The Cordova daily times., 1919-05-15
B0OTLECCER
 HAS TROUBLES OF HIS OWN


 ciated Press).-"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain the 'bootlegging' man is peculiar" would be an apt paraphrase of well known poem on the history of the illicit liquor trade of Arizona since the state went dry December IA, 1914.
 The original "bottlegger," say those who profess to know, carried the whiskey with which he did unlawful trading concealed in tin fiat Tasks in the legs of his boots, hence the name. One of these gentlemen, the first to come under the eyes of the officers for many months, was captured in Phoenix recently, but the up-to-date purveyor of liquor in Arizona resorted to much more elaborate tricks to i'm port or manufacture and sell his wares.
 The copper lined trunk with four compartments shipped in from a non- prohibition state by express was a favorite up to a short while back, when federal officers arrested one man in San Jose, California, and an- other in Phoenix, who were making business of shipping these trunks back and forth.
 in Jerome, recently a large and suspicious-looking barrel arrived by express, according to the story told by the federal officials. It was heavy and the deduction was that it was full of something. It was deposited on the station platform, but nobody came to claim it. Officers investi- gated and found it filled with whisky, so a close watch was set on the barrel, day and night. There it stood for several days till the arms of the law became weary of the vigil and decided to remove it to headquarters for safe keeping.
 Then came the surprise. The barrel that arrived full was empty and when it was moved the mystery was ex- plained by large augur hole in the station platform immediately under it. Its owner knew it had been watched, so, without attracting any undue at tention, he had crawled underneath the platform bored hole through the blanks and the end of the barrel and drawn off the much desired liquor. At $1O pint, the prevailing price, he made a good haul.
 An automobile tire travelling by ex- press has been known to bring whis- key into the state, and recently a large consignment of "condensed milk was found to have nothing lac teal about it but the label, while the interior of the cans were decorated with "old rye"
 Suit cases carried along as per sonal baggage also have furnished means to introduce the forbidden drinks into Arizona, but alert officers have developed the habit-unpleasan fer the guilty-of carelessly pumping into Or gently kicking suitcases and any tell-tale "tinkle" almost always is fatal.
 While the ingenuity of the importer of whiskey into dry Arizona has de- vised many elaborate and some ex- ceedingly clever methods of trying to outwit the law, his brother, the "moonshiner" has been just as original
 Illicit stills, grading all the way from a small gas stove, with can and copper pipe to the modern and fully equipped article have been raided and confiscated, but the most elaborate discoverd for years was un- earthed in a raid in the Verde district.
 The still room was excavated at distance of twenty feet from a we'll, it's room being about four feet below the surface of the ground. The room was ten feet square with walls six feet high and could be reached only by tunnel running from the well with the opening twelve feet below the we'll curb.
 Ventilation and the escape of fumes from the still were assured by a stack running from the roof of the subter- ranean chamber, and to afford plau- sible excuse for the appearance ot this above ground, the stack was run through forge standing immediately above the still room.
 MEXICO CITY. May 16 (by AssO-