Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-12-20

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20.-There
is a wooded section rot far from the
nations capital which was once a
favorite ground for the good old
| southern snort CT coon-hunting,
Some of the people Whereabouts have
| been known to pay as high as $3.50
for a coon dog of good reputation.
In those parts you might slap a
mans child an get away with 1t,
but if you kick his coon dog it is a
case of fight or run.
And now most of those expensive
coon dogs are getting fat n stift
in the joints from lack of use, and
the coon hunters are all disgruntled.
The reason is not any shortage OF
coors either. Tke reason Is that
every little branch and gully which
the coons use is now the home of a
moonshine still, and if you blunder
into a still suddenly and at night
with a gun in your Rand. you are
more than likely to encounter a
charge Of SHOT.
In some sparsaly settled sections
not too far from the great thirsty cit
les, there is almos- a still in every
bush. Not long ago a posse was
formed to chase a murderer through
the woods of Virginia near here, and
it is said that in sixteen miles of
travel thew uncovered n stills. U.s.
ually the owners were not at hand.
One of them was seen, however. He
was sitting 81 a hilltop not far from
his still. A large flock of turkey
buzzards was circling around over
the still. attracted. as buzzards are,
by the odor of the mash. The man
Lid n anan4Sp hrarh-T,nVynr rifla md
he was shooting the buZzards as they
flew over him in order that they
might not betray the location of his
still.
And he wasn't missin' none,
either" SAID a member of the posse
in recountiig the episode.
The posse decided not to arrest
the man. They couldn't prove that
he owned tine still anyway.
Still More Stills
The stills are multiplying at an as
founding rate. No doubt ever since
prohibition there have been many
stills, both for private supply and for
commercial purposes in all parts OF
the United States. but the great de-
velopment of this infant industry is
in the Appalachian Mountains and
their immediate vicinity. AS every
reader of romance knows, it is in the
mountain regions that the art OF
converting orn into liquor in Sec
recy has long been ~practiced. The
mountain men all know how to do 1t.
Before prohibition there was a little
still hidden away somewhere in al
most every mountain neighborhood.
Its owner, a. some personal risk, saw
ed perhaps fifty cents on each gallon
of liquor he made by evading the
revenue tax. Al best he made a
~precarious living. Everyone who a
read The magazines knows what he
looked like-a gdunt, hawk-nosed
citizen, wearing no seeks and carry
ing in the hollow of his arm a rife
six feet long.
Then came prohibition, and moon
shine suddenly jumped from a dollar
or two a gallon to ten or twenty a
gallon. The result was inevitable.
make easy money and that oppor-
tunity will be used TO the full. Nor
will a spice of danger in the least
interfere with the proceeding. And
especially is this true of the noun
tain men. They are adventurous
fellows. they are used to breaking
laws where liquor is concerned. they
are accustomed to the use OF firearms
and they have a sort of clan loyalty
which makes it very hard for a
stranger to work among them.
Not only coon hunters. but many
others Whose business takes them
into the sparsely settled sections,
have found this ou'. The work OF
all sorts of government field officers
has been cvippled by the suspicious
attitJde of the natives. Thus the
Biological Survey. IN its work OF
trapping predatory animals, finds
that its first and most difficult task
in a given region IS to convince the
natives that the trappers are not
looking for stills. The Veterans
Bureau in lis roundup of men who
were entitled TO compensation, met
the same obstacle.
The stills seem 20 have first multi
piled within the n ountain sections.
and then to have slowly crept down
into the valleys near the cities. There
have always been~s few moonshine
stills in the Blue Ridge Mountains
near Washington, IN. now there are
a hundred in the woods along the
Potomac river~for every one that was
hidden In the mountains ten years
ago. The men who operate these
stills are for the most part of the
mountain type. 1t seems to be liter
ally true that the mountaineer OF
romance has come down from his
wooded heights bringing his art OF
iiqunr-making with him.
The Rise of Inc sfountaineer
And In coming down physically he
has gone VI socially and financially.