The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-28

Southern club, together with two city detectives, visited James place last Wednesday night and destroyed the still a large quantity of moonshine and mash and recovered quite a quan- tity of stolen property. The negroes are being held in jail but 1t was un- derstood last night that the case against James h>d been taken over by the federal authorities.
 CAUGHT WITH GOODS
 The still and the materials it used were, of course discovered by acci- dent. Mir. Lloyd was tipped off last Wednesday night that some negroes had just taken something from the rear of the Southern club and had driven off in a wagon. He gave chase and ran for several blocks. When he caught the negroes, some young men near by helped him to hold them until policemen could be called. Two of James sons were in the wagon and there was large quantity of valuable glassware and crockery as well as some silver In the wagon which had been taken from the club.
 | Mir. Lloyd then accompanied the of- i fices to the James home in North Bir- | mingham and in the examination of the premises a lot of stolen articles from the Southern club, the Tutwiler, Hillman, Florence. Thompsons restau- rant and other places were found. But the most interesting discOv- | cry of all was in the rear of the | mai xxHR st ffnN copper still was found together
 with numerous well-fiIIed barrels
 and bOttles--iDcludinS several of
 the identical barrels which were
 used daily in hauling garbage
 away from the clubs and restnu-
 rants. Some of these barrels were
 already fermenting and MT. Lloyd
 and the two detectives worked
 from 9,3O o'clock at night until af-
 ter midnight destroying the outfit
 and parapbernalia.
 Tt was the worst mess I ever saw" said MT Lloyd yesterday in discussing the matter. "Of course the theft was not so serious from our standpoint. We recovered practically everything that had been taken from the club but 1t was revelation to me to find that the garbage from our club and other restaurants was being used to make ! etable matter and other material made an ugly mess.
 FINE QUALITY OF MOONSHINE
 "The still was a copper beauty and was of 150-gallon capacity. The gar bage apparently made fine corn liquor for we destroyed half barrel of moon- shine fresh from the still that was as clear and pretty as anything you ever saw. Tn addition to this half barrel there were also a number of fruit jars filled with the finished moonshine as well as a quantity of bottles of pe- culiar shape which were also full "We had n hard time breaking up the outfit and then it wns such
 mn unpleasant job. The barrels of
 swill and other stuff fin some cases could not be turned over on their l sides because they were so deeply fmbedded in the dirt, that it was
 necessary to batter away and pull
 out one staye at time.
 "If some of the corn liquor drinkers could get n glimpse of
 that room for minute I do not
 believe they would want any more
 of it soon.
 Last Wednesday night Mrs Lloyd was sitting in the car in front of the club waiting for me and when I came out she <aid that she thought some negroes had just taken something from the rear of the club and had driven away in wagon.
 q began the chase but they had about 10 minutes start of me and I had no idea which way they had turned. ran down two or three streets and around couple of blocks and as luck would have it came up with them at the corner of Eighth avenue and Nineteenth street, where they had stopped to get some dope to mix with their liquor. They were evidently drinking some of their own stuff for all were under the influence. Some young men dressed in baseball suits were on the corner and helped me get there.
 CUT GLASS UNPACKED
 "In the wagon I found quite a lot of Southern club silverware and a barrel of cut glass which had just been received at the club and had never yet been unpacked.
 All that part of it was as usual Nobody had suffered any special loss because the stuff was recovered but } it was when we went tn their home that we got the surprise of our lives
 "One of the things that impressed me at the North Birmingham place was the shape and style of the bottles containing the moonshine. A friend the next day showed me a bottle of corn he had just bought remarking that it was the dearest and prettiest he had ever seen. I recognized the shape and style of the bottle instantly and related to him the story of my previous nights excursion into the mysteries of garbage liquor. Good night was his comment as he con signed beautiful stuff to a nearby gar