Moonshine Mansion

Ever since Mrs. Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont left it in 1917 to build a medieval castle at Sands Point (now inhabited by Mrs. William Randolph Hearst), and later to go abroad and die, her old estate near Hempstead, L. I. has been on the downgrade. It was sold to Cold Stream Corp., which converted part of it into a golf club not too choosey about its membership. Last week a plaintiff with a debt against Cold Stream Corp. asked that a receiver be appointed for the property. The appointee was one Felix A. Duffy, secretary to Nassau County's Democratic Boss Philip Krug. Receiver Duffy got in his car, drove up to the vast old cupolaed Belmont mansion. On its spacious veranda he was surprised to find several revenue agents, reading old magazines, in possession of the premises. "I'm the receiver," announced Mr. Duffy. "Well," said the agents, "look what you received." Inside the spacious house, vacant for years but well cared for, Mr. Duffy was dazzled to behold the burnished copper and carefully painted ironwork of a 5,000-gal. alcohol still, capable of filling a battery of 19-bbl. vats daily. Downstairs was a 5,000-gal. molasses vat. Throughout the house, parquet flooring and plate glass mirrors had been scrupulously polished. The control room for this $100,000 plant, which had taken six weeks to build and had been in operation only ten days, was located in the late Mrs. Belmont's bedroom. A sign outside the door warned: KEEP OUT. FOR MIX AND ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS ONLY. The Federal agents told Mr. Duffy that they had also found another still, possibly independently owned, in a building near the 15th hole of the Cold Stream golf course. Six moonshiners were arrested in the Belmont mansion, where they had preferred to live in the less elaborate servants' quarters. None of these was regarded by the raiders as the ringleader. A search for him began as well as an investigation to find out how the 'leggers--who had taken every precaution for secrecy save that of muffling the alcohol fumes, which could be detected half a mile away--had got access to the old Belmont place.

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