Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-09-13

A few days later he stood on a ledge halfway
up the mountain. his eyes fixed a point near
the top from which issued a thin cloud of smoke.
Suddenly, a mountainer in blue Overalls appeared
from behind tree, carrying shotgun.
"Lookin' for anything" challenged the noun
tainer.
"Just for a trout stream they told up
here" declared the government agent innocently.
Say, that looks like a bad fire you've got up
there"
-"Lightnin struck there the other night"
planned the mountaineer, but il don't amount
to much" brief silence ensued: Then: IF
you're loOkin' faE trout, there's right smart over
the other mountain he continued
A week later the internal revenue officer
nursing bandaged arm in distant hospital; five
mountaneer moonshiners were in the local Jail;
and the fire had gone out on the mountain.
Women moonshiners are not uncommon and
are always the hardest to trace, according to the
revenue agents. They differ from the farmers
wives who put up" so-called grape juice and
blackberry cordial for family in that they
make liquor SELL fully that they
breaking the law and prepared to resist it, Some
interesting stories of these ''pettcoat outlaws
casionally leak out of the internal revenue
archives. One girl tall blond with the strength
of man and possessing extraordinary qualities
of generalshp. kept the revenue men at bay from
her sixteenth to her twenty-second year while she
manufactured moOnshine along the North and
South Carolina border. 1t stated that she
had a band of strong men at her call, whom she
summoned by a peculiar blood-curdllng cry that
was sometimes heard in the valleys. where it was
used a means of discipline for refractory chill
dren.
At last she was betrayed by jealous women
SPIES and delivered into the hands of three gov
eminent deputies. They succeeded in placing her
in JAIL but here she at once disturbed the peace
by setting fire to the door of her rOop.. The
smoke was by the jailer, however, Who rush
ed in and prevented her escape at the expense of
a sharp stab in his side delivered by the rong-
armed captive.
. The case of Mrs. Alkaline Rose, moonshiner is
still fresh in the mind of the public. She was the
member of organized gang of moonshlnGrs,
who made and sold whisky in the Kentucky noun
foiD MrcR at 10
had been engaged in the business for SeVente n
years during which time she had smuggled huge
quantities of whisky from still to market, cross
ing the widest trails of the Cumberland morn
tains often sleeping the ground. and some
times sleeping not at all when disturbed by
rumors of the proximity of government .geHA
Finally her husband. the chief of the band, was
killed by his brother in-law; with his authority
gone the members started quarreling among
themselves, and one turned traitor Mrs. Rose
was sentenced to prison, but later succeeded In
obtaining a pardon from Colonel Roosevelt, who
was then president, on the plea that she wanted
to return to Kentucky ana support heT large lam
lily of children.
while moonshing is usually confined to the
southern mountains the illicit dlstllling OF nquor
is sometimes carried on in large cities right un-
der the eyes of the federal authorities Every
once in awhile internal revenue officer dis
covers that some apparently harmless fixture con-
ceals the mouth of untaXed whisky barrel, or
a federal agent, becoming suspicious as to the
destination of large quantities OF sugar stumbles
upon an unlicensed dstilleTy. For some myster-
ous reason people have always attempted 70
avoid paving a tax alcoholic beverages in TINS
country Let the government place tax on
their soap, their servants. their theater tickets
or their legal documents, and they pay II WITHOUT
a murmur but the tax on whisky is consistently
evaded The spirit of the Whisky Rebelnon OF
1894 handled so astutey by Alexander Hamilton
seems to have escaped the confines Ut Pennsyi-
yania Altogether and to rise every hand TO chal-
lenge the authority of the government and its in
ternaI revenue men.