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Tales of the Trade 



A CITIZEN OF NORTH 

 CAROLINA 



The general public, ami even 

 lumbermen, have but a very in- 

 distinct and illy-conceived idea 

 of the illicit whiskey producers 

 of some sections of the country, 

 that almost may be regarded as 

 unknown lands. It is doubtful 

 if the average manufacturer of 

 moonshine whiskey, either in 

 the mountain section of the 

 lower Appalachians or in the 

 cane brakes of Mississippi and 

 Arkansas, is a law-breaker by 

 instinct or bj' choice. In some 

 particulars he is a great re- 

 specter of the law, but only in- 

 asmuch as he can regard the 

 law as a just one. He can not 

 believe it a righteous law that 

 prohibits him from producing 

 anything from the hospitable 

 land in which he dwells, by 

 means of which he can feed and 

 clothe himself and his family. 

 He doesn't believe that it is 

 just for the government to im- 

 pose upon him a tax of ninety 

 cents a gallon for producing 

 whiskey, and therefore he pays 

 little attention to the law save 

 to keep out of its clutches. 

 Hence, he "hides out" with his 

 little worm and crude still in al- 

 most impenetrable recesses of 

 the forest, and laboriously pro- 

 duces moonshine in such an 

 extravagant way and in such a 

 limited quantity, as to make 

 even revenue ofiScers wonder 

 why he will take such desperate 

 chances for the slight avails that 

 secured from the business 



QTII.L noSIC OF SWAIN COfXTY. X. C. PEACEFtL AG 

 1ST, OCCASIOXALLY ACCUSED BY THE GOVERN 

 OF MAKIXc; ILLICIT WHISKEY. 



can be 

 Still he does it, 

 and there has been more killing of officers 

 of the law and of moonshiners than even 

 the importance of sustaining many good 

 l:iws warrants. 



No one has yet proven that the redoubt- 

 able citizen of Swain county, N. C, pic- 

 tured on this page, who lives way up at 

 the head waters of Eagle Creek, far remote 

 from railroad, wagon road or even a trail, 

 is a manufacturer of illicit whiskey. Some 

 people say that he is, and occasionally the 

 revenue officers drop in on him and take him 

 over to Asheville under indictment, just be- 

 cause they happen to detect him feeding his 

 hogs with swill that bears a close resem- 

 blance to the mash from a still. 



Quill Eose is a squatter on the projierty 

 of the E. E. Wood Lumber Company, way 

 up under the shadow of Siler 's Bald on the 

 Tennessee line, and so far as the writer 

 knows, is engaged with the assistance of 

 his venerable wife and yaller mule, in 

 peaceful agricultural pursuits. He confesses 



PORTRAIT MADE OF QT'ILL ROSE DURING 



A RECENT VISIT HE MADE TO THE 



I". S. COURT AT ASHEVILLE. 



that in his salad days he was 

 mixed up .more or less in the 

 production of "shine, but with 

 advancing years, and with the 

 increasing risk in the enter- 

 prise, he has ceased to make 

 any of this delectable white 

 wliiskey. He doesn't deny he 

 knows how to make it, and how 

 to dispose of it, but alleges that 

 he prefers the pursuit of peace 

 and happiness in occupations 

 that are not interdicted by the 

 government. 



One of these pictures shows 

 Quill Eose as caught by the 

 camera of the writer, at the 

 corner of his very modest 

 shack as he was starting out 

 with his crude scythe to cut a 

 bit of grass for his mule. The 

 portrait picture of him is one 

 that was secured by E. E. Wood, 

 during a recent forced trip that 

 took Quill ' ' to court ' ' at Ashe- 

 ville. 



The writer has had the 

 pleasure some years ago of en- 

 joying Quill 's hospitality at the 

 head of Eagle Creek, and was 

 even shown b3- him the rem- 

 nants of a still that surely 

 hadn "t been in operation for 

 many years, and he is not led to 

 credit, in the face of Quill's 

 protest, that he has anything 

 to do nowadays in the making 

 of moonshine. He is a quiet, 

 peaceful old chap, and Mrs. 

 Eose is a motherly old lady; 

 and E. E. Wood doesn 't hesi- 

 tate to turn over all the land 

 area that they both want for the growing 

 of corn and garden truck, without charge or 

 obligation. 



PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF FAIR 



DEALING 

 F. R. Babcock, retiring president of the 

 National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation, in a speech made at the banquet of 

 the last annual meeting of that organization 

 at Louisville, gave utterance to seutiments 

 that inspired his hearers to much enthus- 

 iasm. Fair Dealing was his text, and 

 H.-VBDVVOOD Eecord can not more heartily ap- 

 prove of Mr. Babcock 's utterances, than by 

 quoting some pertinent paragraphs from his 

 .■iddress. He said: 



' ' This event marks the close of twenty 

 years' successful operation of our associa- 

 tion, a distinction rarely enjoyed by any 

 body of men who have bound themselves to- 

 gether for the purpose of creating and main- 

 taining a platform upon which the lumber 

 business may be done; having for its aim 

 the high social and moral plane that should 

 exist between men in the furthering of a 



RICULTUR 

 MENT 



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