d I used such representations as a mask and secretly
played the spy or informer--well, I would have deserved whatever might
have befallen me. As it was, I never met with any but respectful
treatment from these gentry, nor, to the best of my belief, did they
ever tell me a lie.

CHAPTER VI

WAYS THAT ARE DARK

Our terms moonshiner and moonshining are not used in the mountains. Here
an illicit distiller is called a blockader, his business is blockading,
and the product is blockade liquor. Just as the smugglers of old Britain
called themselves free-traders, thereby proclaiming that they risked and
fought for a principle, so the moonshiner considers himself simply a
blockade-runner dealing in contraband. His offense is only _malum
prohibitum_, not _malum in se_.

There are two kinds of blockaders, big and little. The big blockader
makes unlicensed whiskey on a fairly large scale. He may have several
stills, operating alternately in different places, so as to avert
suspicion. In any case, the still is large and the output is quite
profitable. The owner himself may not actively engage in the work, but
may furnish the capital and hire confederates to do the distilling for
him, so that personally he shuns the appearance of evil. These big
fellows are rare. They are the ones who seek collusion with the
small-fry of Government officialdom, or, failing in that, instruct their
minions to "kill on sight."

The little moonshiner is a more interesting character, if for no other
reason than that he fights fair, according to his code, and
single-handed against tremendous odds. He is innocent of graft. There is
nothing between him and the whole power of the Federal Government,
except his own wits and a well-worn Winchester or muzzleloader. He is
very poor; he is very ignorant; he has no friends at court; his
apparatus is crude in the extreme, and his output is miserably small.
This man is usually a good enough citizen in other ways, of decent
standing in his own community, and a right good fellow toward all the
world, save revenue officers. Although a criminal in the eyes of the
law, he is soundly convinced that the law is unjust, and that he is only
exercising his natural rights. Such a man, as President Frost has
pointed out, suffers none of the moral degradation that comes from
violating his conscience; his self-respect is whole.

In describing the process of making whiskey in the mountain stills, I
shall confine mysel