The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1922-06-03
Dry Officers
UseUnique
Methods
By w. f. ATKINS,
international News Service Stan
CORRESPONDENTS

Washington, June 3.-Buyers OF
bootleg whiskey visiting the haunts
Of '6ooteggers may be buying from
The answer is that the Government
is planting" it's enforcement opera
tives in the bootleg headquarters.
DISCUSSES. They appear as buns, en-
tering 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
a 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 key to the boot1egging in
dustry in the sections covered by their
operations.
Hotel bootlegging has been curtaI-
ed by another very shrewd method of
the enforcers- Government agents.
skilled in the art of crime detection
and wise to the ways of the boot
legs, suddenly show up in the most
fashi enable hostelries. They are for
the time being gentlemen of leisure,
with lots of money to spend and with
lavish programmes of entertainment
for their friends.
4 hotel guest, on the law of aver
ages, can muster a Big flock of guests
announcement that he is to have
a rum party The boys fall over
each other getting in on the big time.
The alleged wealthy host, who has
distinct manufacturing centre is
none other than a rum raider. He
gains the confidence of the bell boys,
the orters and the walters by his pro-
figate demeanCr. He flashes rolls of
banknotes with reckless abandon. The
tip goes around the hotel that a new
guy think these smart young fellows
who are lying around waiting to make
easy coin on the liquor clean-ups.
The prosperous gent, who idles
Of lI1 hIf1- inc Own
mic drinks for the crowds gathered
about him in his suite of ornate rooms
stays long enugh to get the goods and
soon disappears amid a lot of kow-
towing. but with the stuff that will
be used as a basis for indictments.
Battle of Wits.
In the war on Illicit distilling in
rural districts operatives have been
put to their wits ends. The rural
dweller may look the unSuspec6ng
part, but agents have found min the
It's a joke among Government agents
themselves that the corn likker" ex-
pert would rather take a shot at
them with his musket than got co a
festival.
Your prohibition raider therefore
adopts the simplest ways Known to
men. He migrates suddenly to the
country, with a two weelos' growth of
beard and seeks an humble job in a.
region suspected of being moon
shine centre. He will do any handy
the pay. He appears as an honest
looking man wanting work and need
ing it badly. Sometimes he ven
lures into the dangerous Businesses 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
eventually emerge with the proof that
the Government wants.
The DISCUSSES adopted in the hunt
for liquor makers and vendors are as
numerous as the brands of cheap
concaCtions that are being peddled
under the name of "whiskey.' The
net result is that Illicit liquor making
is growing to be a mighty precarious
pastime. 1t is not doubted that its
profits for the liquor distllers are
great while the going is good, but
when the hands of the law fall upon
upon the unwary, the quickly amass
ed profits begin to dwind1e in law
ye-s' fees and other court costs which
may exhaust the quickly-made for
tunes of the noonshiners, besides a
collection of other reverses that may
fall in the path of those arraigned
before the courts.