The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-07-13
LIQUOR WAR is ON TO DEATH
MOONSHINERS VS.. REVENOORS
IN DESPERATE BATTLES.
Most Offending Districts Are in GeOr-
gia, Alabama, the CarOlinas
and Tennessee.

ana tennessee.
WASHINGTON, D. Chat it is
now war to the knife between Uncle
Sans internal revenue service and
the makers of illicit whiskey the re-
cent battles between officers and
moonshiners bear bloody witness. In
northern Alabama, east Tennessee
and western North Carolina there
have taken place desperate encount-
ers that show determination on the
one side to stamp out the mOonshine
Still and on the other to spread the
propaganda of free whiskey, The
killed and wounded in these battles
since the first day of May average
nearly 80 per cent. of those engaged,
a proportion that has the most lurid
records of the civil war faded to
pale monochrome.
1t is in the sections just named
that the fight RACES fiercest. Accord
ing to the records of the Bureau of
Internal Revenue, the most offending
districts are in the mountains of
N6OISld, AID DdildJ -NOl III CdI OlIld,
South Carolina and Tennessee. the
magnitude of the law-breaking being
in the order named. That the posi-
ton of revenue agent is no sinecure
is shown by the list of fatalities late
ly placed on record in the Bureau of
Internal Revenue at Washington.
The difficulties of the work have been
lately further increased by the pas
sage of prohibition regulations in
many sections, thus throwing upon
the moOnshiner almost the whole
joyous burden of supplying a thirsty
and increased clientele with liquor
Naturally the enlarged custom and
resultant profit to the moonshiner
Stiffens up his Unborn recklessness
and bravery to point that makes
the life of the investigating officer a
most unhappy one. Between these
combatants there are no such thing
as treaties and rules of civilized war
fare; it is shoot quick and shoot
straight and shoot all the time. Re-
Gently Internal Revenue Collector
Dunlap of the east Tennessee dis
trict, impatient to weed out a pecu-
1iarly odious band of moonshiners,
dotted his Office coat, donned his pis-
tolls and took command of a squad
himself He charged boldly upon the
enemy intrenched upon a rocky crag,
and after being wounded in the hot
encounter, carried their position.
The leader surrendered, Offering his
formidable ten-gauge shotgun to his
conquerer-but he offered it muzzle
first and forthwith belched hand
full of buckshot full into the I'M
suspecting collector. They grappled
and rolled over the crag while the
fight above was renewed. In the out
come the law conquered and the VIC
tors bore away four prisoners, two of
them huge Amazons that could plump
the bulls eye at 200 yards; for the
women fight as bravely as the men
among these people.
A fortnight ago Revenue Agent
Sans had pitched battle near Ashe-
vile, n. c., capturing a band of
moonshiners only after desperate
lighting. A few days before that
Revenue Agent Anderson of north
ern Alabama, designing to capture
a band of old-time offenders who
had become particularly bold in their
operations, divided his force into sew
eral parties and conveyed upon the
devoted still The attack resulted in
general disaster Anderson himself
was ambushed and killed, while one
of the two deputies with him was
seriously wounded. The agent in
charge, Surber, raised a larger force
and fell upon the outlaws on moon
less night with decisive results, the
final one being penitentiary terms
for the four that ambushed Ander-
son, varying from ten to thirty years.
These are fair samples of the war
now being waged. Another thorn in
the flesh of the federal powers is
the lack of initiative or even Coop
GRAFTON on the part of the local au-