The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1922-06-01
UNIQUE METHODS OF
PROHIBITION OFFICERS

i Buyers of bootleg whiskey visiting
the haunts Of bootleggers may be
buying from government agents.
The answer is that the government
is planting" its enforcement opera
tives in the bootleg headquarters.
Federal agents are adopting va
rious DISCUSSES. They appear as
buns, entering some strange town.
They are taken in BY the bootlegs,
who are moved, not by pity, but by
the selfish purpose to use the alleged
"bum" as tool to palm off their
wares.
"The "bum' later turns up in the
headquarters Of the state prohibition
director, with records and charts that
offer the kew to the bootlegging in
dustry in the sections covered by
their operations.
Hotel bootlegging has been cur
tailed by another very shrewd method
I of the enforcers. Government
agents, skilled in the art of crime
detection and wise to the ways of
the bootlegs, suddenly show up in the
most fashionable hostelries. They
are for the time being gentlemen of
leisure, with lots Of money to spend
and with lavish programs of enter
tainment for their friends.
A hotel guest, on the law of aver
ages, can muster a big block of
guests, without much advance notice,
bv pronouncement that he is to
have a "rum party" The "boys"
fall over each other in getting in on
the big time. The alleged wealthy
host. who has blown in from some
more or less indistinct "manufactur-
ing CENTER" is none other than a
rum raider. He gains the confidence
of the bell boys, the porters and the
walters bv his profligate demeanor.
He flashes rolls Of banknotes with
reckless abandon. The tip goes
around the hotel that new Sucker
has arrived. He is the "fall guy"
think these smart young fellows, who
are lying around waiting to make
easy coin on the liquor clean-ups.
In the war on illicit distilling in
rural districts operatives have been
put to their wits ends. The rural
dweller may look the unsuspeeting
part, but agents have found him the
wisest type of a bird yet encoun-
tered. It's joke among government
agents themselves that the "corn
likker" expert would rather take a
shot at them with his musket than
go to a festival.
Your prohibition raider therefore
adopts the simplest ways known to
men. He migrates suddenly to the
country with two-weeks' growth of
beard, and seeks an humble Job in
region suspected of being a moon
shine center. He will do any handy
thing and is not quarrelsome about
the pay. He appears as an honest
looking man wanting work and need
ing it badly. Sometimes he ventures
into the dangerous fastness Of the
mountain districts. Sometimes he
does not come out alive. But that is |
another story. The odds are in his
favor that with caution he will event.
ually emerge with the proof that the
wants.
The DISCUSSES adopted in the hunt |
for liquor makers and vendors are as
as the brands of cheap con-
coctions that are being peddled under
the name of "whiskey." The net re-
suit is that illicit liquor making is
growing to be mighty precarious
pastime. It is not doubted that it's
profits for the liquor distillers are
great while the going is good, but
when the hands of the law fall upon
the unwary, the quickly amassed
profits begin to dwindle in lawyers
fees and other court costs. which may
quickly exhaust the quickly-made
fortunes.