The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26
NOT BAD
 SAYS GEN. LONGSTREET

From the Detroit Free Press.
 "The average mountain moonshiner is not the terrible desperate he is painted by writers of romance and men who have never come in contact with him." said Gen. James Longstreet, the present rail- road commissioner and United States mar shal for Georgia back in the '7Os to Washington correspondent. T have lived among these people and l dislike to hear them condemned as a whole simply be- cause a few among them show spirit of 1awlessness. The mountaineer, and espe- cially that of Georgia, is a harmless, peaceable fellow until cornered, when he will fight like a demon for his liberty, and I do not know but that this trait. is to be admired rather than condemned. They are mostly descendants of the old pioneers who came from South Carolina and Virginia and settled when the h. dians were yet in Georgia. They are people who love liberty and freedom with an earnest and honest love only sec- ond to that which they have for their God In their estimation a man who is dishonest and will lie is the lowest and meanest of creatures.
 War Upon Revenue Agents.
 "rhe first shot fired at arevenue officer in Georgia was on June 16 1875, and be- lieve that from that day to this the moonshiners have kept a compact to show no quarter to revenue officers and spies. On that day James Findley, a brave deputy marshal who lived at my me-Gainesville-was making a raid with posse on the illicit distillery of old man Jacob Shane. near Leather's ford, a place where John C. Calhoun and other public men frequently visited many years ago, when the gold fever was in it's fury in that section. Jacob Shane had extracted the juice of the corn for years unmolested, and when Findley and his men went in search of the still they were met with shower of leaden balls from the mountain sides. Findleys horse was shot from under him and he received two ugly wounds in the leg, and others of the raiders were slightly injured. The sound of the rifles had hardly sent echoes through the mountains before there were wild yells of half a hundred mountain eers. who gave chase and followed some of the raiders almost into the very heart of Gainesville
 "The wounding of Findley, who was one of the best known young men in Georgia caused a great deal of feeling, and United States troops were ordered to that section, but the soldiers got no farther than Gainesville. and had they gone into the mountains they would have been met by armed mountaineers who could and would have killed many of them from their hiding places in the crags. Why. with their old long rifles the mountain boys could have plugged away at the soldiers and they would have never known where the leaden mis- siles came from. Let me tell you, when mountaineer pulls a bead on an object with one of those long rifles death is sure to follow. The mountaneers are taught to handle a rife from their very infancy and some of the women can shoot just as true as the men, too.
 After a time the soldiers returned to Atlanta, deciding that it would be un- healthy to make tour of the mountains, and things quieted down. It is reason- able to suppose that some of these same people are still making moonshine whis- ky, and I guess it will be made to the end of time, for they believe they have the inalienable right to do as they please with the proceeds of their own labor. The law that molests them in the exer- else of this right they consider as tyr annical and oppressive, and they will fight even unto death.
 ''The moonshiner is by nature hospi- table and kind but he has no love for a revenue officer and spy. He looks upon a stranger with suspicion, but when con- vinced that the newcomer is not a hated 'revenuer' he is taken in and given the best treatment possible, in every instance refusing to accept pay for lodging or