Evening star., 1919-03-09


a farming section. where they had
one-family building. and installed IN
the cellar modern still as complete
as any duly registered under the laws
of the United States government,
where they moonshtned under the
guise of conducting goose farm,
This still could have been conduct
ed for an unlimited period for the rea-
son that 1t was located in the ceilar
and the doors and windows were seal
ed, besides the mash insediment was
dumped directly into sewer, prevent
ing odors spreading through the
neighborhood The nearest adjacent
farm is two miles from the premises
and to complete their plans of being
undetected they used coal heat instead
of gas, as a large consumption OF gas
would have been revealed in the gas
bills, and therefore arouse suspicion OF
investigating government officers,
There were two copper stills. each
being seventy gallon capacity, one
copper doubler, one copper condenser
with the coil All Of the articles used
in the construction of the still are
Identical in structure and quality with
similar apparatus and appurtances
used in the modern distilcry except
that they are built on Il considerably
smaller scale.
"Of the raw material found on the
premises there was large quantity
of yeast. hops, cane sugar and sugar
sirup, besides which there were eight
cen forty five gallon containers of
mash in process of fermenta ton. 1t is
estimated by revenue officers that il
these men had been able to produce
the hard stuff for a period or one
year they would have realized a net
profit Of $150000 This will readily
show the incentive which prompted
these men to take the chance of run
ming the gantlet of Revenooers,' who
are ever on the alert for such opera
tions
I'm another famous case the raidiug
officers left the heart OF New YORK.
city at the early hour of 2 o'clock in
the morning. riding in a high-powered
automobile to the scene of operation
at Valley Stream, Long Island, bar
rem place. which is out of the way of
the ordinary travelled road. After
hours of vigilance the officers left
their machines at o'clock. surround
ed the houses and barns and arrested
the defendants, who numbered five.
after hours of searching. to all in
tents and purposes there was no evil
dence in sight OF distilling on the
to give up the search, one of them,
while searching empty chicken coop
boxes for evidence of the still, stum-
bled upon it, hidden in the ground. 1t
was. of course, In place that would
least be suspected. and yet In all its
modern features was replica OF the
stills seized in the case above-men-
toned.
1.-The amazing feature was that in
searching for the heating apparatus
a u t...nn r..1 a
the main line of the gas pipe in the
ground had been tapped by the de-
PENDANTS and used for heating pur-
poses. The heating of the still by
gas produced three times the quantity
of spirits produced by coal.
Behind the operations OF the last
mentioned still were the brains OF
cunning woman. who. through her
agents, manufactured the alcohol and
sold it for years without detection
Posing as a prominent society woman
and leader Of the church in the
nearby village of Valley Stream. she
was, In fact. the leader OF the moon
sinners in this case.
"a moonshiner with distinctly
Russian name had novel still IN
the heart of the tenement district
Of the lower East Side. This vicinity
is the hotbed for the sale and dis.
position of thousands of gallons or
alcohol for a profit almost unbe-
lievable. This still Is OF the same
modern type as that of the other
two. The novel feature In this case
is the fact that he devised plan
of covering the basement floors with
bichloride OF lime to ktll the odor
emanatinr from a moonshine still.
'~rhe method of sale was to dis
tribute by means of agents. who used
gasoline cans in delivering to his
patrons