Old Daddy Flicker Likes Corn Likker 287 



of our westering frontiers came out of the worms of the stills 

 which these Ulster whiskey makers set up in lean-tos beside 

 every cabin along the ridges of the Alleghenies is a nice 

 matter for conjecture. The backwoodsmen themselves did 

 not hesitate to pay tribute to their "corn" any more than the 

 British seaman withholds honor from the grog which stood 

 by him at Cadiz, Trafalgar and Jutland. "Corn likker" manned 

 many a stockade in the days when the Shawnees were harry- 

 ing the frontier settlements. It kept many a scout alive on 

 the trail. It brought more than one woman through a diffi- 

 cult and unattended childbirth. It fought off snake poison, 

 country distemper and the fatal "yaws." Scores of ballads and 

 fiddlers' tunes flowed from little brown jugs set out at wed- 

 dings and "swing-arounds." 



Old Daddy Flicker 

 Likes corn likker. 

 He picks up his feet 

 Quicker'n' quicker. . . . 



More than one circuit-riding preacher took his fee in "corn 

 likker," which was as good as cash money at any crossroads 

 store in the mountains. You could no more have persuaded 

 those indomitable servants of the Lord that they sinned in 

 exchanging the Word of God and a Christian funeralizing for 

 Kentucky corn whiskey than you could have made Martin 

 Luther believe the devil made Rhine wine. 



In Pennsylvania rye was a plentiful crop. The Ulster folk 

 who settled in the Kittatinning Valley and on the York 

 "barrens" promptly fermented this for use in their stills. 

 Where rye was not so plentiful, a formula of two parts corn 

 to one part rye was followed. American corn was found to 

 contain more starch and therefore more spirit than any 

 other grain. Its disadvantage was its weight, which tended to 

 make it sink to the bottom of the mash tub, and slowed up 

 the process of fermentation. 



There was nothing new in the idea of fermenting corn. The 



