The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-09-21
STREAM FLOWING WITH LIQUOR,
Strange Actions of Children Led to
Investigation and Disclosure.


Sailors hundreds of miles from
land may draw fresh water from the
ocean at the mouths of the mighty
Amazon, says the San Antonio Ex-
press. In East Texas there's
stream flowing with beer and whis-
key or was, until few weeks ago.
when internal revenue officers traced
it to it's source and exposed among
the pines fringing it's winding sides
a homemade plant manufacturing
moonshine whiskey.
Stills whose localities are unknown
to government officers usually are as
sociated with mountains, Kentucky
and Tennessee. Recently the inter-
nal revenue department has discover
ed two perfect specimens of this type
in the rolling prairie country of East
Texas.
Each nestled among towering pines
beside meandering creek miles from
any town, and each was as well pro-
tected from the gaze of "revenooers'
as though it lay in a deep canyon
beneath a towering mountain side.
None but the invited likely ever
would have any business in the neigh.
borhood.
The discipline of a country school
with it's giggling girls and gaWky
youths sometimes larger than the
teacher herself, often weighs heavy
on pretty misses of 20 years. But
when the school house sits on the
hank of a stream flowing with beer
and whiskey the task of keeping or
der is doubly hard.
Such job confronted such teach
er in a country school 20 miles north
east of Carthage, Texas, few weeks
ago, and it was the teachers efforts
TO meet the situation that resulted
in the discovery of the first illicit
aiquor distillery in Texas in many a
day.
The school was situated two to
three miles below still on the banks
of the stream.
For a long time the teacher won
dered why her boy pupils came to
study after noon recess ''wobbly' and
"woozy." She began to grow sus-
picious when she noted the boys
seemed especially fond of drinking
in the creek after lunch, and that the
girls who drank there soon began to
act queerly.
She wrote J. o. Bender, internal
revenue agent for Texas, stationed at
San Antonio. Mr. Bender sent c. A.
Wood, general deputy collector, to
Carthage. Mr.. Wood solved the
problem. AS he approached the
creek he noted there was liquor in
it, and he reasoned that if there were
liquor it came from above. Noting
the way the current flowed, he pro-
ceeded up the creek, keeping sharp
lookout on every side. He was &C
companied by two other officers.
They had gone only few miles
when they discovered the still. The
officers confiscated the still, which
consisted of an iron pot, brick fur
mace, a barrel for cap, a galvanized
iron pipe running through the water
obtained from the creek and various
homemade parts.
The farmer lived in a tent near
spring close to the still. He was
feeding "a hogs on the mash.
He claimed when arrested that he
was manufacturing only small
amount of liquor, and that for the
benefit of his wife's health. She must
have been "powerful' sick, for the
revenue officers proved to their salts
faction that 50 gallons Of corn whis-
key had passed through the grape
vine-like worm since January l..
About 20 gallons was on hand when
the still was examined.
The farmer pleaded guilty to con-
ducting an illicit distillery in the dis
trict court of the United States for
the eastern district of Texas and was