The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1921-12-31

y 608AAHA0as 49, -.
Is q wooded section not far from the
Nations capital which was once .
favorite ground for the good old
southern sport of coon hunting.
Some Of the people t~hereabouts have
been known Il pay as high as $50
for a coon dog of good reputation In
those parts you might slap a man's
child and get away with 1t, but IL you
kick his coon dog 1t Is a Ease of fight
or run.
And nov most Of those expensive
coon dogs are getting fat and stif In
the joints from lack OF use, and the
coon hunters are all disgruntIed. The
a is not any shortage of 'coons.
either. The reason is that every lit
tie branch and gully which the 'coons
use Is now the home of a moonshine
still, and II you blunder into q stiil
suddenly and at night with a gun In
your hand. you are more than likely
to encounter a charge of shot.
In some sparsely settled sections
not too far from the great thirsty
cities, there is almost a still In every
bush. Not long 6 a posse was
formed to chase a murderer through
the woods Of Virginia near here, and
it is said that in sixteen miles of trav-
Ell they uncovered seventy-seven stills.
Usually the owners were NOT at hand.
One Of them was seen. however,.
He was sitting on 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 had a repeating high
power rife and he vas shooting
the buzzards as they few over
him in order that they might not be-
tray the location of his still.
"And he wasn't missin' none. eth
err" said a member of the posse In
recounting the episode.
The posse decided not to arrest the
man. They couldn't prove that he
owned the still anyway.
STILL MORE STILLS
The stills are multiplying at an as
founding rate. No doubt ever since
prohibitions 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 10
in the Appalachian mountains and
their Immediate vicinity. As eyery
reader of romance knows, 1t is in the
mountain regions that the art of con-
verting corn into liquor in secrecy
has long been practiced. The noun
tain men all know how to do It. Be-
fore prohibition there was a little still
hidden away somewhere in almost
every mountain neighborhood. Its
owner, at some personal risk, saved
perhaps so cents on each gallon of
liquor he made by evadingthe revenue
tax. At best he made a precarious liv-
ing. Everyone who has read the mag
azines knows what he looked like
a gaunt, hawk-nosed citizen, wearing
no socks and carrying 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.
Create any opportunity for any one
to make Easy money and that oppor-
tunity will be used to the full. Nor
will a spice of danger in the least in
terfere with the proceeding. And es-
pecially is this true of the mountain
men. They are adventurous fellows.
they are used to breaking laws where
liquor is concerned, they are accust-
omed 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 out. The work of all
sorts Of Government field officers has
been crippled by the suspicious atti-
tude of the natives. Thus the biolog-
zeal survey, in its work of trapping
predatory animals. finds that its first
and most difficult task in a given re-
gion is to convince the natives that
the trappers are not looking for stills.
The veterans bureau in its roundup
Of men who were entitled to compen-
sation. met the same obstacle.
The stills eem to have first multi
piled within the mountain section.
and than In have slowly creut down