The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1918-06-27

I On the face of it one might hags
questioned the wisdom Of selecting
for task so difficult man who knew
absolutely nothing about it. When
the work in hand was the apprehen'
sion of band of violators of the law
who had for years detied and in.
Inundated the whole countryside, this
course seemed even more unusual
But the wonder would have still fur.
Their multiplied itself if the casual OBJ.
server could have given Billy Gard
the once over as he sat nervously on
the edge of the cane seat of the day
coach as the accommodation train
pulled into the hill country.
/ For this special agent Of the depart
ment of justice, mind you, was to take
up piece of work upon which local
constables and sheriffs, United States
failed. There was murder at one end
of the road he was to travel and the
Sallows at the other. And Gard was
q nondescript youngster who looked
less than thirty, neither light nor dark
large nor neutrality-suspicious., easily
: lost In a crowd. The careful observer
might have noticed the breadth of
brow and the wrinkles that come to
the man who thinks, or the tenseness
OF his slim form that indicated physi-
cal fitness. For to be sure, these fed
eral sleuths of the new school are
mostly college men, lawyers, expert
accountants, as was Gard, but young
sters In whom is to be found the love
Of bit of adventure and the steel
OF set determination.
And now this slip of lad was 60
ing back into the Cumberlands where
the whisky still whispers its secret
to the mountaineer; where the rev.
enue agent penetrates at his peril and
the Long Tom speaks from the thick
cts; where the clansman sets what he
considers his rights above the law of
the land and stands ready to lay his
life or that of any who oppose him
on the altar he has built. Gard was
after a community of moonshiners
who had defied all local authority and
thrown down the gauntlet to the fed
eral government itself. He came alone
with little wicker grip.
Il am looking for place to board"
the special agent told Todd, the liv-
cry stable man at Wheeler, the noun
tain town at which he had stopped
on. Il have been clerking in a store
in Atlanta and pOt Drattv wo1l RIM
down. The doctor said l ought to
stay In the mountains for month or
two"
How much car you pay?" asked
Todd.
Il would like to get 1t as CHEAP as
i've dollars a week" said Gard
you can buy a farm up here for
Eve dollars a week" said Todd.
well, want good board where 1
can get lots of milk to drink and eggs
and where l can tramp around and
shoot squirrels, Do YOU know such
q placer"
The liveryman was accustomed to
driving summer boarders out to the
few places where they might stay in
the Cumberlands. He sketched these
possibilities and told of the location
Of each. Gard already had the map of
the country we'll in mind and selected
the farm near Sam Lunsford's. he
being the mountaineer whom the
agent most wanted to cultivate.
Todd reviewed the situation as be-
tween the mountaineers and the gov
eminent as he drove his customer out
tn the Tennev farm where he was to
ask tn he nut nm
"You see" he said "thev have al.
WAYS made moonshine whisky around
here and thew inst won't stop for no
bodv They ain't MANY ideas gifts
into the head of a man who lives
in the mountains. and yhen one gifts
set there. YOU can't get it out. They
think thew got a right to make whisky
and whisky thew are goin' to make
or bust
"Then along comes Tom REYNOLDS
and Sam Lunsford and me and some
more of MS We see that it amt right
10 fight the government and that whis-