FOREST AND STREAM 
[Oct. 20, 1906. 
Like one of John Fox’s characters, he is fond of 
the expression ‘‘hist’ry says” so-and-so, and he 
considers it a clincher in all matters of debate. 
A northern gentleman was visiting him not 
long ago, and the conversation drifted upon the 
topic of moonshining: 
“Down to the time of the Civil War,” declared 
the old settler, “nobody paid tax on the whiskey 
he made. Hit was thataway in my pa’s time, 
and in his’n ’efore him, ’way back to the time 
of George Washington. Now, hist’ry says that 
Washington was the Father of his Country; and 
I reckon he was the greatest man that ever lived 
■—don’t you?” 
The visitor murmured a complaisant assent. 
“Wall, sir, if 't was right to make free whiskey 
in Washington’s day, hit ’s right now!” and the 
old man brought his fist down on the table. 
“But that is just where you make the greatest 
mistake of your life,” replied the guest. Wash¬ 
ington did enforce a whiskey tax.” .Then he 
told about the Whiskey Insurrection of 1784. 
This was news to Grandpa. He listened with 
deep attention, his brows lowering as the nar¬ 
rative proceeded. When it was finished, he of¬ 
fered no comment, but brooded to himself in 
silence. Finally the visitor, whose thoughts mean¬ 
time had wandered far afield, was recalled to 
the topic by a blunt demand: 
“You say Washington done that?” 
“Yes, sir.” 
“George Washington?” 
“Yes, sir—George.” 
“Wall, I’m satisfied, now, that Washington 
must ’a’ been a leetle-grain cracked!” 
Horace Kephart. ■ 
Medi in, N C. 
[to be continued.] 
The Au Sable. 
fishermen at dinner, “beautiful bend,” near GRAYLING, MICH. 
necessity of having to extinguish the fire they 
might apply to' houses. * * * Then the work 
began. Every citizen worked like a slave to 
carry provisions and buckets of whiskey to that 
camp.” Judge Brackenridge tells us that it was 
an expensive as well as laborious day, and cost 
him personally four barrels of prime old whiskey. 
The day ended in a bloodless, but probably up¬ 
roarious, jollification. 
On this same day (the governor of Pennsyl¬ 
vania having declined to interfere) Washington 
issued a proclamation against the rioters, and 
called for 15,000 militia to quell the insurrection. 
Meantime he had appointed commissioners to go 
into the disaffected region and try to persuade 
the people to submit peacefully before the troops 
should arrive. Peace was offered on condition 
that the leaders of the disturbance should submit 
to arrest. 
While negotiations were proceeding, the army, 
advanced. Eighteen ringleaders of the mob were 
arrested, and the “insurrection” faded away like 
smoke. When the troops arrived, there was noth¬ 
ing for them to do. The insurgent leaders were 
tried for treason, and two of them were con¬ 
victed, but Washington pardoned both of them. 
The cost of this expedition was more than one- 
third of the total expenditures of the govern¬ 
ment, for that year, for all other purposes. The 
moral effect upon the nalion at large was whole¬ 
some, for the federal government had demon¬ 
strated, on this its first test, that it could en¬ 
force its own laws and maintain domestic tran¬ 
quility. The result upon the mountain people 
themselves was more dubious. Thomas Jefferson 
wrote to Madison in December : “The informa¬ 
tion of our [Virginia’s] militia, returned from 
the westward, is uniform, that though the people 
there let them pass quietly, they were objects of 
their laughter, not of their fear; that one thou¬ 
sand men could have cut off their whole force 
in a- thousand places of the Alleghany; that their 
detestation .of the excise law was universal, and 
has now associated with it a detestation of the 
government; and that a separation which was 
perhaps a very distant and problematical event, 
is now near and certain, and determined in the 
mind of Cvery man.” 
once, within my knowledge, has it been told here 
in the mountains, and the result was so unex¬ 
pected, so absurd, that I append the incident as 
a color contrast to this otherwise rather sombre 
narrative: 
In a certain creek valley, not far from where 
We are indebted to Mr. J. E. Defebaugh, 
editor of the American Lumberman, for the two 
illustrations from that journal picturing the at¬ 
tractions of the Au Sable river. Of the Michi¬ 
gan stream once famous for its grayling, and 
now yielding generously to the trout fisher¬ 
men, the Lumberman’s staff correspondent 
writes, from the town of Grayling: 
“Whether the tow.n was named after the 
FISHING BOATS NEAR BEAUTIFUL BEND, AU SABLE RIVER. 
I recently camped, lives a white-bearded patri¬ 
arch who is rather vain of his historical learn¬ 
ing. He can not read, but one of his daughters 
reads to him, and he has learned by heart nearly 
all that lies between the two lids of a “Universal 
History,” such as book agents peddle about. 
famous grayling game fish that used to inhabit 
the limpid waters of that section, or the fish 
were named after the town, this record will con¬ 
tain no sign. The town remains spread out 
over many hills, having grown greater each 
year, and the fish have gone somewhere. 
conciliate and to ward off pillage, appointed a 
committee to meet the mob half way. The com¬ 
mittee, finding that it cotild not induce the moun¬ 
tain men to go home, made a virtue of necessity 
by escorting 5,400 of them into. Pittsburg town. 
As Fisher says, “The town was warned by mes¬ 
sengers, and every preparation was made, not 
for defense, but to extinguish the fire of the 
Whiskey Boys’ thirst, which would prevent the 
But Jefferson himself came to the presidency 
within six years, and the excise tax was promptly 
repealed, never again to be instituted, save as a 
war measure, until within a time so recent that 
it is now 'remembered by men whom we would 
not call very old. 
The moonshiners of our own day know noth¬ 
ing of the story that has here been written. Only 
