The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-12-23
VOLUME II.

this for a eandlestick, y she nuttered |
q Poor old bottle; ID is all we have Of
father, good, dear father. Think so |
much of it, and we have hadit now six |
years-a sad, sad six years. But III
keep it, III never"
A step on the stairs interrupted her; !
and a drunken voice called out " Nelly! /
Nelly! where the devil are you?' Hur- !
riedlv placing the bottle on the table, !
she-lyenti into her mothers room, and
turned the key, "A look ofaVersion and
herror WAS on her face z re next mo-
ment the door Of the stairs was thrown
open with a bang, and a besotted, ugly
looking man staggered into the room.
THAT lazy, good-for-nothing girl
where the devil is she? She never waits
on her poor old uncle" With difficulty
he struck a match and attempted to
light the top Of the bottle. I" Dang that
girl she never will leave the candle
stick alone. Dang her old bottle! I'll
pitch it out of the window The girls
door opens. ooh, uncle, don't break
the bottle ;please don't. Let me have
IL; please do" She laid her hand on
the drunken mans arm, the brute drew
back his hand, and the next moment
the starving girl sank senseless and
helpless to the floor, from a heavy blow.
Singing q snatch of some drunken song,
be threw the bottle through the window
pane, and went staggering, reeling,
shouting from the room.
1t was Christmas morning. The bells
were ringing and banging, and clang-
ing away in merry style. The snow
was falling very slightly, only a stray
snowflake now and then. Crowds Of
men and women, and boys and girls
filed the Jolly street. Merry, laughing
bows and girls they were; shouting and
calling, and blowing horns, and snap
ping whips, and ridmgimaginary horses,
and occasionally shying a goOd-natured
SNOWFALL at papa, who always laughed
and took it all in fun. Handsome,
smiling girls in bands of threes and
fours, and muffled in the prettiest and
most bewitching kinds of hoods you
ever saw, walked along quite smart.
Every body knew this was Christmas,
,eYery body accordingly was happy,
every body was joyous, every body was
delighted to see every body else, and
You never could imagine 4 time when
every body was so Jolly and gay. There
was one person, however, who was not.
A tall, heavily-whiskered man, closely
muiled in a large scarf and wrapped in
a heavy pea-jacket, with his head bent
toward the pavement, walked sorrow
fully, sadly along. His black beard
with its long silver threads told Of past
sorrow, and his face showed present
grief. Now and then a tear trickled
! down his cheeks; but he tried to blame
/ it on the innocent snowtiakeS, as If they
would forget themselves so much as to
90 flving into IA persons eyes on Christ
mas, when there wasn't a captul of
wind to drive them You could see at
once that he was a.sea-faring man. He
was a Captain. He had arrived the day
I before. He had rushed iOyfully to his
/ old home. only to find strangers in pos
session, and his wife and child gone
I God knows where. Perhaps miles away {;
perhaps dead. They had sold all four
years ago; he had been gone six. All
I the people knew, was that his wife and
4 child were poor, very poor. He groan-
ed with the weight of his heavy feel
ings. ....
A beggar at the corner was delighted
half to death by the twinkle of a bright
! gold piece that fell into his outstretched
palm, from the Captains fingers. Per-
I haps his wife and child were begging.
How could he tell? On he walked, his
ewes still bent downwards and looking
out of the large crowded street into the
narrow, deserted lanes. Here he saw
poverty and dirt, on every side, squalid,
diving poverty and dirt. He passed in
10 many houses, with perhaps a thought
to see his wife and daughter. Many {
family that day blessed the Captain anc
their Maker, for a merrier Christmas
than they had seen for years. Passing
along dark, marrow, dirty street, sud
denly he caught sight of a tall, darl
bottle, half hidden by the snow. H'
, gazed at it a little while, passed on
hesitated, and returned. Visions of ;
, dark night, an awful night, the cry o
" pirates!'' a hard pressed fight, tn
) defeat, the message in the bottle, IN
escape. thrown on an island, discover,
| of the pirates treasure, captured by tn
; villains, five years in bondage, escap
| at last. carving off the treasure, tw,
: weeks afloat in an open boat, seen by
2 ship, picked up, thank Heaven! and ar
] rived safe in England, chase each othe
! with the rapidity Of lightning throug
I his mind. He mcovers the bottle
, Heaven! it is the samei The thre
5 rings around the mouth, the triangula
: chin from the second, the crack acros
| the " g." there it all was; how man
T. times he had seen it all before. Ha
, his wife cot his message then? If so
{ here waSa clew, and he might find her
y But how impossible it was that tn
= bottle had come safe to her. Dare h
= hope? He might be successful, h
r might find them. Yes, he would try
- Rushing like an insane man, into pro
5 vision store opposite, he flourished tn
t bottle and nervously inquired if the
;, had seen that bottle before. Thinkin
y him to be some detective, they earnes
:, " assured him they hadn't. He treate
d every house for three blocksin the san
e manner. He asked at every door, bl
without the least success. He gave it Il
n in despair. To be thus thrown dow
d after hoping so much, was awful. /
> never was to find them, never to pre-
: them again in his arms. What miSel
o was his. .-..
y Slowly, sadly he walked on. Som
d how or other the bottle felt fidgety
r his pocket. He took it out, and locke
y at it attentively; it awakened old mem
Y ries. And right here now, | won't 81
2. for certain, mind YOU, but whether
% was the bottle speaking, OF the bel
le Ginning, or the Captains heated imag
u nation. or the wind whistling in the be
tie mouth, certain it is that somethir
l. seemed to sing, ''Six hundred al
Fl mine! Six hundred and ninel Up
II the attic! Up in the attic! Go bacl
a Go back Six hundred and nine!"
s made such an impression on the Ca
a tain's mind, that, jamming the bottle
d the Jacket, back he dashed, down t
Ie street. overturning two men in Il
IS snow, and knocking right up again
,e every second man he met. He gain,
le six hundred and nine. He banged Il
le door open. He dashed up the stair
" You wouldn't have thought those stai
he could have stood it. Bang! daSl