The Washington herald., 1914-05-03

mained for the moonshiners to shoot me
once with a rife and twice with shot
guns.
'Temperamentaily. battles and danger
Gus experiences were to my liking. Some
men are born with long legs and some
with short ones / have never been
afraid of getting killed or being hurt.
Therefore. am not to be credited with
a state OF mind for which / am in no
ways responsible. It's natural. as have
remarked. Farming was duh after fur
years in the army. / turned, consequent
ly. to cattle punching. Then 1 came to
Washington. obtained a place In the In
ternal revenue service, and was sent to
the South
"The tax on whisky at that time was
90 cents. Now 1t is s1.10 a gallon. Why
should 1t be taxed at all? the moonshiners
asked. We grow corn they argued.
and have II ground into meal We make
bread of the meal and eat the bread. give
1t away or sell it. The government in
Washington never says word. But II
We turn the meal into whisky the govern
ment says We must be taxed. It's an
outrage on common sense.
in Kentucky men who distill corE
Juice and beat Uncle Sam out Of the tax
are known as moonshiners. In other
places they are called blOckaders and
wildcats. The breed. however, are alike.
no matter where they operate All must
have water. Hence We follow streams
and find stills hidden away in tangled
corners and bushy crevices.
Initiated with n Rife Ball.
"I got a rifle ball in the leg as an
initiation into the business. l dug the
ball out with a knife and rode twenty
five miles to n doctor. The wildcats had
seen or sensed our coming. They hid
in the woods and when We began de-
stroying their still the gave us a volley
and vanished.
II raided twenty-seyen kentucky stills
In three weeks. That is always an ex-
citing experience. We would hear the
blast of a horn and would find the still
deserted. The tubs would be burned and
the copper kettle punched full of holes
with an instrument of my own invention
called the devil Did you ever see
still? 1t has become a Southern in
stitution. \ furnace of stone is made
fiat on the ground. The kettle, covered
at the top except for cap that looks
like the cup on a giant tin dinner bucket,
is placed over the furnace. Then a wall
Is built around the kettle. the capacity
OF which may be 60 or go gallons.
THE kettles for most part are made in
the North. / have often wondered why
ties from the factories to the points of
delivery. Three hundred detectives are
now securing the South for blOckaders
and their outfits Tracing the kettles
from consignors to consignees might sim
piify matters in the saving OF human
lives and ammunition.
"A copper pike" Mr.. Kirkpatrick went
on to say. leads from the cap Of the
kettle to the worm. which is a spiral
OF copper tubing immersed in cold water
with an outlet for the flow Of the whisky
as It is manufactured. Now let us see
what is put into the still before the fire
Is lighted. The mash. as il is called.
Is made of cornmeal. A bushel Of meal.
let us say. is stirred into twenty gallons
of water. The malt is added to the mix
ture
Malt is usually made OF corn. although
rye or other grain will do just as well.
The unground corn is kept in water until
Il begins to sprout II is then dried and
ground. Such is the malt or yeast. as
women would say who do their own bak-
ing. About ten pounds of malt Is put
into the twenty gallons of water and
the bushel OF cornmeaI.