ore'n a mouse. Cody, who was half drunk
his-self, handcuffed Tom, quarreled with him, and shot the boy dead
while the handcuffs was on him! Tom's relations sued Cody in the County
Court, but he carried the case to the Federal Court, and they were too
poor to follow it up. I tell you, though, thar's a settlement less 'n a
thousand mile from the river whar Jim Cody ain't never showed his nose
sence. He knows there'd be another revenue 'murdered.'"

"It must be ticklish business for an officer to prowl about the
headwaters of these mountain streams, looking for 'sign.'"

"Hell's banjer! they don't go prodjectin' around looking for stills.
They set at home on their hunkers till some feller comes and informs."

"What class of people does the informing?"

"Oh, sometimes hit's some pizen old bum who's been refused credit.
Sometimes hit's the wife or mother of some feller who's drinkin' too
much. Then, agin, hit may be some rival blockader who aims to cut off
the other feller's trade, and, same time, divert suspicion from his own
self. But ginerally hit's jest somebody who has a gredge agin the
blockader fer family reasons, or business reasons, and turns informer to
git even."

It is only fair to present this side of the case, because there is much
truth in it, and because it goes far to explain the bitter feeling
against revenue agents personally that is almost universal in the
mountains, and is shared even by the mountain preachers. It should be
understood, too, in this connection, that the southern highlander has a
long memory. Slights and injuries suffered by one generation have their
scars transmitted to sons and grandsons. There is no denying that there
have been officers in the revenue service who, stung by the contempt in
which they were held as renegades from their own people, have used their
authority in settling private scores, and have inflicted grievous wrongs
upon innocent people. This is matter of official record. In his report
for 1882, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue himself declared that
"Instances have been brought to my attention where numerous prosecutions
have been instituted for the most trivial violations of law, and the
arrested parties taken long distances and subjected to great
inconveniences and expense, not in the interest of the Government, but
apparently for no other reason than to make costs."

An ex-United States Commissioner told me that, in the darkest days of
this struggle, when he