Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-04-18
Miscellany.
A NIGHT WITH GLASS.BLOWERS.

hA10OO4AtUAAsy ~
A NIGHT WITH GLASS.BLOWERS.
THE last stroke of midnight still hummed
through the else silent house. 1 was
sitting nodding in my chair, when heard
tinkling rattle. "The cats in the cup
board" / cried, and ran to it to turn her
out But when 1 opened the door, l found
not the cat, but black wine bottle, with
its cork stuck jauntily on one side, talk
ing energetically in Glacialese to cut
glass decanter.
10 You needn't turn up your stopper at
me-" it said to the decanter. "Im as
good as you, and better. You have to
come to me for your wine, and, besides,
relations shouldn't quarrel-we belong to
the same old family"
8 ts'The same family! What are you
talking about, you low fellow? You're
only a common BOTTLE" exclaimed the
decanter, quivering with indignation.
Her daughters, the wine-glasses, crowded
around her swelling skirts, also
quivering with indignation and a
middle-class green glass medicine-bottle
sidled up to the aristocratic decanter, and
stuck out its label to make the democratic
black bottle keep its distance.
Come, now" that is rather too ridicu-
lous, Loblolly," laughed the black bottle.
Amt we almost the identical same flesh
and blood, as men would say mmade
of soap-waste and sand, and brick-dust
and lime, and my smashed ancestors and
you're made of just the same, except that
the smashed glass in you is crown-glass
cat1let-it didn't belong to yoatr ancestors !"
"Silence, boor," said the decanter,
lifting high her scraggy dowager neck.
n1GJ 49, 11,J H.,
ian hps-what knowest thou of an
cestors ?''
"Well, that's good 'un, old lady," an
swered the black bottle, twinkling merri-
ly in the gaslight. If you don't know the
history of our family, I do"
sour family p' the decanter echoed,
cOntemptuously.
Eyes, our family, my fine lady," an
swered the black bottle.
"Well, let it for arguments sake-an
absurdly generous admission-5e our
family what canst thou know of it's ar
chiVes, poor thick ~untransparent ?''
"Ha-ha its my belief, old lady, that
you don't know the family history-you
want me to teach it to you Now I come
to look at you, I'm inclined to think that
than you do. Well, pity your ignor-
ance As member of the same family,
I'm ashamed of you, but still, as, etc.,
again, I'll do my best to enlighten you.
Pay attention, old lady, and keep those
girls of yours from chattering. Loblolly,
if you don't put that label of yours down,
I'll shy my cork at you. Now, then, for
business. Dearly beloved, thin and
empty cousins, my small, weak, green
kinsman in the corner, your education
may possibly have not been SO utterly
neglected as to leave you in ignorance of
the fact that there is such country as
Egypt. That is where our family is said
to have originated of years
ago. Il won't swear to the statement,
mind you. Very old families are uncom-
monty like very new families in one re-
spect, at any rate-its precious puzzler
to find out who started them. But let
me recall to your recollection Ito speak
courteously), let me for the first time
make you aware Ito speak sincerely, that
the earliest Egyptian glass was, at least,
as Opaque as myself. You see was right,
old lady, when l limited that might be
nearer the old stock than you. For
the comfort of Loblolly, will state that
the Egyptian glass was colored some
green, like himself, some black, like my
self; and so on. Transparent glass bottles
allow me to inform you, dear madam
Opaque vessels of the same material. A
Greek historian states-it is needless to
mention his name, since none of you
would recognize it-that the Ethiopians
were in the habit of enclosing corpses in
big glass bottles. The fashion has
changed, hasn't it, Loblolly, my boy !
Nowadays men are turned into corpses
through having been coaXed or com
PEELED to swallow the contents of little
glass bottles. You may sneer at me, my
dear old lady, because ant transparent
anybody can see through you, poor old
dear but in the cradle of our race-if il
was the cradle-opaque glass gave ou1
family its fame. The Greeks and the
Romans sent to Egypt for glass-opaque
glass, you understand prabably, though,
you CAN'T: slabs for wall panels, and
blue vases with white cameo figures on
them H you know what a cameo is, which
most probably you don't, poor old dear p
soThere's mother story about our origin
most charity-children have read it, but
that's no reason why you should know
anything about it, cousin your education
seems to have been so shamefully nelected
Well, they say that some Phanician sail
ors were driven in by nasty weather tC
the foot of Mt. Carmel. Their cargo
was soda, and they took some Jumps of i
out of their ship to rest their pots OF
when they did their cooking on the sands
The fire, they say, made the sand and tn
soda melt into glass. If it did, I fanc,