The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-12-23
WHAT A BOTTLE DID.
A Christmas story

4 dark. cold room. Bare, Dlack
walls, from which half of the plaStering
had fallen, iireleSs grare, an old
creakv table: and there YOU have the
furniture of the topmost room of tum-
ble-down, yheerlcSS house, in the dirty,
narrow streets of London. 1t was Bit
ter cold outside. snow was falling in
quick steady masses, and eddying here
and there, driven ly the bitter, cruel,
pitileSS wind. On the table i'm this dark,
cold room. through the broken windows
of which the wintry blast came freely
in, was "a large black bottle, whose sides
were filled with clustered tallow, the
drippiugs of the half-consumed candle
stuck In its mouth. Ii was peculiar
bottle You would have noticed it
wherever YOU saw it. / know | would.
Three rings. half hid by the grease, ran
round It's mouth, a large, triangular
chip was out of the second rim, and "a
large gOOd-uatured crack extended from
its shoulder in diagonal direction
across the letter B of the word brandy,
which was blown in the glass. A jolly
old spool and a wrinkled, sour work
box. stood on the table near by. Now
il may seem green, but this bottle was
attempting to speak. There is no use
In DENYING the fact, for / will maintain
it to the last. And this was peculiar
b9t}evou know If it wasn't for the
candle it would have spoken; but in the
name of goodness how could any bottle
speak with greasy candle in its mouth.
So it only erumbled and growled, and
tried very hard to speak The Jolly old
spool nearly split its sides laughing at
the queer noise, and the wrinkled, sour
work-boN frowned as hard as it could
frown. A half hour passed by with this
rrumbliug and growing, and laughing
and frowning: when, suddenly the candle
fell. rs if the bottle had spit it out
The spool gave quite start at the
noise. and the work-boN frowned more
than ever. "Wait till clean this hor
rid grease out Of my mouth spoke tn,
bottle. and | viii tell you what hap
pened to me six years ago last month
i was aboard the = Foamy Wave, an,
Captain Blake thought great deal o
me. | WAS always full of good OLE
brandy then; but now | never see
drop. We were in the China Sea. On,
night some one cried Pirates Pirates
The devils are upon us!' Then tn
noise of our GUNS was loud and frequent
There was an awful row on deck. Gun
and pistols rafting, swords claShing
feet scuilling, heavy bodies falling, an,
Captain Blake bravely calling on hi
men. suddenly the noise ceased, and
heard heavy. hurried step descendin.
the companion-way Captain Blak
burst into the cabin all covered wit
SCOT and blood, and wounded slightly i
the arm. He threw his broken swor
iicrcely from him, and grabbing me "a
pressed me long and earnestly to hi
lips, nearly draining me dry. Quickl
emptying the rest, he grabbed a penci
and paper and wrote, PirdtcS-rd7l
g1tiShed-R0 hope God bless VOu, dHdBcI
as He then Slgned his name and tina
OF the ship. Jamming the paper in m
mouth, he hastily corked me, and jump
ed through the cabin window, bearin
me with him. All was confusion on
side. The pirates were yelling and jail
bcring TO one another. Chinese junk
loomed up I'm the inky darkness. I'll
Captain struck out manfully for eScap,
and setting me lose said, this ma
bear the news of my death to my deal
dear family ] would like to have tol
I'd try, but | could not speak with tn
cork in my mouth.
Il floated about for two weeks, whe
was picked up by a homeward boun
ship, the captain of which knew Cal
tain Blake's wife, aud brought me SAT-
IL home How they cried, and felt :
bad. for old Captain Blake was might
! AID . l,ns,
to get pOor-the Captains broth,
gambled the money away-and the
sank lower and lower. They lost ever
thing; but never would part with m
And now poor Mrs. Blake is sick,
sick, and peor Nelly has no work, Il
uncle is alwavS drunk, and | tell VI
they are starving, starving"
4 step on the stair interrupted hir
and the next moment pale, wan q
entered. She could not have been Ov,
eighteen years of age; but sorrow AZ
starvation had set their deep mari
upon her features, which even now he
something which might be Gale
beauty. Her face and hands were bll
with cold. Her threadbare shawl W:
small protection to her shoulders. 81
carried a small bundle. A voice in Il
next room called, and, brushing Il
snow from her dress, she went quick
In. The little parcel contained son
scanty food, for the sick woman w
Law on the bed within. The po
mother pressed the daughter to Ia
some: but she told her she had dim
outside and would prefer to eat it
the next room. And coming, out 5
SAT hopelessly down and cried in muttl l
sobs as if her heart would break. )
was starving, poor girl, and this joyo
Christmas Eve brought no hope,
work, no bread to her and her 81
mother. Drying her tears, she aro'