New-York tribune., 1920-12-26
Eight Stills Raided
In Kentucky Hills
Without a Casualty
Although Numerous Shots
Are Fired by Mountain.
eers and Revenue Men,
Not a Death Is Reported

LEXINGTON, Ky. Dec 24.-Raids
upon moonshine stills in the mountains
Of Kentucky have become bloodless,
according to government agents who
recently conducted one Of the most i'm
portant raids made in years
Whether the shooting eve" Of the
mountaineer or the Secret Service
agent has become dimmed or whether
the desire for less killing has reached
into the far mountain recesses is a
disputed point, hut the fact remains
that twelve revenue agents raided and
destroyed eight large stills in Whitley
County, fired numerous shots and were
fired at numerous times, but SO far as
is known, not casualty was recorded.
Standing in clumps Of sparse shrub
berry on the top of knobs along Laurel
Fork. in Whitley County, sentries
posted apparently by moonshiners
watched the operations of Federal pro-
hibition officers during the recent SEN
sationa raid in the South America
section of Whitley County. according
to members of the party. The raiders
from the Office of Chief Field Deputy
L. G.. Mcfarland we're reticent about
the battle reported to have ragged about
the stills. "There wsn't thing in it, -
they were unanimous in saving ave
just went in there and destroyed eight
stills. There were lot of shots fired,
but how many of them were fired at
US we don't know That was all there
was to it,
Number Of Shots Fired
The raiders from the local Office
were Steve Cornet and Charles Win
L A. !. i ~ J
J. H. Reynolds and Joe Cavanaugh.
They were accompanied by Sheriff
Renfro, Of Whitley County, and seven
deputies.
Steve Cornet, after some persuasion,
told Of the raid. eve left Williams
burg on the morning of December 3
and went via Holden, Tenn, the near
est railroad point, into the section Of
| Whitley County, known to the ma
tives as South America he said.
I'VE hunted there FOR stills in the
kolows of Laurel Fork and Olean
Fork, sources of the Cumberland River.
w, destroyed eight stills in all
"The first stiU destroyed was one
owned by Dewitt Gibson. We ar
rested the three Gibson boys without
any trouble. They were at their home.
The next still we believe belonged to
man named Williams. The next two
destroyed were owned by persons
whose names we could not ascertain.
We had no trouble the first day, al
though a number of shots were fired
n the distance. | could not say posi-
lively that the shots were fired at US,
signals to warn the countryside that
raiders were about. We could see men
standing on the top of the knobs,
where they could see the road winding
around the banks of Laurel Fork,
which, | believe, is the crookede st
stream in the world Sometimes it is
hard to tell which way 1t runs.
"The second day we continued the
search along Laurel Fork. 1t was at
this time that the nearest to any real
trouble occurred. We left an old man
named Parsons and another man to
guard the mouth of q hollow while we
guards a mountaineer popped out from
behind a tree, fired several shots at the
guards with d pistol and ran.
Chase Leads to Stills
eve gave chase, firing as We ran.
The man fell, but when we searched
we could find no trace of him This
led to one Of the amusing incidents Of
the trip. During the chase we found
two stills Of which we had had no ink
ling. The man led my party directly to
an eighty gallon STILL which we de-
stro. ed. Another section of the party
Eve had become divided during the
chase) found the second still on the
opposite side Of the hill from that down
which the fugitive ran. We did not
find out who owned either still.
eve then went up a hollow where
we found another still. This was q
rough hollow. and we had to climb over
bouldcrs and hang on to trees to get to
the still. We then started In the op-
posite direction. Two miles down an
other rough hollow we found the last
SUN destroyed.
"a lot of shots were fred on the sec
ond day by both natives and ourselves,
but nobod was hurt"
Mr.. Cornet could not say how much
whisky or beer was destroyed. owe
didn't keep track of it," he said.
The prisoners taken by the raiders
were taken to Pineville and warrants
sworn out for II number Of other men,
The warrants were left in the hands
Of Sheriff Renfro and his men for scrv-
ice.
Woman n School Inspector
Tho first woman inspector Of schools
in Brazil has recently been appointed
In Rio dc Janeiro.