261. Moonshine Culture (Monthly Pass 18+)
Goatee laughed, "No, the Amish don't want to make friends like me, but they like to barter, and I always carry a lot of things they like in my car......"
Li Du said: "You are a smart guy. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"
"Maybe it's a smart bastard, everyone thinks I'm a bastard. He laughed.
Li Du shook hands with him and said, "I'm Li, it's nice to meet you, just take a stroll around and see if we have anything you like here." ”
Goatee said, "I'm also glad to meet you, Boss Li, I'm Gaote, Goat Gaote." Again, you can see if there is something you like in my car. ”
The carriage was a mess of rusty ironware, patina-covered copperware, some wooden furniture, and rough pottery, all of which looked handmade.
Li Du felt that these things were quite quaint, and with the experience of the last dodo specimen, he was more interested in the things of the Amish people, so he released small flying insects.
This time it still lived up to expectations, and the bugs flew out and immediately flew to some small machines assembled from iron cans and steel pipes.
Li Du controlled it to return, and then quietly reached out and touched the machine.
The small machine is divided into two parts, one part is an iron can, and the other part is something that is aggregated together like a manifold.
Among them, there was a rough steel pipe attached to the iron can, and he reached out and gestured, through the steel pipe, the iron can and the shunt pipe could be combined, and it looked like a set of tools.
He didn't know what it was for, so he gave Hans a look.
Hans walked over and whispered, "What's wrong?"
Li Du said: "Look at this, do you know what this is?"
Hans smiled after one look: "Worthless thing, moonshine stills, I used to have this thing in my house, and it used to be common in rural areas. ”
Li Du suddenly said, "Oh, this is the tool used for moonshine?"
Moonshine, as the name suggests, is a drink that is brewed in secret, and the reason for this is that some people want to avoid high taxes or a complete ban on alcohol consumption.
Moonshine has long been around in the history of the United States, and it is especially rampant in rural areas, where almost all whiskey or rum has been in circulation for a long time.
Hans said, "Yes, what's the matter? Are you interested?"
Li Du released the little flying insect again, and the little flying insect flew to this moonshine distiller again with great interest, so from this point of view, this thing should not have been around for a short time.
So, he whispered, "I feel like this thing is an antique, and it feels extraordinary to me." ”
Hans laughed, "Do you know our moonshine culture? In fact, a lot of these stills are grandpa guys because they're durable. ”
Li Du asked, "Moonshine culture? This thing also has culture?"
Hans said, "Of course, man, you don't know the history of moonshine? it's as old as the United States!"
Soon after the end of the Revolutionary War, the financial difficulties of the long war became apparent, and the U.S. government imposed a federal tax on distilled spirits to solve the problem.
However, the American people, who had just escaped the heavy British taxes through the Revolutionary War, were so unhappy with this measure that they decided to continue making their own whiskey, completely ignoring the federal tax.
For these early moonshiners, making and selling it was neither a hobby nor a way to make a little money, it was what they relied on to survive.
When the harvest is bad, farmers make their corn into whiskey that can be sold for money, surviving on the little extra income they get back.
For them, paying taxes means not being able to feed their families, so farmers are still trying to make wine secretly, even as the government issues strict laws.
Under these circumstances, the government began to use drastic measures, and many of the peasants were retired soldiers from the army just after the end of the war.
In the face of persecution of government officials, the peasants took up guns and protested.
By the sixties of the 19th century, the government had financed the American Civil War by imposing excise taxes, which had intensified the struggle between bootleggers and anti-bootlegging officials. ”
"The society at that time was very chaotic, brother, it was too chaotic. Hans shook his head.
Li Du asked: "How chaotic is it? There are violent clashes between the two sides?"
Hans sneered: "It's even more serious! The moonshiners and the Ku Klux Klan have merged with each other and fought many fierce battles directly with the government army!"
Li Du was surprised: "These guys are crazy enough!"
The Ku Klux Klan is the most notorious homegrown underworld force in American history, which pursues a white supremacy approach, discriminates against people of color, and likes to use violent means to do evil.
"What's even crazier, man, moonshiners are violent lunatics when they intimidate, threaten local residents, and attack IRS officials and their families in order to keep information about their brewery," Hans said.
"Then they're so hateful, I know some of the moonshiners, they became gangsters, right? Using Chicago typewriters as weapons, I've seen them on TV," said Lidu. ”
The Chicago typewriter is the nickname for the Thomson submachine gun because it sounds as crisp as a typewriter.
In the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, this gun was a favorite of American gangsters because it was only 85 centimeters long, only 5 kilograms empty, could be used in a coat, and had fierce firepower.
Hans shook his head and said, "What you know is not the real situation, and later the number of moonshiners increased, and most of them were not very aggressive, they were rural peasant winemakers. ”
In the early 20th century, the United States passed several laws prohibiting the sale and purchase of alcohol.
By 1920, Prohibition was in effect nationwide, and suddenly there was no legal liquor on the market, and the demand for moonshine skyrocketed.
But after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the bootlegging market began to shrink.
Although moonshine was a problem for federal authorities in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, cases of illegal liquor are rarely heard in court today.
Nowadays, moonshine is rare in the market because of its poor taste and inconsistent quality, and the tools of moonshine are not very popular in the market.
However, there are still some people who like to reminisce about the old days and buy these tools, either to make wine privately and drink it themselves, or simply to reminisce about the old days.
Among them, the Amish people have always insisted on making wine privately, they do not participate much in the circulation and operation of the market economy, they are active in their own small circle, and the wine they drink mainly depends on their own brewing.
As a result, the moonshiner tools of the Amish people are better preserved and more marketable.