El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-29

fore he died, he confessed that 1t was
he, and not Little Bill, who had killed
Big Bill Howard.
The officers of the treasury police
who are assigned to duty fn the moon
shine region run many mortal risks.
Theirs is no holiday duty. Every year
some of them are killed. The Illicit
distillers in that part Of the country
think nothing of committing murder
in defence of what they consider their
inalienable right to make whisky, and
to sell it.
The Still on the Island.
Not long ago, on the Tugaloc, which
is an affluent of the Savannah river,
an Illicit distillery was discovered. on
an island in midstream. There was no
boat at hand, by which TO reach the
island, and so the revenue agent built
raft of logs. On this frail craft he
embarked, with a paddle. But he
water was swift, the raft went to
pieces. and the officer. bestriding one
log. was glad to seek safety upon a
rock. a short distance above the is
land. There his position was made
very unpleasant by a fusillade of rifle
bullets. which, to brighten him, were
fired all around him by the moonshin-
ers on the island.
A more unpleasant situation could
hardly be imagined. But a couple OF
negroes came along in skiff, and
took the revenue agent off the rock.
Though his pistol had been rendered
useless by water. he compelled them,
by threatening to shoot, to land him
on the island, and captured the still
and the moonshiners.
The 4-moonshine" region today COM
prises parts Of northern Alabama.
North Carolina and Virginia, and east
ern Tennessee and Kentucky All of
it is in the widest sections Of the APP
palachian mountains, the illicit dis
tflleries being located usually in the
most inaccessible places-on the sum-
mits of precipitious cliffs, in caverns,
or in deep ravines=where there is a
purling stream to furnish the requis-
lite water. Nothing could be more
simple than the apparatus employed.
which ordinarily consists merely of a
copper kettle a coil of metal tubing.
and a few kegs or barrels TO hold the
mash" The raw material for whisky
making is corn meal. obtained from a
nearby mill. Poured into the barrels
or kegs. it is moistenei with spent
beer, and, after undergoing fermenta-
ton. is transferred to the kettle, under
which a fire is built.
Is Crude and Fiery.
The whisky thus produced, crude and
fiery. is sold to the people of the coun-
tryside. 1t is stuff that makes mad
ness. Wherever the lincolnshire" in
dustry thriyes, poverty surely reigns.
This is one reason why the abolish
ment of Illicit distilling is desirable
and even necessary. But additional
mischief is made by the fact that such
unlawful liquor supplies the keepers
Of many a blind tiger" and speak
easy" in nearby towns, who get the
stuff from the rural manufacturers.
fetching it in wagons covered over
with \ vegetables, or otherwise dis
guised.
In the mountain districts where
moonshining prevails the population is
usually sparse. and the inhabitants
are extraordinarily primitive in their
ways. Many OF them have never seen
a railroad. Rarely do they go far
away from home. Negroes are sup
posed to be plentiful enough in that
part of the country. and yet. not long
ago, a revenue agent (who told the
story 20 the writer) came across a
child--it was in North Carolina-who,
at six years Of age, had never beheld
a black man. The boy, on seeing one
for the first time, ran to his father,
saying that "a man with a painted
face" had been making faces at him."
He was frightened.
Rene Bach.