The Carlisle independent., 1909-09-02

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 l MOnnshining is no longer the profita- l ble industry that it used to be Ac- l cording to the estimate of the internal revenue office at Washington. not
 more than one gallon of unlawful l whisky is made to-day for every 20 i gallons produced 15 years ago. This, of course, is the result of persistent and unrelenting warfare waged by the l government against "wildcatters,
 who have been driven to take refuge
 in a comparatively few inaccessible localities. usually mountainous
 l Thanks to these changed conditions. l the number of revenue agents killed i by moonshiners does not now average i SC much as one year. 4 marked i'm 1 provement this, as may be judged from the fact that in period of Il l years, from 1871 to 1882, 8 govern ment deputies engaged in raiding stills were slain, and 61 wounded. Three consecutive years, when the
 illicit business was most fercely re ] sisting interference, witnessed the deaths of 9 raiders. But the figures quoted do not include deputy mar shals killed while arresting moon sinners: and, as for the ''wildcatters' 1 themselves, no official record has ever i been kept of the mortality among them though it was undoubtedly
 large
 During 2 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-
 craze wildcat" plant is five gallons a
 day, it will be obvious that this meant
 a very considerable loss of tax to the government. Roughly speaking, in the last 30 years about 30.000 stills have been captured, the greatest number in 1 1898, when 2,400 were destroyed
 In the good old time monshine
 whisky was commonly shipped for long distances for sale. Saloon keep CTS bought considerable quantities. the stuff being fetched usually in wagons from the rural districts where it was
 made, hidden beenath an ostensible
 load of vegetables, or occasionally carried on muleback In the latter
 case two kegs in long sack were slung across the back of the animal, and the proprietor of the fluid mer-
 chandise was, as a rule, ready to shoot
 if an officer of the law attempted to
 halt him. Nowadays, however, very
 little illicit liquor is sent into the
 settlements" and the sale of it is
 almost wholly local.
 The monehine still is always located in some inaccessible spot-perched on
 a cliff that may easily be defended by
 a couple of men against Q score, or
 hidden in a cavern underground, or concealed amid thick woods in a defile ! between hills so lofty that the curl 1 ing. smoke tells no tale to the keen eyed government raiders. Plenty of cold water-the one thing absolutely indispensable-is supplied by noun tain streamlet. As for apparatus, ail that is needed is few wooden casks. a copper ketle and 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
 The whisky-making process is sim pie enough. From the nearest mill is obtained a quantity of cornmeal, with which to fill the casks. Some spent
 beer is poured upon the meal and.
 when the resulting fermentation has
 gone far enough, the "mash" is dumped by -pailfuls into the kettle When the mash is heated over fire,
 the alcohol passes in vapor through
 the coils of metal, duly connected for
 the purpose, which, being surrounded ! by cold water, causes the vapor to
 condense, coming out the other end of
 the tube in the shape of whisky.
 A big distillery can make whisky for | thirty-fve or forty cents a gallon, but owing to the primitive character of
 his plant, and also to the fact that production is on so small scale. the
 liquor turned out by the moonshiner | costs him anywhere from sixty to
 seventy-hve cents a gallon. Thus he
 could not compe5e at all with the great l liquor factories, were 1t not for the
 fact that the latter concerns are