The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-07-26
GETTING ADRINK DOWN SOUTH
ALL SORTS OF SCHEMES TO GET
AROUND TIE Law.

Col. bishop, WHO'S Just Been in Tennessee.
Brings Back q Report on the Sub
terfuges OF the Thirsty-The Moon.
shine Industry Aided by Prohibition.
Deputy Surveyor John NJ. Bishop, known
TO his friends as Colonel chiefly because
he is a native of Tennessee, has returned
from a visit to his old home at Tate Springs
with some impressions Of the political battle
down there between the fol ces of Prohibi-
ton and what the prohibitioa ists and others
call the Demon Rum, TIL Colonel says he
has made something Of a study Of the situa-
ton in Tennessee.
"The ingenuity Of the mar with q thirst
down there" he remarked, sis working over
time. ! never heard of or saw 80 many
schemes for getting drinks on the sly. The
umbrella member even is in the business.
carrying two or three short nips in the hol-
low of each umbrella handle One Of q
group of commercial travellers with whom
l talked told me a story Of a big angular
oolored woman who increased the symmetry
Of her figure by %strapping around it certain
Dubious Observation-Disclosures ! suspect
the contents of which she sold on the quiet.
thus reducing her girth and increasing her
wad.
MANY arrests for 'bootlegging' are being
made in the State and the blind tiger is
everywhere. A merchant selling a bill Of
goods always slips in a bottle as a gift. By
many devices storekeepers manage 80 they
can dig up a sip Of good cheer water when
it is urgently sought by a wayfarnig brother.
A brand of soft stuff known as prohibition
beer is on the market. Being non-alcoholio
it may be sold within the law. The mer-
chant in addition to his stock Of prohibition
beer will lave stored in his blind tiger de-
partment a stock Of sure enough beer. When
q stranger, a man unknown to the COM
munity and who may be a spotter, comes
into the joint and calls for prohibition beer
he gets it. But il the caller be a citizen
whose beer thirst is a matter Of common
knowledge in the town, the ~storekeeper
fishes out a bottle of real beer.
In the moonshine districts q dollar
placed on a blind tiger stump will turn
to a bottle of booze before morning. An
improved scheme in this same class is to
lave a blind drawer in a partition wall.
A dollar placed in this drawer will turn to
whiskey when the drawe Is again opened.
II one is assigned to a two dollar room
in a blind tiger hotel he will find a mi
dollar bottle Of whiskey in the room. II he
calls for a three dollar room he will find
two bottles or a jug of hrewater under the
bed.
Il went into a shooting gallery in-well,
/ won't give IL ~away-andw was told that my
poor shooting was due TO unsteady nerves.
A wink went with this remark. Some
pantomime followed and then a little brown
Bette was fished out Of a closet. 1t was
disclosed later that my poor marksmanship
had been due to the fact that the bell had
been purpoeely removed from the target.
The express companies stock up with dummy
packages. and when the thirst victim enters
the express office and injuries II a package
has been received for John Smith he is
answered in the affirmative. and after
receiving the package departs in peace.
THE prohibition laws in the South are
not uniform in their operation and as a
result some strange business freaks have
come about. In Chattanooga, for instance,
prohibition failed to carry, and as a result
1t has becdyle the leading wildcat distribut-
ing point in the South. A saloon man
named Rose, exiled from dry Atlanta,
moved his traps to wet Chattanooga and
started a distribution agency. His business
has reached mammoth proportions. He
operates through the express companies
and daily sends out many thousand pack
ages to all parts Of the South.
After prohibition struck Dixie midships
Chattanooga became the harbor of refuge
Alabama and Mississippi. The saloon men,
accompanied by the fixtures of their dis
mantled saloons, piled into Chattanooga
from all sides, and the storage places Of
the town under Lookout Mountain now
contain enough second hand fittings to rig
out another Hoboken. The Chattanooga
brewery found itself snowed under with
saloon fixtures which it had originally
furnished to plaoeshandling its stuff through
out the South.
aThe old time moonshine trade in the
upland sections Of the South. which had
been well nigh ~extermiaated by Uncle
Sam, promises to spring up again as an
adjunct of the blind tiger business. A
real, casehardened old soak. il he can't
tickle his palate at some local quenchery,
will HE himself to a nearby mountain trail
and get a line on a moonshine plant. This
bodies no good for the 'revenooers.' for
be 1t remembered these oficers-who
under old conditions upheld the dignity
Of the law at a mere pittance-will now
have to work overtime and even then not
cop all, the truck, The reason is plain.
Formerly Mr.. Moonshiner stood alone in
his defiance OF law. When the cohorts
of thirst from hill and dale, fleeing before
the praying. shouting, exhorting army Of
drink fighters. reach the laurel fringed
of the Smoky, the Grandfather,
the Chilhowie, the Unoka and the Cumber-
land with red eyes, parohed lips and fever
blisters on their tongues. the moonshiner
will find himself among friends who will
keep his secret"