The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
LIVE CHRISTMAS
 DAY IN ATLANT "A Holiday Spirit Is Shown In
 Gifts to the Poor
1900 PERSONS ARE FED
Internal Revenue Officers Make Raid on Moonshine DistiIIery and Cap ture a Lot of Booze, But
 Owners Had Fled.

in the past.
 Exceptionally abundant provision was made for the poor and unfortunate. Not only were the orphan asyIums-there are ten of them in or dependent upon At lanta-and the other charitable insti- tutions of the city well provided with good things to eat, but almost every in mate was the recipient of some article of wear or other use that brought joy to the heart while the stomach was be- ing filled.
 The Associated Charities, through which Atlantas general charity Is largely dispensed, has made it a point to hunt out distressed families and to see in every instance that they are well pro- vided with fuel, food and such clothing as is necessary.
 The two Salvation Armies which col lected hundreds of dollars from the Christmas shoppers on the streets, fed last night some 15O0 poor persons and provided many with full baskets to suf- flee for families for several days.
 There were possibly 100 Christmas trees arranged at the various missions and other points for the children to whom Christmas otherwise would be largely meaningless.
 The inmates of the federal prison en- joyed a holiday within the prison walls and 1000 pounds of turkey with cranberry sauce on the side contributed to the en- joyment of their thanksgiving feast.
 Inmates of the Georgia penitentiary all over the state were given day off and supplied with all they could desire in the way of Christmas dinner.
 The Atlanta banks have taken advan- tage of the fact that Saturday, a short business day, comes in between Christ mas and Sunday, and they closed last night to remain closed until Monday morning, thus giving their employees a more substantial holiday season than is ordinarily their lot.
 Christmas day in the city was gen. orally quiet and orderly. There was a double force of police on duty and 1t will remain on duty until the holidays have passed.
 The increase in the police force has perhaps had much to do with the de- crease in the number of robberies and burglaries which has been noted in the last few days, though the number Of them in the community is still in ex- cess of the normal
 The Atlanta merchants did only a fair holiday business. In small lines and cheap articles the sales were good, but there was not much big trade. Many of them found it necessary to cut prices several days before Christmas in order to dispose of large holiday stocks they had on hand.
 Raid on Distillery.
 Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue J. H. Griffin has just returned from northeast Georgia where he went to make raid upon a well known band of moonshiners who have been doing bus mess for many months on island To- cated in the Savannah river between Georgia and South Carolina.
 There are several of these islands-Gin Island, Round Island and Evergreen Island-which have long been places of rendezvous for the makers of Illicit whisky and three times within the last few months organized raids have been made upon them but never an arrest. Deputy Collector Griffin went out from Hartwell Ga, accompanied by Deputy Marshal G. w Griswel and posse of two or three men and travelled 36 miles through the country and on the river before they reached the moonshiners' place of business.
 As on previous occasions, however, they found the still deserted. The islands are so situated that with few guards post ed it Is an easy matter to detect the approach of any one from almost any direction. There Is little doubt, there fore, that the operators of the still were made aware of the approach of the of fcers, whereupon they got out of the way. They also took with them or managed successfully to hide their cop per still which is the most important part | of their paraphernalia.
 | All that Deputy Griffin had to report | on his return to Atlanta, therefore, was | nobody to home'' and the destruction of | IA fermenters and 12oo gallons of whisky | ''beer" The moonshiners were getting I ready, evidently, for a big Christmas l run and that was all the loss they suf- 
 1 fered.
 Engagement to Meet Taft. An Atlanta committee headed by Pres ident Asa G. Candler of the chamber | of commerce and comprised besides of | c. E. Cavery, David Woodward and | Walter G. Cooper secretary of the cham 1 Der. has an engagement to meet MT. Taf | in Augusta Monday afternoon, where they | go to confer with him regarding the | time of his visit to Atlanta. MT. Taft has promised to give Atlanta one day | during his stay in the south. That day | which will be some date in January, will | be arranged in this conference. | It is the purpose of the Atlanta cham
 Der of commerce to give MT. Taft a rep | resentative southern audience at the ban | quet which it will give as a feature o | his entertainment here and to that ent | it has been arranged to invite 100 rep resentative southerners from other citie | in Georgia and neighboring states.
 Holiday Gifts.
 l Among the holiday presentations Com
 missioner of Agriculture T. G. Hudsol
 was handsomely remembered by the oi
 and fertilizer inspectors of the stat'
 who constitute quite an extensive corp
 of officials under. his direction. These of ficials presented Mrs. Hudson with handsome $500 diamond ring and jewe
 case and to Mir Hudson they gave
 s10O diamond stud. Scarcely Christina
 passes but the commissioner of agricul