IRISH-SMUGGLERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 36, 11 February 1880, Page 5

IRISH-SMUGGLERS.

"Dp yon see there 'on "the fir ikland a curl of smoke ?" as_r_d *h'_ maker, p'ointing to wh__fTh& r d : y_ppo_ed to bethe 1 blue 'mist banging' -iiver the lake. " That i. our island, TiHW 6q ii is our still, • which by the 1 Stewing of Q-od, We have run, father Wnd bob, among these hills and islands : for a hundred years.' ' We'd'escletid* a steep path, carved among the' bbgs'iabd; rocks, into a rude stairway, and "-arriving at tbe border of the lake, saw 1 tethered there a miserable, frowsy p. Ny, which could do his 40 miles with a load on his/ba.k, -I was told* oh a ' handful of oatmeal- and a drain of.'jwafyr,! and moored to a clump of brush % Vujkety boot, half 4Med ! witb. Water. My bompanion immediately set *to work baling outthe skiff, while I stood in'the mud, | faeling my curiosity growing baoler every moment. Before reaching the. island to which the skiff now served to carry ue,. the .potheen man rose three times to hfs feet, at tbe imminent irißk of capsizing the craft. I learned i ih.t his movements would be taken ks a signal tbat all was right to those wbo were watching from the island ; without it, all the appliances of tbeir trade would be hidden, and the spirits either berried or thrown into the lake before oar arrival. On landing, we were accosted by a straight-haired, widebrowed youth of seventeen, as handsome as Apollo, but with a great jdeal more vivaoity of expression. Through tbe deepening twilight I descried ■ the raok anderbrush and the long fierns forming a very romantic looking retreat for so vulgar and reprehensible an occupation as the illicit distillation of whisky. In a wretGhed hovel, without window or chimney, three men were seen through the smoke, busied with the fire and (ha still. They looked more like gnomes t .an human beings. Th. suffocating smoke, combined with the odor of the potb.en, was more than my inexperienced olfactories could endure, and I retired precipitately to the .-purer .air without. .'Bere,^e^te.d on a stbne, we partook of a repast, of potatoes and buttermilk. I profited by this occasion to make a sketch of j_dy host, while he eht£_fc__h_d -•__« with l Some particalars concerning his trade. I Thirty ./years, ajgo,-' h'^iif&ftffed me, there were' b'etweeri .forty -and ''* fixity thousand private stills at work in Ireland, ibufc I now the".e J a^ hotmSfiy hundr.ds; !the tati.fe'- fit' being' tuaidcfty small farmers j who" have a surplus of grain. Although it is jftoldJ'for one-half the price 1 of the " Parliamentary whisky," as ! he termed it, the profits are still so large that,- notwithstanding the severe punishmeiit; inflicted on detection, it 'seems impossible for the Government to thoroughly eradicate the evil. The islands off the Gonnemara coast jare even more extensively occupied in its manufacture. One of the principal duties ot the coastguards, ;we .are. told, is the prevention of illicit distillation

on the islands,- and in conjunction with the police they have to make visits as frequently as practaoable for the purpose. When the chance offers, the islanders have their stills at work, and Tit such times have a r j_entinel with a telescope on aj high rock to ,' give -v warning of the approach of the enemy. Manufacturers from the main-land also frequently avail themselves of the favorable 'situation of the island to come across and make a venture. If the look-out is vigilant, a capture is rarely made. "When the approach of the coast guards or police is announced, the rapidity of the work of concealment is marvellous. The still Vis taken to pieces and hidden amongst the rocks or buried in the sand, sometimes taken out to sea and sunk, with- a small floating mark -attached, and the materials secreted in various ways. Every one gives help except the light* house keeper and his assistants, as it ig a point of honor to do all that is possible to outwit the revenue.— J*. L. Cloud in Harper's Magazine for December,