The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-01-30
cAR0LBMA'S Bl0CKApERs.
MANY ILLICIT STILLS ARE RUN WITHOUT EVIL INTENT m
MEN WHO ARE FAR FROM CRIMINALS

the Year at a wage of SIS. or, in rare
cases. $40 a month. payable mostly in
merchandise at the country store. In
many cases he handles not more thar
~ In actual money in a wear, and
nc Tor him always has meant a struc.
gle for the bare necessities of life.
Inc comparative ease with which he
can convert his corn into whisky. the
lew utensils needed. and the easy
profits are the factors that tempt him
10 pecome an outlaw. To a man who
seldom sees more than twenty real
dollars in a year the prospect of get
ting a dollar in prompt cash for a
quart or LIQUID that costs him hardly
more than Is cents to make is too al
Turing to resist.
once in a while. it is true, such
characters as the Sagle brothers will
crop up in a community. These two
Young men are the nos picturesque
figures among the moonshiners in this
state, if not in the south, Both reared
on a remote little. farm. in their early
Years they got hold Of some Jesse
James, Dick Deadeye and other Wild
~ western literature. and decided on
a life of outlawry. ,Eb is about gS or
10 years old. Pearl is now about "a,
! both nave adhered so closely to their
models that even today they get them
selves up in the costumes made IA
miliar on the mc!odramatic stage. with
long hair, broAd -I,rilnmed hats, soft
shirts. boots and %pEofruding reviewers
Both are credited With Having .severaj
dead men to their credit, and though
venue officers have been upon their
trail for some ten years they have
captured Il eagle but once, and that
was when Eb. through some freakish
impulse. calmly rode into town and
let the officers arrest him just to see
what they would do with him. He eot
two years in the penitentiarv. and
since then has returned to his native
haunts and wreaked revenge by am
pushing h guardians of the law be.
Q they have even got in striking
distance of his numerous stills.
But these brothers are executions,
Inc average blocllader is a most nm.
romantic and unpicturesque individu.
al. There is nothing Of the swagger-
ing Dad man" about him. He is nm
communicative and tongue-tied in the
presence of strangers, but he is far
from being a fool AS a rule he is
iillterate rather than ignorant and has
Il certain native shrewdness that
makes him a dangerous enemy.
And lastly, to understand the block
adcr You must understand his view
point 1t has been said that every
HHe'o.s"aAou IL II potential anarchist.
since he constantly manifcsts a tend
encN to ride roughshod over the law
when 1t conflicts with his individual
desires. The southern blockader in
practically all cases is of undiluted
Anglo-Saxon blood. and law to him is
something that ma he needed to in.
met on other people, but which can.
not C him.
There is one thing the typical
blockade will deny to his last breath
and that is the governments right to
interfere with what he regards as q
perfectly straightforward business
Ihat is n idea that will remain in.
comprehensive to him till the last of
MS Kind has disappeared.
me government does not try to in.
terfere with a man when he turns his
corn into meal, so why, he argues
should 1t interfere when he converts :,
INTO whisky. Men crave whisky lust
as they crave bread. SO why should il
not be supplied to them? This. line OF
reasoning appeals to the moonshiner
as unanswcrable. and 80 firmly does
he believe in it that he will back it mr.
with q shotgun. The man or the in.
stltution that tries to sweep aside this
argument must be prepared to take
tho consequences.
Although this Is a free country. i,
isn't a good idea t be too independ-
ent to work occasionally.
Moot hrido~roox- 1890 ~