Show I L = = = = I Thetj 114 I I i Take 4LLV How the Unconquerable gyp able II Maiden Moonshine of I Kentucky Intrenched ° S in the ti Rocky Hills HAS Faced Single t Handed the United States Government 3t I Officers and Is I Accused of Wounding tr Wound-ing Perhaps Mortally Mor-tally One of the Attaching Party L I q J i i k t ti1ii > < i i 11 MYfPE lAYFUTS BnaFcADED 4 ERc5 Zr I ZfTTZE I Down behind a natural fortress of huge bowlders In eastern Kentucky a woman who has not yet seen her thirtieth thir-tieth birthday is calmly Intrepidly and successfully defying the mighty government of tho United States A few days ago singlehanded she beat back a posse of tho best revenue officers Undo Sam could muster Her I aim is true and her belief In her sovereign sov-ereign right to make her own brand of whisky from her own corn Is supreme su-preme and Immovable Mary Fouts aged 27 Is Americas only moonshine maid and ho Is a moonshiner by birth Inclination find training Her father was a moon shiner before her and the several ram iflcatlons of her family hold records for battle with revenue officers that any mountaineer might envy For 40 years tho Beaver Crock district dis-trict on the 1nott Floyd Letcher border bor-der has been a moonshine stronghold the scene of many a pitched battle between moonshiners and government officials Blood of both sides has stained its narrow ravines and picturesque pic-turesque mountain paths If a record of lives sold for the mountain brew had been kept doubtless the greater number of notches would have been cut by Undo Sam But when It came to this woman this tall stalwart calmr ell sure aiming young woman on her native heath Uncle Sam was baffled Chivalry died hard even when backed by law and justice and to send his picked shots against a woman was moro than even Uncle Sam wanted to do In time tho clash had to come yet the woman won against tho law and Its armed officers Mary Fonts was born In the rude home where she now distills what Is said to bo tho best brand of whisky obtainable In all Kentucky Her baby eyes studied the still and her baby ears learned to catch quick ominous whispers Just as the child of tho proverbial artist accepts poverty as the price of parental genius as tho child of the king I believes that royalty royal-ty can do no wrong so this child of tho mountains believed that making whisky without government consent was tho Inalienable right of hill people peo-ple Her parents wero ambitious for the little Mary however and sent her to school where she proved exceptionally exception-ally bright and acquired an amount of book learning which dazzled her humble relatives But she never forgot for-got her love of the mountain life and never lost her grip on mountain traditions tra-ditions When other girls were writing notes to each other or making paper dolls Mary Fouts was drawing pictures of stills and finally she presented to her astonished teacher a perfect reproduction repro-duction of a still Including tho worm I which she had evolved from some odd bits of copper that camo her way During her twelfth year whoa home on her vacation shin made a run of I very fair moonshine whisky In an old coffeo boiler In her mothers kitchen At 1C her education finished Mary Fouls declared against muslin frocks and crossroad dances She wanted the free If hazardous life of tho moon shiner A woman moonshiner Even hold Kentucky gasped Women there wore who had protected protect-ed their men and fought for thulr men and oven died with their men but a woman who wanted to be a well In moonshlnlng leader of men that was going somo later Mary Fouts came A few years Into her own her lather died and she became tho head of his household and tho manipulator of his famous still And what was more Mary Fonts made a whisky of no mean reputation reputa-tion She raised her own crop of corn and coaxed It as only a farmer who loves his growing things can coax And then she mode It Into the right sort of whisky pure and unadulterated un-adulterated I would not adulterate my whisky for any price nor for tho whole world said Miss Fouls In a recent Interview nnd she meant It No head of a great food factory ever regarded re-garded the output of his establishment with greater reverence and pildu and affection than does Mary Fouls the product of her lllfclt still And down there In Kentucky when a man wants tho real thing In whisky ho demands Mary Fonts whisky willingly payIng pay-Ing tho higher price asked for her brand Now of course tho United Stales government with Its mighty system of officers and spies was not Ignorant of Mary Fouls and her calm unwavering unwaver-ing violation of the laws But how to reach Mary Fonts without sacrificing national pride by spilling tho blood of a woman who sinned only because she thought It no sin but her right was a problem even for a great government govern-ment If Mary Fonts would kindly sneak out of her slionghold and murder mur-der a man In cold blood then tho law might take Its course But Mary Fouts was distressingly peaceable and Industrious In-dustrious Sho attended strictly to her own business Mary Fouots did not come to town nor haunt highways But she certain talnly did know how to guard her property particularly her Htlll This had a natural barricade of locks and behind this barricade Mary Fonts kept a collection of Winchesters and ammunition am-munition which meant a fight to a finish and It Is a sorry thing for a posse of men to find themselves light I big against one Intrepid woman who had been guilty of no greater offense I than turning tho product of her own land Into cash according to tho methods meth-ods followed by her ancestors for gen orations And of these ancestors she was as proud as tho scions of English nobility of tho ancestors who fought under William tho Conqueror But something had to ho done There were seven counts against Miss Fouls Tho govornmonl felt that patience pa-tience even with a fair woman had ceased to be a virtue The dignity of the law must bo maintained without with-out bloodshed If possible with bloodshed blood-shed If necessary But first diplomacy diplo-macy A revenue officer sent to Miss Pouts by a liiiflted friend to tho moonshiner Ibis message in writing Meet us at the schoolhouse on Beaver Bea-ver Creek Thursday and pi online you will never violate tho law never moonshine any moro and wo will see to It that you are fully pardoned for all I will never mwt you was her CUlt reply and to her mother she said Theres no uso talking 1 will keep this still going in spite of all the jciv ernmmit It Is a duty lo you I mean to fulfill Father stilled nil his life and stilled good whisky Tluiro Is no renton why wo shouldnt keep up this family reputation Thuy will never take mo alive she Is said to have added For you see Mary Fouls for all her contempt of govtunmunt and the law Is no rudo mountain woman of uncouth un-couth bearing and rougher speech Sim Is tho embodiment of tho twentieth century business woman iihlooiu In Kentucky hills So tho quaint old Font homestead was put In a state of siege The Win cheaters were cleaned loaded and made ready Tho revenue men wore sure to come after Unit bold defiance And come they did headed by United Uni-ted States Marsha V I M Blair one of tho most determined and successful men In tho revenue service With him was n picked po < se and before him well ban leaded by a natural breastwork breast-work of Impenetrable rock was Mary Pouts ho mooiishlno maid with Winchesters Win-chesters and ammunition enough to stand off an army According to tho officers story they pressed forward and then Mary Fonts fired She deliberately say tho revenue reve-nue men opened tho light and made It possible for tho revenue men to do their duty They returned the lire to a man hut Mary Fouls was safe behind the bowlders Onward they pressed and for halt an hour the mimic mi-mic oneBilled battle raged then Dopu t l 4 s T 4 G z r V ty Marshal Hiram Day foil sorely I wounded and was carried away on a stretcher by his hafted companions What will happen to Mary Fouls depends upon tho outcome of Days wound If It provo fatal as tho doctors doc-tors predict Mary Fouls will have to face a charge of murder without the mitigating plea of selfdefense and Undo Sams sense of chivalry will not bo violated But at the limo of writing Mary Fouls tho inoonshlilo maid reigns undisturbed In tho Kentucky Ken-tucky hills calmly stilling the corn colored brew that Is the prldo and joy of Kentucky connoisseurs |