Great Falls tribune., 1921-12-21

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 gov
ernment field officers has been Grip
pied by the suspicious attitude 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 bu-
reau in it's roundup of men who were
entitled to compensation, met the same
obstacle.
The stills seem to have first multi
piled within the mountain sections, and
then to have slowly crept down into the
valleys near the cities. There have al
ways been few moonshine stills in the
Blue Ridge mountains near Washing
ton, but now there are hundred in the
woods along the Potomac river for every
one that was hidden in the mountains
these stills are for the most part of the
mountain type. 1t seems to be literally
true that the mountaineer of romance
has come down from the wooded heights
bringing his art of liquor aking with
him.
The Rise of the Mountaineer
And in coming down physically he
has gone up socially and financially.
That lean, hawk-nosed, sockless man
has become prosperous fellow with
good car and bank account. Many a
mountain boy and girl is getting bet
ter education and better food and
clothes by reason of prohibition. There
are no more staunch supporters of pro-
hibition than these artists of the White
Mule. 1t has been a boon to them.
They are back of the anti saloon league
to man.
There are risks, of course, but they
cannot be great. In the cities the po-
lice frequently arrest bootleggers, but
in the wild rural neighborhoods, where
White Mule is made, the local officers
are seldom hostile. In fact, it is not
unusual to find the sheriff part owner
of still and the local storekeeper
supplying the sugar for a share of the
profit, and in some cases even the
preacher has been known to partake of
the labors and the profits of the ven
ture In word the whole neighbor-
hood is pretty sure to be in cahoots, and
the way of the stranger there is apt to
be hard. 1t was published not long
ago tudl LHe pIOuipilioi tLloItEihChI
department was sending hundred men
into the Appalachian region TO comb
out the stills" Probably a thousand
could not have done the job,
Meantime, the market for the product
steadily widens. 1t has always been
used largely In the southern cities, such
as Chattanooga and Birmingham, and
the monshiners found a ready market
in those places as soon as prohibition
went into effect. Washington has also
been a steady user of White Mule for
long time. New York, it is said, is
just beginning to acquire taste for it,
but the market there is growing, de-
spite the competition of imported stuff.
Moreover, white corn whisky, while
terrible thing at its worst, is by no
means unpalatable at its best. There
is no reason why the moonshiner's field
Of activity should not widen, as he
learns how to cater to the better trade.
Perhaps next this infant industry
will have its lobby in Washington, and
will cooperate with the anti-saloon
league for legislation to prevent the
importation Of liquor. White Mule is
! 100 per cent American, so it must be
good.