American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-20
Miscellany.
A NIGHT WITH GLASS-BLOWERS.

A NIGHT WITH GLASS-BLOWERS
The last stroke of midnight still humme,
through the else silent house. l wa
sitting noddiag in my chair, when heart
tinkling rattle. THE cats in the cup
board" I cried. and ran to it to turn he
out. But when I trened the door, foun,
not the ssd, hat a bfaek wine-hottle, witt
its cork stuck iauntily on one side, talk
ing energetically in Glacialese to a cut
glass decantef. 49, - :
You keetln't turn up your stopper a
me-" il said to the decanter. I'm a.
good as you, and rbetesr. You have t.
com. to me for your wine, and, besides
relations shouldn't quarreEwe belong te
the sans-old family -. = ~
1.-The same family! What are yor
talking about, you low fellow? You're
only a common bottle," exclaimed the
decanter, quivering with indignation
Her daughters, the wine glasses. crowded
quiveFing with indignation and 8
middle-ci&ss green glass medicine bottle
sidled up to the aristocratic decanter, anG
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 2 I'm made
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
cu1let-it didn't belong to your ancestors p
"Silencc, boor," said the decanter
lifting high her scraggy dowager neck
"Defile not noble word with thy plebe
ian lips-what knowest thou of an
cestors ~
swell, that's good 'un, old lady," an
swered the black bottle, twinkling merri,
ly in the gaslight. If yau don't know-the
history of our family, I do"
contemptuously.
Yes, our, family, my fine lady," an
swerei the black bottle. \
"Well, let it for arguments sake-an
absurdly generous admissions our
family what canst thou know of its ar
chives, poor thick untransparent s"-
"Ha-ha its my beffef,-old lady, that
you DON'T know the family history-you
want me to teach it to You Now / come
to look at you, I'm inclined to think that
belong to an older branch of the family
than YOU do. We'll, I pity your ignOr-
ance. Ava member of the same family,
I'm ashamed of you. but still, as, ETC.,
again, I'll do my best to enlighten you.
Pay attehtion, old lady, and Keep those
girls OF you're 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 hare not been so utterly
neglected as to leave you in ignorance of
the tact that there is such country as
Egypt That is where our family is said
to have orginated-thousands of years
ago. I 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-fts 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 1 was right,
old lady, when limited that might be
nearer the old stock than you. For
the comfort of LoblolIy, 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
are mere mushrooms in comparison with
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 u1en 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 amt Transparent
anybody can see through you, poor old
dear but in the cradle of our race-if it
was the cradle-opadue glass gave our
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 IT you know what a cameo is, which
most probably you don't, poor old dear ~
There's another 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 shamcfullv nelected
Well, they say that some Ph9nician sail
ors were driven in by nasty weather to
the foot of Mt. Carmel. Their cargo
wss soda, and they took some Jumps of it
out of their ship to rest their pots on
when they did their cooking on the sands
The fire, they say, made the sand and the
soda melt into glass. If it did, fancy
that the glass wasn't a transparent cut
decanter, eh, cOusins Now don't get
crusty, iolf1ady. You've nothing to do
with crust. That's left for me, if the
the wine is properly decantcd. I'm dark
er, and yet Pm fairer than you, old lady.
I don't deny that transparent cut glass is
very pretty, and very proper for the pur-
poses it's made for but that's no reason
why you should make little of me, that
fill yOu with what you're chiefly liked for,
because I'm proper for my purposes. I
do my duty In the state Of life for which
it hath pleased the glass maker to make
me, every bit as well as you do yours, old
lady. Let's lie sOciable. Though you do
think yourself 50 fine. to gain your ends
you're obliged to let me put my lips to
yours. To put you in good temper, I'll
tell you that it's thought the Ph9nicians
made Transparent white glass before the
Egyptians. Nr.. Layard found trans
parent white glass vase at Nimrud.
stamped with the name Of the king that
reigned .2504 years ago. Though our
family was founded somewhere or other
in the East, the Easterns are no great
shakes AZ gas making n6wadays. They
get European glass and melt it over again
The Romans didn't use glass for windows
tale thew used-uutil about 1900 wears