't an
other sawmill within twenty miles; with
a land office business staring him in he
face, it did seem he might make haste.
He said he made enough money as things
stood and did not mean to kill him
self hustling to please anybody. As he
always paid cash, and had money in
both pockets. nobody could very well dis
pute with him. At any rate nobody
did dispute with him. though after the
crash came everybody said he had known
1t all the time.
You see, he was moonshinin6; had a
timber still dug from logs left in the
rough and masked in all connections
and appurtenances by piles of other big
logs. He sawed leeyardly by day. and
distilled furiously by night, using. of
course, different crews. but himself stay
ing up the best part of the time. Rev
enue men passed his house, in plain
sight of his plant. at least once a week.
He often gave them dinner, in fact, and
listened to their tales of moonshine per-
ifs. But for three years no soul sus-
pected him. He might have run even
longer, but that he quarreled with one
of his men, Then he knew the Jig was
up He took his wife, with what cash
he had, and went Off between two days"