River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-08-26

Monnshining is no longer the profita-
BILE industry that it used to be. Ac-
cording to the estimate of the internal
revenue Office at Washington, not
more than one gallon of unlawful
whisky is made to-day for every 20
gallons produced Is years ago. This,
of course, is the result of persistent
and unrelenting warfare waged by the
government against ''wildcatters,"
who have been driven to take refuge
in a comparatively few inaccessible
localities. usually mountainous.
Thanks to these changed conditions,
the number of revenue agents killed
by moonshiners does not now average
so much as one year. A marked I'M
provement this, as may be judged
from the fact that in a period OF IL
years, from 1871 to 1882, 35 govern
ment deputies engaged in raiding
stills were slain, and 81 wounded.
Three consecutive years, when the
illicit business was most fercely re-
sisting interference, witnessed the
deaths of % raiders. But the figures
quoted do not include deputy mar
sGals killed while arresting moon
sinners; and, as for the "wildcatters"
themselves, no official record has ever
been kept of the mortality among
them, though it was undoubtedly
large.
During period of five years, from
1877 to 1881, no fewer than 5000 Illicit
stills were seized, and 5000 moon
sinners were arrested. When it is
considered that the product of the av-
erage wildcat" plant is five gallons
day. it will be obvious that this meant
a very considerable loss of tax to the
government. Roughly speaking, in the
last 80 years about 10000 stills have
been captured, the greatest number in
1898, when 2,400 were destroyed.
The monshine still is always located
in some inaccessible spot-perched on
a cliff that may easily be defended by
a couple of men against a score, or
hidden in a cavern underground, or
concealed amid thick woods in detile
between hills so lofty that the curl
ing smoke tells no tale to the keen
eyed government raiders. Plenty of
cold water-the one thing absolutely
indispensable-is supplied by a noun
tain streamlet. AS for apparatus, all
that is needed is few wooden casks,
a copper kettle and a coil of metal tub
ing. Often the kettle is extemporized
out of two or three square yards of
sheet copper The casks, too, are as
likely as not to be homemade. But
the metal tubing must be purchased in
town. and is so precious that, when
not in actual use, it is carefully hid
den.
A big distillery can make whisky for
thirty-five or forty cents gallon, but,
owing to the primitive character of
his plant. and also to the fact that
production is on so small a scale, the
liquor turned out by the moonshiner
costs him anywhere from sixty to
seventy-five cents a gallon. Thus he
could not compete at all with the great
liquor factories, were it not for the
fact that the latter concerns are
obliged to pay tax of $1.10 gallon
on the stuff they manufacture. The
law which the "wildcatter" condemns
as unjust, and which in it's operation
ne TeSlSIS SO VIOlSHCly Is III ASdAAIy IAO
sole support of his Illicit business-a
fact which, oddly enough, seems never
to occur to the moonshiner.
Nearly all of the output of the
moonshine stills is corn whisky. Some
peach brandy and apple brandy is
made unlawfully, however, and in one
state considerable quantities of low
proof rum is obtained by primitive
methods from the distillation of the
skimmings, known as "pottins," of the
kettles used for boiling molasses in
the strip mills. Perhaps the most pic.
turesque Indicating" done at tho