The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-09-26

she became the head of his household
and the manipulation of his famous still.
And what was more, Mary Fouts
made a whisky of no mean reputa-
ton. She raised her own crop of
corn and coaxed it as only farmer
who loves his growing things can
coax. And then she made it into the
right sort of whisky, pure and un-
adulterated.
Il would not adulterate my whisky
for any price. nor for the whole
world" said Miss Fouts in a recent
interview-and she meant 1t. No
head of a great food factory ever re-
garded the output of his establishment
with greater reverence and pride and
affection than does Mary Fouts the
product of her Illicit still. And down
there in Kentucky when a man wants
the real thing in whisky he demands
Mary Fouts' whisky. willingly pay
ing the higher price asked for her
brand
Now, of course, the United States
government, with its mighty system of
officers and spies, was not ignorant
of Mary Fouts and her calm, unwaver-
ing violation of the laws. But how to
reach Mary Fouts without sacrificing
national pride by splitting the blood of
a woman who sinned only because she
thought it no sin, but her right, was
a problem even for a great govern
ment. If Mary Fouts would kindly
sneak out of her stronghold and muir
der man in cold blood, then the law
might take its course. But Mary Fouts
was distressingly peaceable and in
dustrious. She attended strictly to
her own business.
Mary Fouots did not come to town
nor haunt highways. But she certain
tainly did know how to guard her
property, particularly her still. This
had a natural barricade of rocks, and
behind this barricade Mary Fouts kept
a collection of Winchesters and am
munition which meant fight to a
finish-and 1t is a sorry thing for
posse of men to find themselves fight
ing against one intrepid woman who
had been guilty of no greater offense
than turning the product of her own
land into cash according to the meth
DDS followed by her ancestors for gen.
erations. And of these ancestors she
was as proud as the scions of English
nobility of the ancestors who fought
under William the Conqueror.
n,,x coc.otb;pu hod 70 h. lone
There were seven counts against Miss
Fouts. The government felt that pa
thence, even with fair woman, had
ceased to be a virtue The dignity
of the law must be maintained, with
out bloodshed If possible, with blood
shed if necessary. But first diplo-
macy.
A revenue officer sent to Miss Fouts
by trusted friend to the moonshiner
this message in writing:
Meet us at the schoolhouse on Bea-
yer Creek Thursday and promise you
will never violate the law, never
moonshine any more, and We will see
to it that you are fully pardoned for
ALL"
II will never meet you," was her
curt reply, and to her mother she
said:
There's no use talking will keep
this still going in spite of all the gov
eminent 1t is duty to you mean
to fulfill. Father stilled all his life
and stilled good whisky. There is no
reason why we shouldn't keep up the
family reputation. They viii never
take me alive" she is said to have
added.
For, you zee. Mary Fouts. for all her
contempt Of government and the law,
IL no rude mountain woman Of I'M
couth bearing and roughar speeeh -