The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-07
|TERWEW WITH REAL MOONSH|ENR Tells Why They Continue in
 Business PRESENTS HIS SIDE Thinks He Has Right to Convert Bushel of Corn Into $6 Worth of Whisky-His Attitude
 Toward Officers
By WALTER HARPER

Toward Officers
 By WALTER HARPER
 Most of us who never saw really truly moonshiner in his native environ ment among the mysterious hill have al
 exaggerated idea of the creature.
 We somehow picture him as a raw
 boned giant breathing defiance to al
 mankind and emphasizing his vehemenct
 with long-range shotgun or rapid firs | Winchester We picture him with long
 hair, shaggy beard, bloodshot eyes and
 a voice like Lion.
 We somehow come to regard him as
 kind of beast who plies some bloodthrsts
 avocation by the light of the moon, or
 pine torch at night and hunts revenue
 officers with wagon load of artillery by I day.
 | We reach this conclusion partly through the exaggerated tales that some times get into the newspapers and into | fiction about their alleged depredations | Then if you live In the city you are sur
 rounded by police protection and come in contact with no worse criminals than | common murders. burglars, highwaymen, sneak thieves, blind tiger operators, gam bers. swindlers, oppressors Of widows and orphans and such other petty crim- | inals.
 You have never come in contact with | real crime, real human degredation until you pierce the wild woods and fearful mountains and beared a real moonshiner in his lair
 I had the pleasure of sharing a bit of plug tobacco with a real, live moonshiner not long ago. He did not admit that he was still in the business, but 1t had been his life occupation for more than 50 years. He Is past middle life now and is not as active as in the old days when he could mind the still all night and oper- ate his farm by day with few hours of sleep caught between times. The farm is blind.
 This moonshiner was of the most con- firmed type. He stumbled into the hill country home where I had been enter tained over night He had heard that stranger was passing through the coun- try. Perhaps 1t was his business to get the particulars. He happened in before breakfast.
 As he took his seat before the broad mouthed wood fireplace with a laconic ''mornin at ye," you would have taken him for an ordinary one-horse hill farm CT. A close study of his face and fea- lures, however, disclosed unusually bright eye that seemed to pierce the very soul of the object of their scrutiny. Hardship and keen alertness were DOT trayed in every line of the face, every movement of the body
 When after cautious and sinuous in- quiry he found, that I was harmless newspaper man looking for material he warmed up and talked freely of his ca reer. He had been a moonshiner for many years in one of the notorious moon- shine districts of North Georgia before coming to Alabama, where he had con- tinued the business-'up to few years ago."
 He had been arrested and haled before the courts many times and had spent his time in prison. He had had many un- pleasant skirmishes with revenue off cers and had stood guard many a night in the hills near the still when intruders were expected.
 He showed much anger and indignation while talking of the opposition and inter- ference of government officials.
 I asked him to define the moonshiner's Justification for engaging in the illicit business of manufacturing whisky.
 He said: Corn is worth usually some where around 50 cents bushel. It Is a long way to market and when we get it there we more often fail to find buy CTS than we can sell it at any price. If we get 50 cents or even 75 cents bushel we very poorly paid for growing the corn and getting it to market. By run ming it into whisky we provide a market that is always profitable for our corn.
 "A bushel of corn that will bring 50 cents in it's raw state will make about four gallons of good whisky, worth s1,50 per gallon. So you see, we get about s6 bushel fo~ the product of the corn against 30 censs for the corn itself. We | raise most of tn corn manufactured into
 whisky and feel that we have a moral right to prepare it sor market in the way that is most profitabe It Is also easier to get one gallon of whisky worth H.5o | to market than it is ; bushel of corn | worth only 50 cents.
 l we concede that the re,enue officers have a right to arrest us wf,n tbev can | catch us. but we do not believethev have | a. right to destroy and confisate our property. It is this destruction e prop- l erty that has caused moonshiners 70 be- come such bitter enemies to the reAnue officers If they would simply come nd arrest us we would submit wthoutNe fight. but when they cut up our proper ty, take our stock and wagons and pour out our products we fight and we feel that we have a right to do it." | As he reached this conclusion he talked excitedIy. his face grew red and white with anger and he moved restlessly in his
 seat. Then pulling his broad-brimmed hut down over his eyes he rose, bid us gcod-bv and said he must hurry back home to help his mother to her break fast ''Mother is 93 years old and cannot get about the house without help make it a point to be on hand at meal | time to feed her in bed so that she will not worry herself She often complains that she is so old and helpless that she will be glad when she can give 1t all ui | and relieve us of the burden of her sup | port. She says she has finished her life and that it Is time for her to die. She has done all tho good she can. but we will not agree with her, of course. She IS gerat consolation to my sister and my | self and we want her to stay with us as | long as possible. She has been a good | old mother and is still a comfort and a guide to her children l@x-,