The Washington herald., 1919-06-16
FARMS untitled
ASMOONSH|NERS
PLY RISKY TRADE
Use Everything from Coffee
Pot Up to Make
Whisky.
BY EDWARD M. THIERRY,
stan Correspondent of The Wash
ington Herald.

|
stan Correspondent of The WASH
ington Herald.
Nashville, Tenn, June 15.-Moon-
sinners make whisky in everything
from an orthodox copper still" OF
200 gallons capacity down to a cof-
fee pot.
It's ridiculously easy to make and
the outfit is so cheap that it's
within the reach of ALL"
Mountaineer moonshiners used to
do farming;-as a sort of sideline.
Now most of them never stick a
plow into the ground. A few raise
the corn they need for their whisky
operations. They feed the still
slop"-the residue from the corn
meal mash after the whisky is ex-
tracted-to their hogs. The hogs
provide food for the family.
Making Moonshine Worse.
These are the desperate men
Uncle Sans revenue agents have
been fighting for generations. They
made whisky illicitly when the gov
ernment tax was only S1.10 a gallon.
Now the tax is s6.4O a gallon and
its manufacture is prohibited. The
| increased TAX gave great impetus
to the moonshine industry. And a
greater impetus was given by the
dry laws.
Under such splendid" conditions
a moonshiner finds that he's vast
ing his time growing corn. He can
! buy it cheaply. He doesn't even have
to grind it into corn meal.
Many country stores exist solely
to cater to the moonshiner. In the
absence of stores corn meal. sugar.
molasses and even salt can be
shipped in. And mail order houses
deliver sheet copper right at the
moonshiner's doorstep.
Stills of fine workmanship have
operated without molestation for
many years. In the office OF Frank
l.. Boyd, chief of the revenue raid
ers in Tennessee and Alabama, here
in Nashville. is a 150-gallon copper
still bearing the trademark of a
Nashville firm that has been out OF
existence thirty years.
In the Nashville custom house is
another copper still known to be
forty years old. II is going to be
placed in Smithsonian Institute as a
sample of perfect workmanship.
Chief d. ]. CAN'T. OF Atlanta. head
of the Georgia-Florida division. has
a 100-gallon still called Big Ben"
1t is a sister still' to Big Mary"
now in Smithsonian Institute.
Make Liquor in Lard Cans.
Almost any makeshift will do if a
&c ~
| use old gasoline tanks. autonobile
radiators and even 50-cent lard tins.
Where copper is scarce and expen-
siVe, moonshiners sometimes make
! their stills of galvanized iron, OF a
/ curved end shape that gives 1t the
name of a submarine"
! The corn ''likker" made in the
mountains is white. 1t looks like plain
alcohol Pure alcohol is 200 prcor
\ Bonded whisky-the kind you used to
! bhy-is usually 100 proof. or so per
cent alcohl. The well-known but now
unpurchaseable (openly) bar whisky
was usually 0 proof. Most noun
/ tain moonshine is so proof. which is
It's green" An quality. The moon
sinner seldSh lets his product get
cold" Whisky improves with age,
business of making so dangerous that
it isn't safe to keep it around very
long
Many are taking chances now,
hoping for maximum prices after
July /. and have hundreds OF gal
Ions buried in the mountains. But
when it's marketed ii will be just as
green" as the quickly-sold product
City Efficiency CoIors ''wiIdest.,
Your veteran drinker of moonshine
in the South, where 1t has been theo-
retically dry for some years. likes
his moonshine white. 1t is expected,
however, that when the city NOON
sinner gets into the game with his
efficiency burnt sugar will be used to
color the wildcat" 1t is argued
that the city man is so accustomed
to have his liquor red that at first
he won't be very enthusiastic about
the white stuff.
I Legal distillers. employing high SAL
aried chemists to perfect the yeast
and get 100 per cent fermentation, US
| ually got five gallons OF whisky out
of a bushel of corn. The moonshinet
| usually works without yeast. And in
stead of barley malt he uses malt
corn-corn soaked and dried till ii
sprouts.
With such methods. combined with
faulty apparatus and operations un-
der disadvantages, the moonshiner
rarely gets more than two and a half
gallons of whisky out of a bushel OF
| corn.
The corn meal, mixed with malt corn
and water. is called beer or tee
tum-" One boiling of" Of 100