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 I’m
told a pioneer preacher was so poorly paid for a meeting that a
saloon keeper offered him $10. “if you will take such money.”
The preacher took the bill saying, “That money has worked for
the devil long enough.” Well, I’m in a bind for material, so
I’ll try to make an article out of bootleggers I have known.
My
experience with bootleggers is not very extensive. As a young
boy, squirrel-hunting in Kentucky, I cat-footed in on an
operating still and was politely asked to leave. Another time, a
friend and I were ordered off some land at gun-point. We learned
later that this inhospitable treatment was probably due to the
presence of a still on that farm.
But
these adverse experiences were somewhat balanced by a friendly
stranger in a small Kansas town. Brethren failed to meet my bus,
and I was left on an empty street shortly after midnight. I
found a dingy hotel but no one answered the night bell. While
trying to “bed down” in the lobby, a quiet little man came
in and asked if I was the preacher who was supposed to begin a
meeting near there. He took me to the home of one of the members
where I was royally treated. Not until the next day did I learn
from embarrassed brethren that my rescuer
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was the town’s bootlegger.
In
a certain Kentucky town the mayor was also a dealer in “Fine
Wines and Liqueurs” — sans taxes, of course. When revenue
men were working that section, some town wags decided to
embarrass the mayor, so they planted a jar of white lightning on
his property, and tipped the officers. The place was searched,
the moonshine was found, and the mayor was accosted with the
evidence.
He
looked at the color of the offensive liquid, sniffed its odor,
and tasted a bit of it. Spitting upon the ground, he turned to
the local Sheriff and said, “Now _____, (to protect the
innocent), you know I wouldn’t handle stuff like that. Some
one is trying to play a joke on me.”
The
Sheriff looked at the sniffed and tasted, spit upon ground, and
then said, “He’s right He wouldn’t handle stuff like that.”
This
is not a commercial for your friendly home-town bootlegger. It
is written to illustrate that even the sinner is known by his
product.
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