Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-17
MooNsHINERs BUSY THIS YEAR.
Large Crop of Corn Promises GOOD
Harvest in the Mountains.

Atlanta Correspondence Chicago Chronicle.
| There is race of men, most of them in
| habitng the shadowy wilds of mountain
| and forest lying south of Mason and Dix
| ons line, about whom cluster tales of ro-
| mantle adventures, deeds of daring and Il
| calm defiance of federal and state regula-
| ton that render them unique among those
who cross swords with the authorities.
| AS to the illegality of their trade, what
| they do today, they say, their ancestors
| have done for more than a century before
! them. and 1t not until some twenty-five
years ago that the government thought to
| interfere with and rob them of what they
| consider their rights.
| But the government claimed it was being
| defrauded of millions of it's just revenue
and from that day to this has never ceased
| to war On these moonshiners, these brewers
| and diStillerS of Illicit spirits, in their
| strongholds along frowning mountain sides
| and out-of-the-way ravines in the south
| OF the 1859 moonshine stills destroyed last
year, thirteen We're located outside of south
| ern states-nine in New York, two in
| Massachusetts and two in New Jersey. OF
| the remainder, $50. nearly half the entire
| number, We're found in Georgia, the state
that has always held the record in the mat
| ter of moonshinng. Just at present the
| authorities are looking forward to busy
\ season.
! The corn crop has been gathered. which
| means that the men who make wiskey
! and do not count in their expenses the pur-
chase of government stamps, as provided
| by law, are beginning to get busy The
reason for this is that the corn crops
| reported as being unusually good this year,
and that always means plenty of moon
shine. Just why the moonshiners of the
country should be confined to the southern
states is a problem Many and various
are the methods used by the moonshners in
the manufacture of their Illicit product!
From steam plant hidden in the cane
| brakes of Georgia the elaborate layout
| of some cave in the mountains of Ken
lucky to a milk can in the cellar of
southern city, there is no lack of ingenuity
among these distillers of firewater.
Here is a STILL said Deputy Revenue
Agent Martin exhibiting some of the cap
tured treasures of the government in the
revenue departments southern office. Here
is a still that takes the prize for neatness
and simplicity. Probably it didn't cost it's
inventor 10 cents to make it, but that little
still gave US awful lot of trouble before
we ran 1t down-and to this day we are
looking for the man who used to operate 1t.
lie was one of the daring kind For pure
deviltry, as a joke the revenue office he
went by my name. John Martin and actually
made and sold his liquor between Grant
Park and the Soldiers Home in the city
limits. OF Atlanta. He used the smallest
stu, as we'll as the simplest, that has ever
been captured by a government officer 1t
consists. merely OF a quart milk can with
an ordinary tin funnel for a cap. The. arm
to the flake stand condenser, is less
than half an inch in diameter, while the
condenser is4notnng0 more tor less than an
GID gallon paint pot. with the stains of the
paint sticking to it even row. ..-t--,. r
According to Revenue Agent Gates. who
mas charge OF the department in the states
Of Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the
northern part of Mississippi. and who holds
the record, with his deputies Of hav-
ing destroyed twenty-five hundred moon
SHINE stills in the state of Georgia alone
the greatest amount of danger to the raid
ing oincer Is TO be found in the mountains
OF kentucky In that wild region during
ms term as United States agent for Ken
lucky, Colonel Gates took part in eight
nights with the mountain moonshiners In
all of these encounters, according to this
veteran raider. the fighting was done on
the part or the moonshiners from a bush
where the officers We're practically an open
target for their assailants. Strange to s Nv
however notwithstanding the reputation
me hentucky mountaineer has for marks
manship, in no instance does Colonel Gates
report the serious wounding of the men.