The New York herald., 1921-01-30

Florida They have not been overlooked
by tho bootleggera
Miami boasts the longest wooden bridge
In the world. 1t connects Miami proper
with Miami beach, but now there is a
parallel highway of concrete covering the
same course. The tide of booze laden au-
tomobiles that cross this bridge, day and
night, is exceeded perhaps only by the fleet
of nervous little craft whose put-put-putting
disturbs the warm winter nights almost
from the time the sun goes down on Bis
cayne Bay. Ostensibly they are on pleas
ure bent But most small boat shippers
know the rendezvous Of their particular
group of bootleggers and that darkness is
the better time to seek 1t out
Ex-Bartenders Flock South
To Become Rivals of the Conchs
Though the Conch is a natural booze
runner he has an excellent counterpart in
the deuge Of one time bartenders and
cheap ginmil keepers from the Northern
cities who have flooded into the South since
booze running there became perhaps more
productive in earnings than any legitimate
enterprise in which these men might have
engaged at home when their natural means
Of livelihood was taken from them.
d. g. Cant, supervising prohibition en-
forcement officer for the district which
embraces Florida and Georgia too, was
quoted In an interview in Savannah re-
Gently as saying that his troubles in en-
forcing prohibition were added to by rea-
son of the fact that at least one in every
twelve men he hires to help in the en-
forcement is open to bribes and can be and
is bribed. Perhaps these bribed agents
are those who are responsible for the
stories that seem to explain why booze
running is so easy along the Dixie high
way.
1t is whispered that now and then mem
bers of the all too inadequate force of en-
forcement officers have known Of automo-
biles filed with booze buzzlng along the
Dixie roads. They have known the license
umber, the make and the general appear
cnce Of the car. They have known even
its booze and human population. And they
have given chase to it, a really good chase.
bristling with excitement, shots and all
the other business necessary to impress.
And the car got away.
The officers have hurried to telephones
and sent messages Of alarm, containing an
exact description of the automobile and its
contents and occupants ahead, say into the
next county. But while the messages were
being sent-the chase stopped just where
the cha ased knew it would-the booze was
being transferred from the escaped car into
another. The car that was chased then
hurried along into the next county by the
direct road, was stopped, searched and
found to contain nothing beyond the law.
A pretty woman, perhaps, whose indigna-
ton was interesting to see as she protested
against such high handed business as that
practised by the booze hunters, sometimes
is all that Is to be found in the car.
Others of the booze runners. those who
operate on a smaller scale and almost en-
tirely within the South, find drawing rooms
in trains admirable places In which to carry
their suitcases full Of booze. 1t Is only oc-
casionaly that these persons are tapped on
the shoulder and their baggage inspected.
But the trains some Of them, convey an
even more adequate Idea of the freedom
with which the booze running is being car
ried on in Dixie.
Many Train Porters Are Wise
In Ways Productive of Money