American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-20
VOL. NNII.

Lady, Tale is a mineral that is split u,
| and used for window panes in India ano
| China, nowadays, just as mica is used il
| Russia. They're not so Transparent a
you are, but then, like me, they're not S,
brittle. But the Romans are famous hand
at glass making for all that Were 70,
! ever in the British Museum, old lady
| I've been emptied there more than once
l ant one of your piecrust sort bu
| that's neither here nor there. In tn,
British Museum made the Acquaintance,
| of a distinguished Italian connection o
| ours-the Portland Vase It's blue will
white figures on it. Thetis under tree
| and Peleus looking at her. 1t was mad,
| to hold the ashes of somebody or other
That seems to be queer use to put gooC
glass to, don't it, old lady We're a yer
satile family-all kinds of things we e
| in for: urns, bottles, decanters, wine
glasses, vases, cups and saucers, looking
glasses, bowls with pictures showing
through their skin, windOw-paLes,b beads
dice, draughtsmen, wall-panels, shan
precious stones, balls, hair-pins, rings
magnifying- glasses, burning glasses, tele
scopes, microscopes, water-clocks, prisms
flower holders, knucklebones, ships, cot
fins, door-handles, photographs multiply
ing glasses, pillars, pianO-strings-but
there, Tn out of breath. Venice used to
be the place for glass making. The max
ers there make as much fuss about their
secret, as if they were Fre-masons I'm
told that since Victor Emanuel got Vince,
glass-making there is looking up again.
Pm inclined to think, however, that if
you slump use and beauty, and strike a
fair average, We British glassites are as
good as any. Somewhere about the six
teenth century glass was first made in
England, though it had been used here a
long while before that. Criticized Friars,
the Savoy, and Lambeth, were the London
places in which glass was first made; and
Wemyss, Prestonpans and Leith, the
Scotch places. There, old lady, I'll be
bound to say you never knew SO much
about our family before"
1.-The black bottle is a bOor,' the decan-
ter said, loftily, to the wine glasses; but
still l will not deny that he possesses a
certain amount of information. That is
the way with these common people. Pos
sessing no intrinsic dignity, they are
obliged to rely upon their useful knowl-
edge-useful but vulgar-for respect
eyes, that's always the way with those
common people," echoed the medicine
bottle
"You contemplate little Loblolly,"
shouted the black bottle, and began to
chase the medicine bottle. Just as the
medicine bottle got to the edge of the
the black bottle, and was smashed into a
hundred fragments on the stone floor of
the closet
In an instant-strange things, you
know, happen after twelve o'clock at
black bits of glass changed
into wide black landscape. Tongues of
flame, Pickering in smoke, were licking
the dirty lips of roaring iron furnaces.
Dirty rubbish rose in hills on all sides,
with dirty ponds stagnating between
The pastures were Uttered with cinders,
and the stiles looked as if they were cut
out of coal. The miry high-road stretched
drearily along, with smutty, squat red
houses on each side; the narrow lanes had
almost lost their hedges, and were as
black as ink and as. sticky as treacle
High overhead colliery-wheels spun
round The stalks of all kinds of engine
houses belched out black clouds. Filthy
and scarcely less filthy railways,
with stations as dirty as dust bins, made
the country look like sweeps scratched
face. Cottages were sinking in the ground
like laundering ships into the sea; and
conical kilns and beehive-shaped kilns-
dingy red, yellow, and white-flled the
air with sitting fumes.
Just where this dreary country runs
into and stains the selvage of a beautiful
green country, with gently-swelling
wooded hills, l saw a man digging up
clay.
asked. 81
He was very gruff man, and at first
gave me no answer. .t
At last, when 1 had asked him several
times, he answered, snappishly, whats
,ehat2'
''Why, that clay" said.
eff you know it's clay. what need had
you to ask 2" said the man. "And if you
want to know what it's for, wait and
see."
So did wait for many weeks in the
clOset-it had grown a very big place,
you must remember, since the black bot
tie had tumbled down.
The men dried the clay, and sifted it
like flour and made dough of it, and
kneaded the dough with their naked feet,
and then made it up into huge loaxes,
and locked the lOayes up in dark Gel
lar
After bit some other men ground
some pOtsherds up, and mixed the dust
with the clay they had taken out of the
cellar; and then some other men made
great melting-pots out of the clay. Some
of the pots were like huge, thick flower
pots without any hole at the bottom; and
others had their tops covered with dome,
and an opening in the sides like bottletits'
nests. 1t took long time to dry and
bake these pots. When they were ready,
hey were let down into fiery furnaces,
and the hole through which they were
lowered were covered up with fire-clay.
You remember what the black bottle said
it and the medicine bottle were made Of
Sflvf f,f hot ind into hn
pots through openings in
The furnace, and then stopped the holes
up for an hour or two, until the pots were
ready for some more stuff; and SO they
went on until the pots were full. The
men had only shoes and trousers on,
and they told me they drank melted but
er only, to keep their bodies from shriv-
cling when all their natural perspiration
vas used up-but l fancy they drank
beer as we'll When the pots were full,
he holes were filled up again, and the fire
was made fiercer than ever for ever SO
many hours. Then the holes were open
ed again, and the fire was let down a lit
lie, whilst men SKINNED the scum off the
melted, almost blindingly white hot stuff
in the pots. When the stuff in the pots
was skinned, men poked long hollow
ron rods into it, and wriggled them about.
When they had got enough of the stuff
On them, they blew down them, and made
,he sticky stuff swell out little. Then
hey took their swollen knobs to an iron
able, sprinkled them with wafer, and
oiled them on the table into lanky glass
eggs. These eggs were put to the mouth
If the furnace again, and blown into once
more. Next they were put into metal
noulds and blown down into; and hey
'restoi they turned into bottles-all but
he necks. The necks were next finished