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tion. A bushel of corn-meal worth a dollar, fifty cents' worth of sugar, molasses, or sorghum, a five-cent cake of yeast or home-made yeast, a can of concentrated lye to hasten disintegration of cellular tissue, and a half-peck of sprouted or malted whole grains of corn-a total outlay for materials of about $1.75.

From this from one to four gallons of liquor can be distilled, worth $40 per gallon, provided the maker sells it himself; less by half if he sells it to the middleman, who in turn sells to the bootlegger. Say that four gallons are made-a profit of $158 on an investment of $1.75! With this temptation constantly before poor men who know only one way of earning money otherwiseby the sweat of their brow and in crops which often yield the scantiest and hardest sort of a living-there will be unlawful distilling as long as there are purchasers for the product at anything approaching the prices which now prevail.

Men go to jail-and come right out and start back at it. They go on parole and pledge their sacred word-and break it, as witness the following despatch from Clanton, Alabama, to a Birmingham newspaper, April 21:

Ocie Mims, who pleaded guilty to the charge of having whisky in his possession in county court yesterday, and who asked the mercy of the

Court and promised on his honor that if he were given the lowest fine he would never deal in whisky again, was found distilling yesterday afternoon before county court had closed.

Sheriff Gore heard that he and his brother were at work at the still, and immediately rushed his deputies, who found the still in operation. As soon as the Mimses saw the sheriff and deputies they ran, but were apprehended by Joe Gore, a deputy, who had to use violent treatment before he could take the men in charge. When the deputy caught Ocie Mims, Watson Mims tried to cut the deputy with a knife. Just at this time Tom Mims, the father of the boys, came running up, and he and J. L. Easterling, a deputy, wrestled for several minutes before Easterling took Mims in control.

"I have seen many raids," said Deputy J. M. Curlee, "but I have never seen one like this, for the whole family came running to the scene, some praying, some cursing and crying, and in the meanwhile each deputy and the sheriff wrestling with a man."

Is it not a spectacle to make the gorge rise the sight of that whole family of hitherto honest country people engaged in fighting the officers and upholding lawbreaking? It is not enough; the despatch continues:

Claude Baker, who lives in that community, is accused of reporting the still, and last night his house,

worm " or condensation pipe

together with all the possessions of . the family, including wearing apparel, was burned. Traces of kerosene used on the house were found. Mr. Baker was not at home at the time his house was burned, as he had heard threats had been made.

The same day city papers recorded despatches telling of the attempted assassination of two other officers and the burning of another home in vengeance. Like news is daily reported from other sections of the State.

This sort of thing is a daily occur. rence, not only in Alabama but in many other sections of the South.

The towns are infested with "bootleggers," peddlers, and dispensers of the stuff. Some of these men in the cities have regular routes, as have milkmen; others depend upon chance sales. Women are among the numerous offenders, selling it by the drink in their houses. One goes to jail, and another takes the place to catch "the trade." It is an easy way to make a living-fifty cents and a dollar a drink for dreadful stuff, infinitely worse than the lowest "barrel house dive" ever sold for ten cents in the old days. It is exceedingly difficult for convictions to be had in cases of this sort-they will not allow a drop of the stuff to be taken out, except internally.

It requires a very small outlay to embark in the making of "moonshine" liquor. Most of the stills are crude

CANDY FACTORY AND DISTILLERY COMBINED

Note the funnel for pouring the "mash" into the still-the latter being of finest copper. Steam was supplied from boilers in basement. Note steam pipe from candy boiling vat on right, to still-made to do double duty

affairs, the most common being nothing more or less than a box of 1 x 12 plank with a zinc or tin bottom where the heat is applied. There is a plank top, except for the opening where the "mash" is inserted for cooking and the condensation chamber and its vent into the "worm" where the vapor is turned to liquor. The "worm" where the condensation takes place may be either of copper, tin, old garden hose, iron pipe, or rubber tubing, coiled in a barrel of cold water and the end protruding over the receptacle placed to catch the dropping liquid, which is "moonshine" whisky.

Officers may destroy an outfit of the sort, but in one day's time and by the expenditure of not over ten dollars another may be ready for use, provided the fermented "mash" or "beer" has not been poured out. It is the exception that arrests are made of the men who own or operate the stills, and usually raids result merely in destruction of the stills, which may be in operation again in forty-eight hours.

Sometimes these barrels or vats of fermenting stuff are sunk down in the ground, so they may be more readily concealed, and frequently they yield nauseating finds; occasionally a dead pig, more frequently dead possums, squirrels, jay-birds, owls, chickens. During the summer the top of the liquid mash nearly always has a thick coating of dead flies, bugs, and perhaps a few lizards for good measure; but the mess is skimmed off and the mash cooked up and the extract from it is bought and consumed by its devotees, although it is generally known that most of the "moonshine" liquor is not made amid rules for cleanliness.

"Moonshining" is not confined to the rural districts, by any means. There used to be a sort of glamour over this form of law violation-its very name is indicative; but it is a very sordid business now, as witness the case of the Negro who collected swill and garbage from the kitchens of the famous Southern Club and half a dozen Greek restaurants of Birmingham. He said he was feeding pigs on it; but a chance discovery revealed that he was fermenting the stuff and distilling it in his

rickety stable amid fearful and indescribable filth! More than that, his partner, who was sales manager, so to speak, was buying bottles of a peculiar shape, and this swill "moonshine" was regarded as being of the best class by its patrons, who had visions of the still being by some babbling brook in a laurel-shaded gulch of Shelby County! The officers found some patrons of the man who bragged mightily on the class of liquor they were obtaining.

Another "moonshine" still was found in a deserted corner of the basement of Birmingham's new million-dollar post office building, in course of erection. This was a double-barreled affair of small capacity, the heat being supplied by two gasoline torches.

Another, a very complete and expensive outfit, was found in a candy factory in the heart of Birmingham, and the thrifty foreigner was piping the steam from the candy caldron and making it cook the mash also.

Officers declare that the most difficult problem now is the small still which can be used on a kitchen stove or over a gas-burner. They are coming more and more in use. Advertisements of stills for the purpose of "distilling impure water" point the way to the purchaser. They may be had in capacity from two gallons up. A very small still can turn out a quart or more a day, and at $10 a quart it is a promising side line and "home industry."

In the southern part of the State, where sugar-cane grows, the favorite distillation is called "shinney," a ferment made of molasses and water, distiled, which is really rum. Mobile newspapers complain that the city is being denuded of grate-bars from the storm sewers. These pieces of iron are

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PORTABLE TWIN STILL OF CRUDEST TYPE, SET UP IN REMOTE CORNER OF BIRMING

HAM'S MAGNIFICENT NEW POST OFFICE BUILDING, IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION

held in great esteem, upon which to place the still over the fire. Another community asserts its citizens have quit buying zinc garbage cans; they are jstolen to be used as stills, and are said o make very serviceable ones, indeed.

In addition to the distillation of iquor, however pernicious the stuff is, here is a greater menace-that of the oncocted stuff. One of the noted analytical chemists of the South, speakng recently before one of the luncheon lubs of Birmingham, brought four samples with him, and is reported, in part, as saying:

Nearly all of the stuff now being sold is made from alcohol colored and flavored to give the taste and bead of the different kinds of whiskies. For example, the bead is obtained by mixing sulphuric acid and olive oil. Other things going into these imitation liquors are soapwort, nitrous ether, acetic acid, salicylic

acid, oil of birch, lampblack, ethyl nitrate, and numbers of other things, including all sorts of coloring matter.

The poorer grades of "bootleg" whisky seem to be nothing more or I less than denatured alcohol treated

in some way to disguise the odor and colored with caramel. All denatured alcohol contains various amounts of wood alcohol, running from two to ten per cent, and of course is deadly poison.

Wood alcohol has three different effects on the human system, differing with the amount taken. It will cause blindness, insanity, and death, generally one or the other of the former preceding the latter.

"Moonshine" is nothing but raw alcohol and contains any number of by-products of distillation, all poisonous to the human body. These poisons appear to be cumulative in their effect, and when a definite amount has been absorbed something is bound to happen.

I have here four samples of whisky recently sent me to be analyzed. Exhibit A is the worst kind of "bootleg"-ordinary denatured alcohol colored with caramel. This produced blindness in the man who drank of it. Exhibit B is colorless, odorless alcohol, one drink of which killed a man. Exhibit C is supposed to be straight whisky-but isn't-and Exhibit D is ordinary white "moonshine." If any one present thinks he can distinguish between the poison

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are in plenty and of a most drastic character, yet the violators multiply, and as long as there is a market and the pecuniary reward is anything like at present there will continue to be those who will take a chance on being caught.

Meanwhile, if the prohibitionists really come to the aid of the law enforcement officers, will it make any great difference? Certainly, as long as that added stimulus is kept up. But how long can it be kept up? Are reform and law enforcement movements in furtherance thereof ever more than spasmodic and temporary?

And, finally, what will it cost to stop distilling and sale and home brewing, provided it is practically possible to do so? Would easy access to milder alcoholic beverages so reduce the demand for unlawful liquor as practically to put the makers out of business, except in remote localities, as was the case under former conditions?

Y

THE AIRPLANE SMUGGLERS

BY LAURENCE LA TOURETTE DRIGGS

TOUR customs duties and revenue laws will become a farce," declared Arnold Adair, "unless airplane patrols are provided by the Government to keep these lawless fellows 'rom smuggling dutiable articles over our borders by the air route. Jewels, whisky, laces-any number of light packages can be brought in, and there s no organized method of preventing it. These smugglers can load up their airplanes at any spot they choose, in Canada or in Mexico. They fly over the border and land at any spot they choose in the United States. Any farm a dozen miles from San Diego, here, would furnish a landing-field where the goods could be shipped out in fruit boxes from the farmhouse without exciting any suspicion."

The Chief looked at the aviator thoughtfully. Here was a brand-new problem. Flying was undoubtedly be coming more popular here in California; nobody could deny that some day Adair's prophecy might prove true. One more lawless device to be met and conquered by the officers of law and order! And at first glance the difficulties in the way of meeting this new smuggling menace would be extremely great.

"Do you mean to tell us," demanded Chief Maloney, indignantly, "that the Government will have to keep airplanes fying along our borders constantly to prevent contraband coming in? That's absurd! It would take a thousand airplanes going night and day. And at

night-why, smugglers could slip by at night, no matter how many inspectors were on the job. How many miles of borderland do you think there are in the United States?"

"About ten or eleven thousand miles," replied Arnold, "if one counts the coastlines. Of course one must count the coast-lines, for most of our dutiable imports come from across the oceans, don't they? How do you propose to stop such smuggling, Mr. Maloney, either by night or by day, without airplanes?" Arnold inquired, pleasantly.

It was Sunday afternoon, and the discussion, which was quite a casual one, had begun at the close of the family dinner at the Berryman residence, where Arnold Adair had been spending a week or two with his old squadron mate of France, Lieutenant Malcolm Berryman. Malcolm's father, Henry Berryman, had been a former Mayor of San Diego, and was of considerable political prominence on the Pacific coast. His friend Matthew Maloney was head of the Internal Revenue forces, and in this sudden visit to this part of the State he had been brought home by Mr. Berryman to spend Sunday with the Berryman family at their San Diego farm.

Arnold Adair had flown across the continent, from New York to California, in his own specially constructed machine. He had taken the trip leisurely, stopping here and there to spend a few days with flying comrades, his fertile imagination picturing the coming days

of air transportation, when air routes would be laid out purposefully connecting the cities and towns of the great West, similar to the network of motor highways over which he flew. And in California, the land of continuous sunshine and good weather, Arnold Adair found that aviation was far more popular with the general public than was the case in the East. Yet even here the usefulness of flying was hampered by reason of the absence of laws governing the navigation of the air. No capital would be invested in air transportation until the Federal Government enacted these necessary laws. Lawbreakers, such as smugglers, however, would feel no inconvenience from this lack of Governmental interest. And this circumstance had suggested the general subject of airplane smuggling, which seemed to be of particular significance to the Chief Revenue Collector this quiet Sunday afternoon.

"When you stop to think about it," observed the Chief, who had kept his eyes for some minutes upon the tablecloth without speaking, "it's no use stationing men on the ground to stop a smuggler from flying over into California from Mexico. It would take a row .of heavy artillery all the way around our border lines to stop them. Even then the guns might miss."

"Might miss!" ejaculated Malcolm Berryman. "Would be certain to miss, is a better way of putting it. Out of the thousands of guns and hundreds.

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"LAID OUT LIKE THE PATTERN OF A CRAZY QUILT WHEN VIEWED FROM A MILE IN THE AIR"

thousands of shells fired at airplanes in the war, it was a very rare exception when one was even wounded. And besides, how would you know which airplanes to shoot at? Some of them might be peaceful, law-abiding machines. A gun would be more likely to hit them than the smugglers who were trying to dodge."

"While an airplane patrol officer, mounted in a faster machine, would be able to fly alongside the criminal and order him down, like a traffic cop on the Boston Post Road," added Adair, laughing. "Don't you agree it will come to that, Mr. Maloney?"

"What are you two bird-men doing to-morrow?" asked Mr. Maloney, bluntly, ignoring the question with abrupt decision and looking at Arnold Adair.

"Duck shooting, I believe, is on the programme for us to-morrow; isn't it, Malcolm?" inquired Arnold, turning to his friend. Malcolm nodded.

"I'm down here this week on a very particular job," continued the revenue officer, lowering his voice as he glanced about the room. "I'd be much obliged if you fliers would lend me a hand with your airplane to-morrow morning. There's something going to be pulled off around here to-morrow or next day just like we've been talking about. Smuggling!"

His listeners pulled their chairs nearer together with a quickened interest. He went on, choosing his disclosures with official caution:

"It just dawned on me, listening to your talk about the airplanes, that you

may have hit a nail smack on the head. I've been thinking it over while you were talking. I guess I can tell you about it, providing you both agree to help me, and will say nothing about it until it is all over."

The two aviators nodded their heads. Mr. Berryman rose and offered to withdraw, but the Chief stopped him with a gesture and included him in the circle.

"It's opium!" exploded the Chief, pounding the arm of the chair angrily as he spoke. "These filthy wretches are flooding the country with opium. Every town along this coast has its hidden dens where American boys and girls are lured to smoke opium. It ain't the ordinary passing of contraband articles to save a few dollars due the customhouse. It's the debauching of good citizens here in California by this Chinese weed that's most important. There's laws against bringing it in, but it's such a costly drug to buy that these smugglers make fortunes out of this vile business."

empty shoe-boxes recently, and it fitted in to convict a gang already under suspicion.

"But the head of this gang doesn't live in the United States, although he is a citizen. He owns land in Mexico, south of the border, and he's got an island inside the three-mile limit, so that our patrol boats can't search him. We figured out that he gets the stuff from these Chinese and Japanese vessels, hides it on his island, and then slips it into California in shoe-boxes, either by sea or over the border by land. But neither our inspectors nor our patrol boats ever caught them with the goods. And now it's just dawned on me that perhaps it does come over by airplane. As Adair says, an airplane can start anywhere and land anywhere without notifying us."

Arnold Adair slapped his leg enthusiastically, while his eyes shone with excitement. No more cogent illustration of the evil use of aircraft could have been suggested to demonstrate to this

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vices for a month, free of charge, Mr. Maloney, if you will let me investigate that island as one of your officers. I hope they've got an airplane mixed up in it, just to let you see how easily it can be done. I'll join your force for a month, though I ought to be going back to New York this week."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Adair, thanking you all the same," replied the Chief. "If we're on the right track at all, it will be to-morrow or next day that will show it up. One of these Asiatic tramp steamers, is due in tonight, and our patrol boats are watching her. That's why I am down here on the spot-to watch things. But the trouble is we take a chance when we run inside Mexico's three-mile limit with a patrol boat, and there they've got us."

"But an airplane can get within the three-mile limit, Mr. Maloney, and there are no laws to stop her. Not yet, at any rate. We'll go duck shooting down by that island early to-morrow morning. What do you say, Malcolm?"

Malcolm Berryman readily assented. "I know that island," he said. "It's just inside a cove that is called 'Chinaman's Bay.' There's a house or two on it, and part of the land is in cultivation. It's about thirty miles from here."

"Fifteen minutes, in the Comet," observed Arnold Adair, smiling at Chief Maloney's start of surprise at this information.

Adair had designed his own airplane after a number of improved details which he had seen in various machines at home and in Europe. He had personally superintended its construction, personally selected its propeller, its motor, and the new aluminum alloy metal for its body and wings. Its body, or fuselage, was like the bottom of a boat. Attached to this hull were the two landing-wheels, to be used when landing upon the ground instead of in the water. Thus the Comet was amphibious, or, rather, tribious, if one may coin the word; for the Comet could live and move in the air, on the water, and on the ground with equal convenience.

The day broke clear and beautiful the following morning. After an early breakfast, the two aviators, one with a camera for photographs, the other with a shotgun for any passing ducks, wheeled the Comet out of the shed, climbed aboard, and flew away to the south without further information to the other members of the family as to their intended destination. Sage-brush and stubby pines cover the slopes of the hills. Occasional checkerboard farms of green and red and yellow relieve the drab picture of the landscape viewed from a mile in the air. The uncultivated country beyond the Mexican line melts away in the distance to the desolate mountain ranges.

To their right, as the Comet hummed briskly along, the sparkling waters of the Pacific stretched away until their ripples and color were lost in the horizon. Here and there the morning sun smote a spread sail, making a tiny white

speck against the blue. Directly beneath them a thin thread of filmy white surf broke regularly upon the sandy shores of Coronado Beach. Adair and Berryman sat side by side, looking about them at the varied picture, without speaking. Then a gesture of Berryman's directed Arnold's attention ahead.

The coast-line was broken with rugged projections where the ocean waves washed against the territory of Lower California, in Mexico. Between two of these promontories, just emerging into view, and still some distance ahead, a small semicircular bay lay flanked by hills so high that its surface had not yet been touched by the rays of the morning sun. A small island appeared to be even with the extremities of the two promontories and fully two miles from shore. Toward this island Arnold directed the course of the Comet.

As they approached both pilots focused their eyes upon the small green spot that could have been covered with a postage-stamp. Accustomed to detecting objects on the ground from the air, both pointed simultaneously to a small boat that floated in the harbor before the seaward side of the island. On the same side of the island several houses were grouped, facing the sea. And near the edge of the sandy beach, in front of the principal house, a group of persons was moving about, growing more and more distinct as the Comet drew nearer and lower.

A circuit of the island was made while they were losing their altitude. The ground at the rear of the houses was partly in cultivation and partly covered with trees. Adair decided to land upon the water in front of the house. From there he might select a smooth portion of the beach most suitable for disembarking.

Malcolm Berryman, who had been staring out to sea, suddenly shouted into Adair's ear:

"Look! There's a Chinese vessel! There, about two miles out. Sails down, and riding at anchor. And I'll bet that's her small boat under us in the harbor, paying a visit to the people on the island. Opium, my boy! They're bringing in opium."

Arnold considered a moment. "Shall we take a look at the vessel first or shall we land?"

"Land, Arnold, land!" urged Berryman. "We're just in time. And look out for that fisherman's net stretched along there in the middle of the harbor. There, just ahead of their boat."

A long line of wood floats, shining and bobbing in the water, was supported at one end by a floating barrel; the other end was tied to a stake driven in the sand near shore. The Comet's motor was lightly ticking over as Adair flattened her out, skimmed the water for a hundred feet, and eased her down flat upon the slight undulations of the harbor. Sticking her stern smartly down, she came to a dead stop within a length or two. The two aviators looked about them.

In the lifeboat, a hundred yards away, several yellow-skinned sailors in flimsy garments were seated on the thwarts, resting on their oars. In the stern of the boat a hard-featured man, who might have been either an American or a European, stood on his feet, regarding the Comet fixedly. Evidently the lifeboat was just on its way out to sea, and had paused to watch the descent of the airplane.

On the shore several boxes in bamboo wrappings were lying a few yards above the reach of the lapping waves. Standing near this freight two almond-eyed coolies clad in rough clothes of American make and a Chinese woman of comely appearance were grouped. From the front door of the house, a hundred yards up the slope, two Mexican workmen were returning to the beach on a run. The door of the low adobe house was open. Vines were climbing about the doorstep, rare plants and flowers decorated the open places on the lawn.

With a glance at his companion, Adair opened the throttle and moved the Comet steadily toward the shore. As a wave receded the wheels touched the hard sand. Buzzing up the motor, the aviator lifted her head and ran her out of the water. Making a short curve upon the beach until the machine again faced the open harbor, he cut the motor, the propeller ceased its revolutions, and the Comet stood idly and silently in the midst of the strange inhabitants of the island of Chinaman's Bay.

"Have you any gasoline?" inquired Adair, addressing the audience impartially. The group surrounding the pile of freight stared vacantly at the airmen without answering.

"No sabe, eh?" called Berryman, cheerily, chuckling to himself over the cool simplicity of Adair's self-introduction. "Then I will give them a little Mex. But what the deuce is gas in Mex?"

Whatever it was, Adair, the New Yorker, never knew, but, after considerable parleying, one of the workmen waved his hands and withdrew hastily to the sheds adjoining the house, soon to reappear with a monkey-wrench in his hands. And while he was absent Adair observed with some uneasiness that the lifeboat was pulling in to shore. It landed, and the white man in the stern left the boat and approached them. His coarsened face was not fully appre ciated by the aviators until he spoke. And then his first words astonished them beyond measure.

"Why don't you take the stuff and go?" he demanded. "Anything the matter?" Adair looked into his unpleasant face, and wondered what he would be like when seriously annoyed. Evidently, as Chief Maloney had suggested, they had hit the nail smack on the head. An airplane had been expected, and these wretches had jumped to the conclusion that the Comet had come to "take the stuff." A thousand details were still lacking, but it was clear to both the aviators that they had solved the

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