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About The advocate. (Portland, Or.) 19??-19?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 1930)
£ True Stories Achievement Stories If. II i l l t o . «SI S IW aftw rn ••. « •• e t« « M vsM U Is« Portland Advocate f -- , / Clean Fiction / Human Interest Features ___ CMcac«. I U . U 8 T K A T K D F E A T l UK S E C T I O N H » 9 ir M n U iy * U tr J U o it l l 1 t l 1 H ry “J oe ” P lays H ide B ootleggers 1 1 I 1 J 1 P4c,urM iU l,t * 0 l u 4 r s t s 4 .•«■tur* election « e r « posou 1 •»«»'I n td do not depict p rlw ltm ’ unie/ , so captioned »** IM VIH, ||N fe o le r e PdHer an » seek A True Story of the Thrilling tiiul Keninrkuhle Experiences of A Negro Prohibition Agent. Hv A M IIO N Y VI l Y N K (» rreM jiu ru irn l tm tl S /tw itil M r ile r . N a tu r i o í P r i n c i p a l i a r r C o n c r a i r d fo r O b v io u i H ra io n i. ELLO. Yen. thin in the prohibition unit. A Mill, you . m m y ? Surr about it are you? Weli, al l rijrht. Tell uh where it is and w e ’ ll have Undertaker ? T h a t’* jfooti ! All rijrht, w e ’ve Now who in thin apeakirijr?" Hut ih r connection wan broken at lltr otlirr rod purposely It WM ■ tot nil unusual proredpre, Many people arr willing to Irli a lia i tltry know or think lliry know, but they •tip u lalr that lliry shall not be brought Into tlir ranr. " lV rh a p s It U Juil a i writ,** Kttld Ihr rh lrt In rharitr of Ihr (acre, "th ere I» som e time« I rouble It il I» discovered who llpttrd Ur olt •flie chief, in Hit« Itutance. railed In Joi Jurk v u i Now Joe Jarkson ' I« not hl« baptism al name. but It U close to It For, while m any know him and Mime suspect h li fearle»! Invest Ural Ion«, there la no nerd of »dietitkinir him to li» | m i initial d a n ger and Inconvenience Hrstdes there are regulation.« th at lorbld ttie exploitation ul Individual* be latine the unit o|ieratr« on quietly a* possible under Ute clreur.i»tancee Joe. however. Ii an ace He operaie« amona Ule Negro popula tion.« of several large eitle*, moving about a* olden'd He I» a q u ill lellow. large good lighting. Intelli gent He ha« won a 'n'putatlon for honesty and Integrity arai fait dealing under many „tryin g circum stance* T here I* no question a* to III* bravery either T h e rlitrl talked with Joe over his i * i » iim ' of m ahogany. The telephoned Up had In Ihe m ean - tim e been typew ritten Joe read It through as hl« i htet talked He m illed He knew the section. Hut lot him tell III* own story: " F lu t I went to tlie hie* and found mit that there had been pre- v I oun com plaints mostly niKiny- mou* i omeimm tin« place, " N o l t i l n g « r e iii e d « a l n i li t e w a y a u l i i I d r l r r m i n e d te h a v r a lo o k I n s id e I h r h r a r s r O f al l I h r p ia r e « f a r a s i i l i ' Me »proni Il u p a n d f u u u d a f a l l i r q u l p p r d . l e u c a d m i siil i, n l o t l t a p p a r r n l l v h a d : u« 1 r u m p l r t r d Its l a s k a f l U rn in g » u t r u r n whiskry.* S JO* < 1 P h o to s h o w s a n a n a ly s is o f p oiM in w h is k e y s h o w in g I h e s a m p le o f p o is o n liq u o r in o n e tu b e a n d I h r r e s u lt s a f t e r a d d in g a M ille p la in w a t e r to t h è s a m e m ix t u r e In a n o t h e r tu b e . S a m p le s o f liq u o r c o n f is c a t e d by p r o h ib it io n a g e n t s In I h e lr r a id s a r e s e n t t o t h e c h e m ic a l s e c tio n , w h e r e t h e y a r e e x a m in e d a n d p la c e d o n file . in- i esim anoli had ajw ays been fru it less I hough, and ho action had been taken for I t was conviction which the chief sought and not Just raid* wit haul purpose. ’ Joe e x plained |F "T akin g along an assistant we tipi ted off to nuike a call on our ndcrlaker T h is Unir I thought ■ st lo make a direct attack It cerned to be I he • lust ttung that would be expected alul so pcrhajis. e r y way that m ight I reasoned, l lie 'v ver succeed n r a n k l y told the 'undertaker' O' , ' Frraild He lived III a pros- • , ins neighborhood and had Ills a.»re at his residence He gave us lieiuilsslon to search his home from 11 liar to garret He was very po lite about It and most accom m o dating In fact, he was loo much so ft made me suspicious. B ut try our liest. we could not And a «Ingle drop of the stuff anywhere "Then we got together for a lew minutes where wo could not ba overheard and I talked the situ a tion over with my assistant. A p parently every place In Ihe house 1 Hid been thoroughly covered T hen I remembered the slip which the chief had given to me referred to the fact th at there was a hearse. None of us had seen a hearse about, and If we had we would probably not have Immediately exam ined It any more Ilian Ihe Inside of the piano "Hut I determ ined to ask about the liraiso. T h e owner when ap- ' proached lie was never fa r a w a y - said that tie had a hearse and th at lie rented U nut for funerals. W hen asked w hele It was then, he said It was In Ills garage T h e garage In turn wa.« on the bark of th e lot and well overgrown with vine*. There was no pronitnenre to It. F lg h t e r n th o u s a n d b a r r e ls u l b e e r s e r r o r d e r e d d e s tr o y e d by I h e A s s is t a n t I n ll r d S t a l e s A t t o r n e y n e a r t h r e n d o f l o n g H rld g e . V a . I 'h n to s h o p 's t h e f e d e r a l a g e n t s a s s is t e d by c o lo r e d la b o r e r s , d e s tr o y in g t h e b e e r. A sk e d fo r Ih e K e y s *’ 'O lve us th* keys to the uiugc.' I bluntly asked the fol- iw. «• •' But you can sec Inside of the garage from the windows? YDu surely don't need to bother about going In.' he answered. " 1 detected a not« of real anxiety In Id* voice, " 'Oo we want the keys?' I asked of the young fellow with me. at the same tim e winking to suggest his answer “ 'Huro we do.' he answered " 'A ll right. Boss, sorry, but guess we'll have to have those keys,' l said. "Though very reluctantly, they were eventually lorlhcom lng. "Inside the garage everything ap- lieared as It should. T h ere was even a fain t odor of form aldehyde. Nothing seemed out of the way u n til I determ ined to have a look In side of tlie hearse. "O f all the places for a still! We <>|H<ned It up and found a fully equlpjied, ten -gallon still which apparently had Just completed Its work df turning out corn whiskey." , Later Jackson observed th at the putting of th e still In the hearse was m ost fitting. Judging from the cliem lgt's analysis. '"Thera should h a v * been la b tu m arked w ith skull t F iv e th o u s a n d e a s e s a n d th r e e h u n d r e d b a r r e ls o f c h o ic e liq u o r s e is e d b y t h e f u s io n » * g u a r d s o n t h e cu m s h ip . H u lk o , g o in g u p in s m o k e a t I h e P h il a d e lp h ia N a v y Y a r d . T h r liq u o r w a s v a lu e d a t I M M M . II lia s o f t e n h e r n J o e ’s d u t y to s e t fire to w h is k e y v a lu e d a t m a n y t h o u s a n d s o f d o lla r s . and crossbones on the bottles." he said with a weary smile. Sjieaklng of a still In a hearse suggests Jackson's recent exper ience as a grave digger T his was In order to get certain necessary evidence. Joe had. In this Instance, taken a day of! to attend the funeral of an old friend. T he trip to the cem etery was a long one. extending to the outskirts of th e city. Prom force of habit, perhaps 01 from hard training. Joe watched the houses along the road. N oth ing seemed out of place; everything was quiet until he observed two men In back of a house that was close to tlie cem etery. In fact, the yard of the house adjoined the e c tn o le ry a t one side. As the funeral procession went by, the men glanced furtively about as tf they were afraid of being seen. Noticing th at, and the location, and sensing rath er th an knowing anything more, Joe began to weigh Ills obligations to the governm ent and to the dead friend. T h e verv quality th at had made him an ace In the unit comm anded him to m ake a telephone call. S o he stop- jied a t the cem etery gate for the purpose T h en he sauntered back a few hundred feet toward tlie house th a t he had observed, fot another look. T here was nothing to v erify his suspicions except a peculiar dank smell, slightly rem iniscent o l th e m usty odor behind sw inging doors in bygone days, but no one but an am ateu r would feel justified to m ake a raid merely because of an odor. T here had to be conclusive evidence of m an ufacture or sale S u ch evidence Is frequently very difficult to obtain. T h e suspicious appearing men at the suspected house were evidently located advantageously. There was no place of concealm ent nearby except possibly some tombstones. Spending a night am ong tom b stones during the fa ll m onths did not have m uch appeal, but tt seeni- tC M lia s v « frsss r»*» O ast