The folks of Witimka County did not cotton
too much to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. As a matter of fact
most Witimkans ignored the new law altogether feeling that alcohol was
a God-given treasure. Many a shine runner was born with the passage of
the 18th, and many a jail was full up with the selfsame shine runners.
The revenuers raided the bottoms one day in early June. They uncovered and stole one still owned by a coloured by the name of Rafer Coles. A lot of folk in the county knew that Rafer made some of the best whiskey in the world and Rafer did make a respectable living brewing his sourmash. But now ol' Rafer got to spend the next few days at the Witimka jail to ponder his crime. Rafer was a Witimka landmark and it did seem rather unkindly to lock-up Ol' Rafer.
Rafer Coles was a generation past the War of Southron Independence and was born a slave but he was much too young to remember being such. After the War his Pappy decided to stay at the Campbell place and help the Campbells weather the years of Yankee occupation by tenant farming part of the Campbell place and splitting the profits with the Campbell family. The Campbells were forever obliged to the Pappy Coles for his help in the times of upheaval.
During that time the family of McCandles became set up in Witimka County. Now the McCandles were not exactly Southron in any real sense. They were a greedy family that weren't opposed to some subterfuge in order to gain some lucre. The McCandles set their eyes to the Campbell place and decided that they wanted it and spent over twenty years finagling their way into the property piece by piece.
Now this was during the time that Rafer was growing up. He watched the Campbells go through hell at the hands of the McCandles. He watched the Campbells powerless to resist lose everything that they once owned. Reconstruction was awful but the damnable McCandles were worse. Rafer stayed on at the Campbell farm after all of the Coles and the Campbells, excepting for Miss Eulalia and Rafer himself, had departed for their reward. Miss Eulalia was the last Campbell and was old and couldn't bear anymore children. Rafer worked for Miss Eulalia for several years and then she too passed and the McCandles got the rest of the Campbell place. They threw off Rafer and he ended up living over to the bottoms like all the other coloureds.
Witimka County kind of took Rafer under their wing and cared for him and when he married and had a family of his own they cared for his family as well. In his later days to shew his gratitude Ol' Rafer held a barbecue for the whole town. Well, not the whole town. He never invited a McCandles to his soirees. When asked why he never invited the town's aristocracy he would always reply. 'Ahm a Cambell nigger. Ahll alway be a Cambell nigger. And as long as ahm alive they aint gonta be any MCandles eatin mah good food nor drinkin mah good whiskey.' At which reply the feller asking the question always felt a little stupid.
After several days in the jail Rafer appeared before the judge. Rafer was tried and convicted on the charge of making whiskey for sale and distribution. He was sentenced to time served and a one hundred dollar fine. When the judge asked Rafer if he had anything to say for himself Rafer replied. 'Well judge, the fine seems a might stiff, but it is the best advertising a man could get.'
It must have been pretty good advertising. For the next two weeks the whole county was more than a little drunk, which of course was illegal, and Rafer seemed very happy when he returned to the courthouse with one hundred shiny silver dollars to pay his fine.