South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-29
MOONSHINERS NOW
READY FOR TRIALS
No Deputies Are Needed, as
They Report for Their Sen
fences with Same Regularity
as the Season.

sAvANNAH. Ca. March 2s-The
time is at hand for the annual pill
srimmage Of the Georgia moon
shiner."
Today he Is up in the hills: tomOr-
row he will be tried and sentenced
the day after he will be planting his
crop in the hills again, and the next
setting out for the county jail TO
serve his sentence.
The old man comes TO his cabin
door, in the Blue Ridge, tears q leaf
from the almanac and grOWls over
the prccipice into space.
Bout time for cot, Mira he
drawls. Guess I'll be amlin' Don't
fergit TO git out them ploughshaTes.
an II any revenooes come aroun' keep
EN- off tn trail TO the still
No deputy manacles his hands, no
prison guard comes for him. But the
old man has received the summons of
the United States court to appear and
answer TO a charge of violating the
federal law against the Illicit manu-
facture and sale OF liquor.
III ne wanted TO he could barTicade
his mountain cabin and defy q posse,
but that isn't his way. His country has
told him ne can't make whisky-why,
doesn't know exactly and never will
understand. But since IL isn't against
his moral code, II it is 'ergin the law"
he has "moonshined." He took
chance and got caught Now he's
man enough to pay the penalty. They
trust him to take himself to trial, and
nothing short Of Providence is going to
keep him away.
Sets Out for Cot
And so the old man sets out from
his cabin In the hills on a M9Tch
morning when all the world is blue
and clear and fresh with freedom
around him. He shoulders his long
squirrel gun and tramps down the
mountainside TO the railroad station,
20 miles away.
Next week he gets up before Judge
william T. Newman I'm Atlanta, OF
Judge Emory Speer in Savannah and
pleads guilty.
''Six months" says the judge.
The old man signs with anticipation
realized, and remarks, I'D Ike nighty
well ter go back up hum and make
the crop, gedge-'"
The judge knows that up in the
hills the old woman and the old man s
family of sturdy mountain lads and
lasses are depending on the crop FOR
a living throught the next winter. SO
he SAYS go back and make your
crop and report at the Jail on the first
OF September"
Winter will be breaking in the hills
and for weeks to come he Will be busy
planting the crop of corn that clings
like a green beetle to the stark sum-
nit Of the mountain top. Day after
dav he will Chamber up the ragged
path, hitch the gray mule TO the
plough and turn the burrows OF his
little patch. He seems to be on the
roof OF the world, only the waste Of
azure above and the drop into the
haze below. His companions are the
buzzards that sail high into the blue;
his landscape the scrub laurel set
against the sky. And so the summer
passes. He has harvested the grain,
and the old woman and the kids are
buIwarked against hunger and cold.
of for Jail.
One day he looks into the almanac
and turns TO the cabin.
'fMe an tn boys are off to jail ter
morrow, OF woman" he announces.
Better put me up or snack er brown
bread an bacon"
The next day ne swings down the
trail TO the railroad station. 20 miles
away AS his head drops below the
brink of the path he calls back, See
YOU in Their spring, OF woman"
And the next week he is swapping
cut plug with the deputy at the Jail,
having reported TO the turkeys Office.
alone and unofHcered-
And next spring.
Why. he will be back in the hills
again.