Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-16

the still near Flat Top, the moonshiners
were said to be ready to make their first
run-that is, turn the beer into singllngs
or low wine.
Ride Has It's Dangers.
1t was necessary for us to pass through
nearly thirty miles of moonshine territory,
and in a country, where travellers Of any
kind being scarce, every stranger receives
a degree of scrutiny that is difficult to
avoid. Carrying rifles, also, after
the hunting season is over is a hard mat
ter to explain to the inquisitive. Dan, the
deputy marshal, tucked his, therefore, un-
der his coat and volunteered the informa-
tion to the few people who were met on the
road that the writer, who exhibited an un-
calmly camera box on hts back, was the
surveyor of a new railroad line and was
taking pictures for his company. This APP
parently allayed suspicion and the raiders
seemed to have a fair chance to walk
quietly in on the moonshiners at their work
and capture the entire party.
By evening, however, this hope was dis
PEELED. We had scarcely reached Flat Top
when from the surrounding mountains sig
nal guns were fired and beacons lit. Not
a soul was seen and these evidences of an
aroused community were anything but re-
assuring. Until midnight we spurred our
horses over a road that eluded us more
than once in the intense darkness. Moth
ing could be more weirdly impress
sive than this stealthy approach in the
black silence OF the night, through a hos
tile country hampered by all the obstacles
that the toughest section of the Allegha-
MES could present. No houses were passed
until within a mile Of the place where the
moonshiners were at work. Here a strange
spectacle came into view that caused each
Of us an involuntary shudder. The house
OF one of the moonshiners was burning.
Not a soul was visible; not a sound could
be heard, except the roar of the flames and
the occasional plunge of a Kissing log to
the wreck-strewn ground beneath. What
tragedy was marked by this conflagration;
what midnight orgy or deadly mountain
feud, none Of the raiders hurrying by with
blanched faces looming through the circle
of fire could fathom 1t was a mountain
home gone and possibly an entire family
of these strange people slumbered beneath
the ashes. The mystery Of 1t, undoubtedly
connected in some way with the raid, will
probably never be solved. More than one
tragedy occurs in those wild mountains
and never a whisper of 1t reaches the world
outside.
Dan SmeIed the still.
BY what instinct Dan could tell the prox-
unity OF the moonshiners' plant in that dark
wilderness 1t would be hard even for him
to explain. Every now and then he would
get on his knees and examine the snow and
frozen twigs for signs. Finally, after one
OF these inspections, he called us together
and announced that we were within gunshot
OF the place, pointing at the same time
down a dark precipice, at the bottom Of
which could be heard the far-away murmur
Of a mountain stream.
Have your guns ready. boys. Get the
drop on the first man you see. II you need
to. FIRE on him"
That precipice seemed interminable. In
stead Of a short decllvity it was afterward
found to be about 800 feet in height, a glare
of Zoe and a tangle of laurel thicket. AS
the bottom was reached, the snow-coyered
banks Of the stream could be family dis
tinguished in the starlight, and then a mass
OF dark objects from which a thin column