The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-11-11
"WALKING STILLS" BEING
DRIVEN OUT OF COUNTY


While there are some things told Of
there that we never before heard of,
it seems to prove the truthfulness of
the old adage, "you must go away
from home to get the news" There
fore we are giving Times readers the
benefit of the entire story, just as it
appeared:
Mopping county dry is a real
task, Sheriff John Hunt and Prosecut-
ing Attorney Golfer will agree, and
the two have done more in the last
six months than has been done in the
past year.
In fact, they have done so much
that the county Jail has been COM
pletely filled at times, with need for
extra space. Just 20 persons have
rested within that institution at one
time, and that is 23 times as many as
rested in there about year ago. In
one month 43 passed through, and
most of them were "moonshiners".
So active campaign has been car
ried on by these two officers in St.
Francois county to dry up illicit stills
that Golfer has received threatening
letters on several occasions. The most
recent came from st. Louis on Sept,
20. 1t was special delivery and had
been written with the aid of carbon
sheet. A. huge black hand on the back
of the second page of the letter added
force to the argument that prosecu-
tion had better cease.
The letter said:
"Say, if you don't care for your life,
your occupation and your profession,
but if yer life is much dearer, you had
better resign your present position,
otherwise you are sentenced to die, in
stantly, if you don't stop prosecuting
today.-One Breaker.
"Mr. Prosecuting Attorney, you
had better arrange for your funeral,
for you are condemned today. Only
chance for your life is to--prose-
cutting the prohibition law breakers or
someone will send you to hell at -"
and the carbon ran off the paper and
ended.
Letter Given to Officers
The letter is in the hands of federal
authorities.
Most of the stills have left the
towns, for St. Francois county has no
cities of size. The county seat, Farm
ington, has a population of about g.
coo, while Flat River, unincorporated,
possibly is the largest town, with
population not far from 5000, with
Bonne Terre, Desloge, Leadwood and
Esther much smaller.
In these mining towns, for the lead
belt in this county contains some of
the largest lead mines in the world,
: there has been an injection of foreign
population who insist that they have
right to drink, and drink they will at
any cost. 1t is against these that
Sheriff Hunt has waged war, and now
most of them have left the towns and
taken to the hills which cover large
portion of the county.
Indeed they have gone into the hills
so far that they are near the borders
of jefferson, Washington and Ste.
Genevieve counties.
Raids Every Week.
Sheriff Hunt has carried on raids
every week, and has probably averaged
two every week since he came in Of
fee last January. In the county Jail
in a room is store of moonshine suf-
ficient to delight the eye of any thirsty
man and enough machinery form ak
ing liquor to start a sizeable distilIery.
The sheriff says he puts the prison.
er in one room and the still in another.
Not very long ago federal officers
came into the county and made sew
eral raids, but they only carried on
and helped part of the regular pro-
gram. Several hundreds of gallons of
liquor have been smashed and treble
that amount of mash has been poured
out.
In one of the early raids they en-
tered house and found in low at
tic, hardly noticeable, copper boiler,
worm and cooling vat ready for use.
There were no signs that it had been
recently used. The attic trap door
had a strip of wall board nailed over
it for concealment.
But the officers saw it, tore it down
and entered the attic. The owner OF
the house was arrested, though he pro-
tested his innocence vigorously. Right
now ne is offering a reward, officers
say. for any information that may
lead to the arrest, discovery or identl-
fcation of whoever put a still IN the
ATTIC of his house and concealed It,
His story will be heard before Judge
-. o;~o,rit aOI1rt