Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-17

dence either OF the making or the sale
Of moonshine could they find connected
with the Jones family. Growing more
canny. they established long watches
from the tops Of tall trees from the
secret clefts OF the mountain crags. IN
hopes of detecting a tell-tale wisp OF
| smoke by day or a flicker of flame by
night that would give them a clue to "A
Still in operation But the longest
| ranged of their telescopes, and the most
sleepless vigils OF their watchers failed
TO discover the slightest thing suspicious.
Then, through various prefexts they
| obtained access to the homes OF the four
| men. They made thorough searches OF
not only the dwelling houses. hut OF all
the outbuildines-and all in vain. The
Joneses, who soon detected their motives
| in thus searching their premises. twitted
the officers about their ill-success They
even invited them TO their houses and
told them to make exhaustive search
| They did not lose their tempers or ap-
| pear to be offended by the suspicious Of
! the officers. On the contrary. they treat-
| ed the suspicion as being something too
trivial To merit their anger or even Sc
1 rious notice.
Now. in homesteads OF the southern
1 mountains. there is often found a form
of outdoor fireplace called the BACKYARD
| Kitchen. 1t consists of a rude structur.
OF stones, built up around three sides ot
square TO the height OF about a foot
and inclosing few square feet of space
| within this inclosed space a fire is
| built. As the house kitchens in the
| mountain homes are generally small AZ
fairs. these backyard kitchens are often
| used for heavy work. such as soap max
| ing, fruit preserving. washing clothes and
such like the broad space Of the open
air ba ckyard affording ample room TO the
working women.
| Such a fireplace was in the back yard
OF the home of Old Man Jones. And about
this outdoor fireplace We're exhibited tho
| principal activities of the woman folks
| Indeed. whenever tho weather permitted
the women used this instead OF the in
! door fireplace. Consequently for the
better part of the time fire was merrily
| blazing inside the primitive little affair.
1t was not until after the climax that
the detectives recalled that almost al
ways when the woman folks We're busy
over the back yard fire all the man folks
| of the four families would be away
sometimes gone hunting. sometimes gone
| to the county seat-oT somewhere they
| always Were; certainly they were not
| around the house. But the detectives
| while permitting their suspicious to rest
| upon wellnigh everything about the home
| stead OF Old Man Jones, had never once
suspected that this open fireplace might
be connected with Illicit liquor plant
| Indeed. the idea was untenable its
| face. couple Of dozen stones piled on
the hard solid ground in rude three
And surely the most vigorous imagina-
| ton would be put to It to figure up any
| essential connection between such a SIM
pie structure and a moonshine plant
| Saving rude deal table. there was moth
Ing even in the yard within twenty feet
of it.
Certainly the detectives never suspected
| the innocent fireplace.
| Until one day last fall couple of them
dropped by Old Man Jones' place, more
from force of habit than from any hope
Of unearthing evidence CT a still" They
found the women gathered around the
| outdoor fireplace. in which a fire merrily
blazed. busy with the washing. Gar
| ments hung suspended from adjacent
lines.
As the detectives stood beside the fire.
gazing with unseeing eyes into It, there
| swept down a sudden gusty storm from
the mountain tops. The women, hastily
gathering up the clothes. hurried indoors
and the two officers were following. when
one of them. observing that sparks from
the fire were being blown in the direc-
ton of an clubhouse, hurried back to the
fireplace and. after scattering the Goals.
| doused 1t with pail of water, effectu-
ally quenching the fire, as he thought.
| AS he reached the door of the house
he turned to assure himself that the fire
was all out. What was his astonsh-
ment to see a column of smoke br.skly
issuing from the dead fireplace. Hasten
ing back to it, he closely examined the
\
constituent. he found in back corner
OF the fireplace a small pipe about three
inches in diameter protruding about three
| inches above the ground. From it .
dense column of smoke was pouring.
| In an instant the whole scheme flash
ed upon him. Bringing out one of the
| women. he pointed to the pipe Thus
confronted, she broke down and con-
fessed that it led from a cave beneath
the backyard in which, for years. her
kinsmen had been making moonshine
liquor As the pipe from the furnace be-
low. after piercing up through several
feet of rock in the roof of the cave.
ended in the back of the outdoor fire
place, the tell-tale smoke from it min
gled unobserved with the innocent smoke
of the fireplace. When the men wished
| to distill, the women, on some pretext.
started up the outdoor fireplace.
The cave was entered by a natural
passage several hundred feet in length.
whose portal was a cleft in a nearby
cliff, SO cleverly concealed by thickets
| and other defenses of nature. further
aided with the art of the Joneses, that
| detection was impossible
| And this was the secret Of the Joneses
| comfortable mode of life, a mode that
they bid fair to exchange for a more
ascetic one when their cases come up
. for trial this summer.