The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-15
MooNsHINER NOT BAD. SAYS GEN.
 IONGSTREET


 ed by writers of romance and men who have never come in contact with him" said General James Longstreet, the present railroad commissioner and Un-
 ited States marshal for Georgia back in the '7O's, to Washington cores pondent. q have lived among these people and dislike to hear them con- demned as a whole simply because 9 few among them show a spirit Of law lessness. The mountaineer, and es- especially that of Georgia, is a harm 1 less, peaceable fellow until cornered, when he will fight like a demon for his liberty, and do not know but that this trait is to be admired rather than con-
 demned. They are mostly descendants of the old pioneers who came from
 South Carolina and Virginia and set tied when the Indians were yet in
 Georgia. They are people who love liberty and freedom. with an earnest and honest love only second to that
 which they have for their God. In I their estimation a man who is dishonest and will lie is the lowest and meanest of creatures. .gs.s+
 l "The first shot fired at a revenue of | - | ficer in Georgia was on June 16, 1875, and believe that from that day to this the moonshiners have kept a compact to show no quarter to revenue officers and spies. On that date James Findley, a 1 brave deputy marshal, who live in my 1 home-G Gainesville making raid 4 with posse on the illicit distillery of old man Jacob Shane, near feathers s 1 Ford, a place where John 0. Calhoun and other public men frequently visited
 many years ago, when the gold fever was at it's fury in that section. Jacob ] Shane had extracted the juice of the corn for years unmolested, and when 1 Findley and his men went search of I the still they were met with shower I of leaden balls from the mountain sides. 1 Findley's 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 I the rifles had scarcely sent echoes l through the mountains before there were wild yells of half a hundred noun l taineers, who gave chase and followed some of the raiders almost into the very
 heart of Gainesville. s5..
 "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 Il to that section, but the soldiers got no ! farther than Gainesville, and had they gone into the mountains they would l 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 I away at the soldiers and they would have never known where the leaden missiles came from. Let me tell you, when rnountaineer pulls bead on an
 object with one of those long rifles death is sure to follow The noun
 taineers are taught to handle a rife
 from their very infancy, and some Of i the women can shoot just as true as the men, too *
 After time the soldiers returned to l Atlanta, deciding that it would be un-
 healthy to make a tour of the noun \ tains, and things quieted down. ! It is reasonable to suppose that some ofthese
 same people are still making moonshine whisky, and guess 1t 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 exercise of this right they consider
 as tyrannical and oppressive, and they will fight even unto death.
 The moonshiner Is by nature hos Ipitable and kind, but he has no love for
 a revenue officer and spy. He looks up
 on a stranger with suspicion, but when I convinced that the newcomer is not a hated 'revenuer' he is taken in and
 given the best treatment possible, in
 every instance pay being refused for | lodging or meals. They are an honest people, and make. their living by the
 sweat of their brow, For women they have the highest respect, and the rough
 est mountaineer is gentle and quiet in their presence. They will not permit
 any man to insult or treat a woman
 with unkindness, for they consider man 1.-the natural protector of women. In al-
 most every instance where there has
 been bloodshed at one of their noun | tain frolics the cause has been traced to the offering of an insult to some Wo-
 man. That mountaineer treats his women-folk as slaves and allows his animal nature and pursuit of material land selfishness happiness to dominate
 is entirely untrue and a rank islander upon people who have good and noble traits of character. The priceless gem of virtue is as sacredly and dearly
 prized by them as by any people on earth, and he who casts slur upon women is made to pay the penalty in short order.
 Many of the mountaineers are well to do, but & majority of them eke out a
 mere existence by cultivating small lpatches of ground, fishing, hunting, and
 making illicit whisky. The soil in the
 mountain counties is very poor and it takes the most faithful work to raise
 even enough corn, potatoes oats, veg etables and tobacco for home consump- ton, and the rough roads over the
 mountains make it difficult to cart the stuff to market. The moonshiner has
 always believed that it was his right to ldistill his own corn into whisky, which lis easily transported to market and
 which will bring him from SIPS to $1. .75 per gallon. One bushel of sound corn
 will make two and one-half gallons of pure whisky, and that bushel of corn
 would bring only thirty cents.
 "No, sir, the Georgia mountaineer-