Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — “Mountain Dew.” [ARTICLE]

“Mountain Dew.”

There is a healthy and growing sentiment among the more well-to-do class in opposition to “crooked” work. This sentiment, however, does not go to the extent of voluntary aid and comfort to the officials of the Revenue Bureau. Indeed, this might not be unattended by unpleHsant consequences to the volunteer. Nor is the moonshiner “unreconstructed.” He has no politics in his hatred of the Revenue laws. He usually, though not always, votes the “Dimmicrat” ticket, but in the days of violent resistance, now happily past, he shot his long rifle at Democratic and Republican officers with rigid impartiality. It is noteworthy that the moonshiner, while not a “tetotaller,” is usually moderate in the use of spirits. This is generally true of the mountain people. In the eleven counties of the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit of Georgia, until very recently, there was but one bar-room. One may attend “court week,” the semi-annual assize, in any of the mountain counties, and, though the people congregate in great numbers to witness the trial of the causes, to listen to the eloquence of the lawyers, and especially to engage in the Georgia

pastime of swapping horses, he will see but little or no drunkenness. If he is entirely trustworthy, it is not at all improbable he will be asked to “take something,” and.if, like Mr. Swiveller, he will partake of a “modest quencher,” lie will be piloted into the woods surrounding the “court-house square.” There, tied tp a “swinging limb,” is the sure-footed pony, or watchful mule, who has borne the mountaineer, “on hospitable purpose bent,” from his cabin-home far up the side of the mountain, or nestling in some wild cove, accessible only by paths guiltless of wheel-track. A suspicious-looking bag is tied behind the saddle or hangs suspended in the neighboring bush. In either end there is to the eyes of the uninitiated a singular protuberance, -resembling in shape the “Fluridy watermillion” of “Uncle Rem,us,’’ bitt which a Georgian promptly discovers is what Sut Lovingood calls “the bulge of a jug.” The corn-cob stopper is extracted, and the contents are discovered to be a colorless liquid, with a fragrant aroma, not unlike the “shuck” of the ripening Indian corn. It is undeniably exhilarating, and, if gentlemen of experience are to be credited, when properly made by a skillful “stiller,” has t lie ad van tage of Monongahela or bourbon, in that it b queaths no residuary headache. This, is the “mountain dew,” now as renowned as the “right Holland’s/’ smuggled to the .cave of EUengowan by the swift lugger of Dick Hatteraick.— Atlanta Constitution.