The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-18
GOOD WHISKY ISI NOW IMPOSSIBLE TO GET - HAYNES
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 of the hills, but in the heart of sub urbs of our cities. Usually his prod uct Is vile.
 The old time moonshiner, for in stance, used lye with which to scrub clean the receptables in which he placed his mash. After its applica- tion he would remove it's traces with water from the nearby spring or creek The modern moonsnlner uses I've, too, but his design is to give his product a kick" So he fills a pail with water and pours in his lye till the water will dissolve no more of it. Then into the fermented mass he pours the saturated solution. The proportion is generally one gallon of i've solution to 50 gallons of beer, as the liquor for distilling is called. The beer" is distilled, but quantity of the lye inevitably remains in the product. In the course of few weeks this kind of moonshine, If drunk continuously, Is likely to eat out the lining of the human stomach.
 Again, the old time moonshiner, back in the mountains, found that if he soaked his malt In an extract which he called red ivy ooze, the liuuor would have better bead. The modern southern moonshiner, when he can get 1t, uses red ivy ooze, too, but in far different way.
 Red ivy ooze of the mountains was made by boiling the roots of the red ivy plant. That plant, as disting guishe ed from the poison ivy vine, is bush somewhat like laurel in appearance. and producing a small red flower from which it derives it's name. It is a poisonous plant; cattle eating It when the grass growth on the hills becomes exhausted invariably die as a result.
 Different ways of Poisoning.
 In that concentrate of poison the old time moonshiner would soak his malt The malt then was dried and used sparringly to enhance fermenta- tion in the mash. An infinitesimal amount of the ivy poison was left in the finished product.
 The modern bootlegger of the south pours his red ivy ooze directly into his "beer" in the usual propor- tion of one gallon of ooze to 50 of beer" A considerable percentage of the poison remains in the finished product. If taken in heavy quantities or continuously, it is deadly.
 The old time moonsniner used corn-meal for his mash. Theoretical lv 1t is possible to extract about three and one galf gallons of alcohol from the meal of a bushel of corn, but in most cases the moonshiner was able to obtain only from two and one- half to three gallons of liquor. The up-to-date moonshiner uses corn meal Gin the south) and sugar. A bushel of meal and 50 pounds of sugar will produce about six gallons of moonshine. In the north, as a rule. sugar is the chief ingredient used. It is cheaper, but the quality of the prOduCt is greatly inferior.
 In our populous cities 90 per cent of the moonshining is done by the foreign born population. Their meth- ods are exceedingly insanitary. Their stills often are located on the upper floors of crowded tenement houses. They may be detected quite often by their peculiar odor. In the fresh air of the mountains 1t is possible to de- tect a still a mile or more away by the odor; not 50, however, in the im- pure air of our cities.
 MOonsh;ninE On City Edges.
 Much of the moonshining of today Is conducted on the fringes of the cities The old-time moonshiner is dwindling in numbers, and there are fewer stills now in the mountain fastnesses of the south than there have been for generations. Prohibi- ton agents, hunting down the illegal traffic under newer and more ap- proved methods, have sounded the knell of the mountain moonshiner.
 Moonshiners with large stills To- cated near populous centers supply much of the illicit traffic today. These stills are local affairs, built to satisfy local bootleggers. There is no organization or association of moonshiners; that phase of the illegal industry is highly decentralized; and, because of that condition, the en- forcement officers task is all the more difficult.
 Often the moonshiner Is a city dweller of considerable means who has constructed his still convenient