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call it the Pre-Cellophane Era and be done with it - a
philanthropic distiller down our way sent a perfectly mar–
velous Christmas present
to
a thriftless friend of his back
in the hills. He sent him a baby-sized barrel containing
prime sour-mash Bourbon. About ten days later, the recipi–
ent appeared with the empty container and an expectant
look on his face, and intimated that he could use some
more of the same. "Look here, Shep," said the distiller,
"aren't you kind of crowding the mourners just a little?
It hasn't been more than a few days since I gave you eight
whole gallons of my very best." "That's
right~ "
agreed
Shep, "but, Kernel Goodman, suh, you got to remember a
l,rng of likker don't last very long in a fambly that can't
afford
to
keep a cow."
E VEN
as two of the great whiskies are Ametican
creations, so also it is said this land of ours produced the first
mixed drink. Surely, we subsequently have been the spon–
sors for more agreeable variants of palate-soothing com–
bination~
than all the rest of the nations rolled together,
and this, next only to Bourbon and Rye, forms America's
greatest contribution
to
the realm of civilized and rational
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