The Case of the Little Brown Jug - When Joseph Winner wrote the song, "The Little Brown Jug," he lamented the hard life he and his wife suffered because of their addiction to alcohol. Swing band leader Glenn Miller popularized the tune with lyrics which were less evil in the eyes of teetotalers. But, for years little brown jugs most often contained liquor and not lemonade. E. C. Pierce carried a badge. The prohibition officer was hired by the Federal government to seek out and find all illegal intoxicants and destroy them before they could be consumed by dipsomaniacs or disposed of by blind tiger saloon keepers.
Officer Pierce set out on visit to see Pete O'Neal, a moonshiner he had raided some time previously. Pierce met O'Neal coming down the road near his house. He searched Pete's buggy for contraband whiskey. He found none. But, Pierce knew old Pete always had whiskey nearby, so he accompanied the suspected bootlegger back to his house in the company of City Court Deputy Renfroe.
When the officers arrived, they saw women suspiciously scurrying about the home. Pierce entered the house and found one woman standing on the floor and another lying in a bed. Noticing the woman in the bed was fully dressed, the officer began to interrogate the other lady. He asked, "What's the matter with that woman in bed?" "She got de smallpox," the lady nervously uttered. Since Deputy Renfroe had already infected with the skin marring disease, Pierce logically sent him to the bed to ascertain if the other woman was really sick.
Seeing no signs of smallpox, the deputy pulled back to the covers. Just as he and Pierce had expected, the woman was fully dressed, including her shoes. The guilty woman laid there cradling a little brown jug by her side. Renfroe confiscated the spirit filled jug. Knowing that Pete and his drinking buddies wouldn't be without a single jug, the officers searched the premises and found a still and a barrel of beer capable of filling dozens and dozens of those little brown jugs that lovers of liquor always kept near their beds.
Pierce began to worry. He wondered if the woman really have the smallpox? Was it a joke or the truth? He made a bee line for the doctors office just in case. (Macon Telegraph, 3-11-1921)
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