Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1922-10-05
$4,000 BOND
SAYS LADY
COMMISSIONER
Whitehead and Aldridge, Prohibition
Agents, Locate Still On Property
of John Hays.

Tuesday morning before U. S. Com
missioner Mrs. nj. ID. Martin of this
city, j. C. Reader and John Wren,
white men, and Warren Evans and
Orus Wren, negroes, were given pre-
liminary hearings on charges of illicit
distilling and were each bound over
under heavy bond to await the action
of the Federal grand jury. All four
of the men are residents of Talla-
hatchie county and were all arrested
as a result of one raid conducted on a
still located on the property of John
Lays, superintendent of the county
farm of Tallahatchie county. The raid
was made Monday by Federal prohi-
bition agents G. w. Whitehead and c.
A. Aldridge. The officers further re-
port that two more men will be ar
rested within the next few days.
According to Officer Whitehead,
Reader has been working convicts OF
the Lays plantation, John Wren is a
tenant on the same place, Evans is a
negro convict from Tallahatchie farm
and Orus Wren is negro tenant of
that same neighborhood.
The still which was raided by the
officers, reported to be of fifty gallons
capacity, is one of the most thor
oughly equipped that has been found
in that county and was located about
two hundred and fifty yards from
Wren's home and about eight miles
east of the town of Webb.
Mr. Whitehead reports that after
the still was raided in the early part
of the day, had been destroyed and
the officers had departed from the i'm
mediate neighborhood, that they were
tipped off that the commissary, over
which Reader had charge and within
a short distance of the still, was the
principal point of the distribution of
the illicit liquor. The officers return
ed to the scene after nghtfall and in
a raid on the commissary secured six
quarts of moonshine. Confessions
were also secured from negroes to the
effect that after the still had been
raided by the officers earlier in the
day, that Reader had caused to be re-
moved from the commissary, to a
secluded spot in the surrounding
woodsland, six gallons of liquor, and
had armed a negro convict, Willie
Mize, with a shotgun loaded with
buckshot, and, after securing a SINH
larly loaded gun himself instructed
the negro to "Stay with me till we
both go down." The officers, however,
did not follow their raid on the still
up with an exhaustive hunt for liquor,
and both the instructions and the
guard proved unnecessary during the
,o,l.4 ,irrl+ fol
cording to the alleged confessions, the
liquor was brought back to the COM
missary from the hiding place in the
woods and part of it was that
which was confscated by the officers
in their night raid. They also found
the loaded guns in this same raid
which had been prepared by Reader to
guard the woodsland booze cache.
All four of the men arrested were
lodged in the county Jail here and at
last reports none of them had made
bond Readers bond was placed by
Commissioner Mrs. Martin at $4,000
and the bonds of the other three men
at $500 each.
Officers Whitehead and Aldridge
also made "catch" last week, Sat
urday, in Washington county, where
they got double header" j. e., two
stills operated at one stand. Both of
thees stills were of fifty gallons ca
pacity. No one was found on the
scene at the time of the officers visit
and no immediate arrests were there
fore made, but it is claimed that the
operator, or operators, will be gath
cred in the Federal prohibition net
within few days.
In the Washington county raid one
thousand gallons of mash and two
quarts of moonshine were destroyed,
and in the Tallahatchie county raid
seven hundred gallons of mash were
destroyed.
In reporting the late raids made in
this section of the country to repre-
sentatives of The Woman Voter, Off
Ger Whitehead spoke very highly cf
the work that is being done by U. S.
Marshal c. E. Aldridge, who makes
his headquarters in Clarksdale and
who was Mr.. Whitehead's companion
in the two raids described above
Woman Voter, Clarksdale. Miss.
ATTENTION vETRANS IT, C. v.