Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-17
BY WILLARD FERGUSON.

Special Dispatch 10 The STAR
ATLANTA. Ga, July ls.--Taking q
tip from the wartime tactics iirst In
troduced by the ex.Kaisef's troeps.
Georgia bootleggers are using both
poison gas and smoke screens. and
their activities have reached such D
stage that the Georgia Legislature.
now In session here, ID considering a
bill making Il , criminal osfsnse TO
own an automobile equipped TO lay
Down q screen OF smoke.
Marrow escapes from death and
minor accidents have been reported
BY automobile drivers. .who FOUND
themselves blinded BY the black clouds
from speeding ears OK rum'runners
seeking to el9de the police.
Screen Causes Alarm.
One bootlegger, hard.pressed BY OH.
GERS, turned on the smoke screen ln
the center OF the business distrtct or
Atlanta, and DO thick was the smoke
from the exhaust OK has automobile
that ftre alarms were sent from sew.
eral different places by persons who
thought the downtown section was on
FIRE.
Two effieers, pursuing a bootlegger
who sought to hide himself in a screen
Of smoke. were DO blinded by the thick
clouds that they missed by inches run.
ming into truck filled with school
and added to all that" said chief
George Mathieson, OF the Fulton Coun.
ty police, these liquor hauiers are
now beginning to mix poison gas with
the smoke. Usually they produce the
smoke screen by forcing kerosene or
cylinder oil or both into the exhaust
pipe al near the engine al POSSIBLE by
means Of an air.pressufe tank, and
there the heat changes the stun into
smoke clouds. Our officers, however,
have been riding on through these
screens and catching a rutn'fanner
every now and then, 30 they have de-
eided to give us dose OF poison, gas
along with the smoke. This, they do
BY adding ether, iodine and ammonia
te the kerosene and cylinder oil. A
good Whit OF that will make anybody
deathiy sick"
Seek Narrow Road.
Curtis c. Neal, one OF Fulton Coun.
tvs policemen who makes speciality
Of chasing bootleggers, testifies to the
murdefeus habits Of fuEn.runhers in
laying down smoke screens.
Jump one OF them and he'll make
a bee.iine for the nafrowest road he
can find, one running through woods
IL possible" said Officer Neal. "Then
hell turn on his smoke screen and
hope that the police. hitting the fog
OF smoke, will run on the harrow road
and wreck themselves. II they hap
pen to break their neeixs, 1t will be all
right with the bootiegger."
Officere G. L. Gates and C.. e. Lyle
were chasing rum.runner. when they
almost smashed Into truck occupied
by school children.
1--WE jumped the liquor car on RIOS.
well read, near the bridge" said Gates,
and right away he turned on his
smoke screen, but It wasn't working
al well as usual. and now and then
It would thin out and we could see
him two or three hundred yardB away,
hut again II would thicken up 30
that we couldn't see the road under
US.
FINALLY 1t got so dense that we
slowed down to about 20 miles an
hour and were praying that we
wouldn't AIT anything, when we neard
scream, and Just did brush that
truck load OF children. We caught
the fasfi.rAnnef on PAGES Ferry road
after a chase OF eight miles. and he
ought to have been put on trial the
next day for attempted murder.
Apparatus Sold Openly.
"Bootleggers always try to pick hol
lows or woodland roads in laying
down their smoke screens. becAuse
the smoke win lie for quite b while
In places like that. 3 or 10 minutes
possibly, and when q n4uor car "a
going 90 miles an hour that may b
Capt. J. C. Oliver Of the. Fulton
County police declares that smoke.
screen apparatus % kept on display
IN some places ana sold openly IKE
any other, commodity.
ss%eA SeAEA SostessiAa q O. ~