MODERN LIVING: 86-Proof American

In colonial days, Kentuckians (then Virginians) with a whisky taste had trouble chasing away the demon rum. The rum-makers once put through a law boosting the legal price to $15 a half pint. The Bourbon County grand jury even indicted James Garrard, a Baptist minister who later became Governor of the state, for illegal whisky selling. But by 1789, tenacious Bourbon County distillers had finally given corn likker an old Kentucky home. Though ten years ago bourbon was only 13% of total domestic whisky sold, last year it was 47%. Last week bourbon reached another pinnacle: in nationwide newspaper...

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