The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1913-05-23
Southern MOOnshinGr Has A Code Of
his Own.
No Crime To Make WhiSku

He Fairly Honest but He Permits No Chance Oau Uncle Sam Escape
The moonshiner of the mountain region of North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee
is type found nowhere else, which has been we'll
studied by Charles Egbert Craddock and a few of
the short story writer's, but which still possesses
FOR lovers of the picturesque an unfallng attrac-
ton. To the stranger he appears at first glance a
very ordinary individual He is generally long,
lean, slow of Speech mild in manner rough in
dress and department and apparently dull in intel
llgence BuC once, his confidence is gained he
proves to be an interesting character. In his
humble home, which is usually doube-roomed
log hut, he is industrious, fairly honest kind to his
wife and children, sometimes deeply religious,
fond of music and dancing and his conversation is
by no means dull. The student of language will
be delighted with his quaint speech, abounding as
it does in archaic and obsolete words handed down
without the aid OF books or manuscripts, and so
nearly forgotten elsewhere that even English phil
ologlsts sometimes fall into the error of CHASING
them as American provincalisms. Nearly always
mis- surname shows him to be of pure English de-
scent, and he has preserved unimpaired the old
English passionate love OF personal freedom and
of home, and his unquestionable right to defend
the latter, even against the powers that be. He
IS English also in his readiness to resent insult
and though he may lie Occ asonaly it is never safe
to inform him of the fact.
The moonshiner has great respect for the law
with a few important reservations. All the
statute books in eXsten cannot persuade him
that he has not perfect right to make his corn
into whskey and to sell it without interference In
the shape of revenue taxes and deputy marshals.
This view OF the matter, as explained by himself
is quite simple. Besides few vegetables and
fruits, is the only crop he can raise with his
slow OK or steer on the few spots of arabic land
belonging to him. This Re can sell for 80 Gems
per bushel after hauling it from Is to 40 miles ov
er the worst roads in the world. The same bushel
of corn will make three gallons of Whiskey, which
is easily transported and for which, if he is sue
ceSsful in lodging the revenues" he will receive
from So to So.
The laws against murder and manSlaughter are
nulllfled by the moonshiner when deputy marshals
become too inqusitive when a neighbor turns in
former and reveals to the officers the hiding place
Of "still and occasionally when a stranger,
whose business is not plainly evident and legiti-
mate according to mountain ideas, ventures too
far into tie highlands. Long experience with Of
fcers of the law and with the disguises assumed
by them, has rendered the mountaineer very Sus-
pclCuS. stranger on the mountain roads is
closely and constantly watched By an ingenious
system OF signaling "a sort OF wireless telegraphy
his coming is heralded far before him, and if he
seems to curious or if chance leads him too near to
some rude distillery concealed in ravine he may
be quietly abolished" and his friends will
hear of him again. In the ethics of the mountain
region no disgrace attaches to Imprisonment for
any of these offenses. Most of the men in every
old mOOnshining district have been in jail for one
or more short terms, out no one looks down on his
neghbor on this account. Like sickness and
death, it is simply misfortune to which all are
liable.