The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-11-08

whiskey # not regarded as an unrea-
sonable givate gantleman's supply by
certain Enforcing agents, and count
less cars have been stopped on the
road, and their drivers, after the dis
coyery has been made that there are
only a dozen or less than dozen bot.
tiles en- board, directed to proceed on
their way. Some of the agents justi-
fy this. They maintain, in the first
place, that there are so few of them
for the task in hand that they cannot
waste their time on small fry In the
second place they insist they were
tricNed too often when prohibition
was young by runners who used TO
sent pilot FISH" with inconsiderable
caTgoes out ahead CT valuable cargoes
in order to give the enforcement
agents something to arrest and thus
get them off the road
In the beginning, too. there was the
device of the car-or truck as Il used
to be then-with its lights out and an
air OF mystery about II, and which
used TO be sent on ahead when a
worthwhile trucklcad was about TO
take the road The dummy truck.
with several dozen wooden cases up
on il would roll into a town, turn
suddenly on its main street and go
out Of II again. The forces OF the
law, new at their business, would pur
sue II into the open country and
bring It 70 a standstill there, and its
driver, holding them off as long as he
could by talk, would finally submit to
a search OF his vehicle and himself.
Sometimes the truck would be found
to beladen with fruit or other coun-
try produce, sometimes only with
empty boxes. In the meantime, not
very far away, another truck with
plenty Cf whiskey on il would be
speeding on its Illicit way.
There appears to be also some ap.
portionment of territory and OF trans
pOrtation routes by the runners who
use Vermont as their sluiceway. They
do not care for newcomes into their
domain and take various means TO dis
courage them.
OF late there has been considerable
activity in Vermont and in New
Hampshire adjoining it in the way Of
suppresslng retail selling I'm small
towns and running down humble dis
tillers who have been making moon
whiskey in the hills This custom
makes desirable commotion in neigh
borhoods disclcses the law at work
and IL is said, by the cynical, drives
the little chaps out OF a market and
industry to which they are regarded
as undesirables. But the main stream
OF runners is disturbed only occas-
ionally. Even then when driver
and car are taken the cargo is almost
invariably small and the car slow and
Of an old model The law, speaking
on this says it is doing the best 1t
can. The knowing wink the other eye
say that II is tCo bad as many booze
cars are so fast.
As to the southern counties of both
States il can be said that only
small proportion Of the strong drink
that is brought into them stays in
them. Nearly all Of II Is destined for
the factory and mill towns of Massa.
chusetts, The mileage CT New Hamp-
shire on the Canadian border is little,
while that of Vermont Is long. Also
the New Hampshire line IS steep coun
try and the roads none too good for
booze running. So nearly everything
coming over from Quebec passes over
- AhiN ~ ~ AANAAAAAAf HANNNNho NNANh w
somewhere below the region about
Montpelier and from there turns
either to the right or left toward
Massachusetts.
And from Massachusetts there Is
tosaad back to the Green and the
White Mountains bitter complaint
about the bad whskey they send
Sunday morning magistrates. sitting
In the Massachusetts industrial towns
insist. like their brethren up In Yer.
mont insist, that half the men who
come before them fer intoxicatlon are
more drugged than drunken. That
their almost invariable story is that
they took a few drinks of hootch
and don't remember no more,' and
that chemists who have analysed the
stuff that is pouring down from the
Canadian line say 1t is getting worse
from week to week. and that the
samples that have come under their
notice for the purposes OF their latest
tests are little better than so much
cold poison.