Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-10-17
TRAPPING MOONSHINERS.
Typical Southern Mountain Still is a
Crude Affair.

ne IS DIS IllTeplu, as llOu hearted q
fellow as ever breathed the mountain
air. If you are looking for a dime
novel plot you might go and see him,
and perhaps he would tell you all
about it, yet this is very doubtful,
says the Brooklyn Eagle. His name
is Hupp-Deputy Marshal Hupp of the
northern district of West Virginia.
and he is Uncle Sans special hero
just at present. but least of all to sus-
pect it is he himself
Upon Rich mountain, some rs miles
southeast of Elkins. abided until just
recently Sam Watt, as desperate a
"mOonshiner" as ever distilled white
lightning"
For years he had been the terror
of the mountain and there wasn't
revenue man who could take him. But
Hupp marked his man three months
ago, and when he arrived at the foot
hills on his nimble footed nag he learn
ed that Rich mountain protected itself
with an ingeniously organized sys-
TEN whereby-as if wireless tele-
graphy were employed-the noun
taineers passed speedily up. from base
to summit. the word that a revenue
man was in the wind. Hupp had also
been warned that penetration of the
dark forest on the mOuntainside would
mean an ugly death for him. So he
bided his time. He returned the 9TH
er day and saw to it that his coming
was unheralded. Full well he knew
that Rich mountain was doing it's best
to keep tab on his every movement;
that one suspicious glance shot from
the tail of his eye would set the green
slopes a throbbing from bottom to top;
that a posse of mountaineers would
then spring up like Jason's crop of
dragons teeth. UP through the dark
fastness alone he felt his way to the
bad mans shanty. Pouncing on Watt
he handcuffed the scourge of the
mountains before the latter was Who'll
ly awake. Loading his prisoner pack
wise upon a mountain mule, he hur-
ried down the slope with IA miles be-
tween him and civilization and with
the echo in his ears of the alarm CIV
en- to the mountaineers. Pistol in
hand, he reached the railway station
Of West Virginia natives. boosted the
moonshiner upon the train. Rich
mountain was still echoing the rumble
of the departing train when, rafting
down its steep slope was heard the
cavalcade of the enraged mountain
GERS, come too late to rescue their
pal and to riddle the revenue man
with buckshot
The typical southern mountain still
is a crude affair. costing about $50.
1t consists primarily of two barrels,
one of which contains a coil of cop
per pipe connected with a boiler on
the top of an oven, such as was used
in old times for baking out OF doors.
In the other barrel is kept the mash
corn meal and molases fermented in
to kind of beer. When the mash is
heated in the boiler 1t rises as vapor
into the coil. over which. inside the
first barrel referred to- falls water
from a cool mountain stream. The
vapOr thus cooled, cOndenses into Ii.
quor. which. when distilled the sec.
ond time, becomes corn whisky.
The mash is made by mixing one
gallon of cheap. black molases. cost.
ing about 80 cents, with two bushels
of corn, worth about 65 cents bush
ell, ground into meal. Water is add
ed in sufficient quantities to make
40 gallons of whisky, sold for 81 per
gallon. Thus, with an outlay Of ST..
| 60 is realized $50, and a saving OF the
government tax of $1.l0 per barrel
Ain ST double this profit is realizes!
by some moonshiners. who now buy
brown sugar at Az cents a pound. OF
1880 per barrel, and make their own
molasses by mixing with water. The
mountaineers bring their cUrn to the
| still and trade it for whisky. As long
as such enormous profits are to be
made, illicit distilling will probably
never be stamped out of this coun'
try.
Moonshiners are being caught ev'
cry day and in spite of what befalls
them others spring up like weeds to
take their places. Moreover, the con
vfcted moonshiner can be counted up
on to resume his traffic as soon d. he
has left Jail Illicit stills are chopped
TO pieces as soon as the revenue men
md them. The barrels are broken