San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-13

Highland, \. j., Jan. 1s.-The cap
ture of four boats belonging TO the
bootlegging ring was attributed TO the
failure of one man to carry out an
agreement to ram any enforcement craft
that tried to halt bootleg boat. 1t
was, admitted, however, that the man
on the Margaret r. thought the coast
guard boat friendly and DIRE along
side her to borrow a gasoline funnel.
1t was revealed at the bootleggers'
meeting that one boat captured last
night escaped from the captol in the
darkness during an argument. Phis
boat was reprinted and her engine
changed.
After their meeting some of the run
ners adjourned to shoot pool in the
town billiard hall. Others, with no
show Of conccalment, boosted in pub
! lie places, with obvious pride, of their
achievement, Of the cargoes they had
landed last night.
Besides the boats that succeeded in
bringing liquor into Highlands, cargoes
were landed at Atlantic Highlands,
Bedford. Port Monmouth, Keansburg,
lSeabright, Gallilee, Monmouth Beach
and other points down as far as Point
Pleasant. This fact was openly pro-
claimed by bootlcsgcrs operating out OF
the various towns-bootlegger who
= backed IN their boasts with displays of
$4,000 bills that were net counterfeits.
City Is Furious.
| Reports of last nights activities
aroused furore in Highlands today,
Mayor Kieferdort making long state
ment to the effect that reports that
700 cases or any such amount had
been landed was a myth,
/ He admitted, however, that recent re-
1 tirement of dry navy ships had been
/ followed by increased efforts on the
! part of the maritime bootleggers, but
Icharged that an effort WIS being made
to fix on Highlands the odium belong
! ing to the entire northern Jersey coast.
/ Citizens were found who asserted that
bootleggers had things pretty much their
own way.
! Several nights ago, it was said, a
| bootlegger, not member of the ring
started to his home garage with a truck
! load. A party of men appeared, shot
/ out the street lights and took the truck.
The original owner located it next day
and took it back.
Law-abiding citizens report that sew
eral times, when driving home late Mt
night they had been halted by boot
| leggers' guards and forced TO take to
other streets.
STACKED to Ceiling.
i Another townsmau, who has lived here
for IS years, declared today TO the AS
sCciateu Press correspondent that there
were q number of residences which, If
one were 70 enter the front door and
walk through the hall to the kitchen,
would reveal cases of liquor stacked ON
both sides to the ceiling.
Two enforcement agents dropped into
town this afternoon as two motor van
loads of liquor, destined for Newark,
rolled down the main street.
An agent stopped one Of the vans
and asked the driver to direct him TO
\ a certain hotel The driver directed,
the agent thanked him, and the booze
rolled on
Those of the bootleggers who came
in contact with the government boats
and escaped said that a negro customs
agent, or employe, actually had been
the most active of the enforcement
party.
| Regular Pirate Style.
/ This negro, they said, was the bravest
government man they had met. He
! went aboard the Evelyn after she was
captured and halted three boats after
chases during which the runners were
forced TO abandon their cargOes. Com
1 ing alongside the runners he leaped into
4 their boats from tn. Eve yn's deck and
ordered hands up while e searched for
| liquor.
Use customs" they quoted him as
saving. Don fool wifi me-"
! And they didn't.
! Bootleggers, discussing their coup
\ with a staff correspondent of the AS
sociated Press, declared that the swarm
of small craft gathered around the rum
/, fleet was thick that they coulC hardly
/ gain landing space alongside. They
1 estimated that more than 800 little boats
bad put out. and impartial observers
! ashore, scanning the waters with glasses
before dusk made observation impoSSl-
| bic, confirmed the bootleggers' boasts to
the extent of declaring that the little