Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-02-05
THE INk-ROTTLE CRASH.
VINO Gave the Advice.

Many . night have lain awake in
terror, fearing that tine truth alb ut the
ink bottles would come cut. But j
never did. and now that the fear of
punishment is past, / may As well tell IL
myself
We had just got in'o thu new schoo'-
house that winter and were all very
pro d of the edihce. II was painted
brilliant white outside and he plaster
was brilliant white inside, and there
was door at the end vi h a small
platform, and three windows on each
sid of the building, one set of windows
looking over the big sw mp and the
other 5 { looking over the village.
The teacher that We had that winter
was particularly hard on Us boys. Per-
haps she was right about it, but We all
hated her, and taking it all In all, sh
had . pret y hard time OF II that winter
ia the village The ink that we US a
WAS brought in little stone bottles that
co { five cents apiece. There was also
a great deal of homemade ink III
vogue, which was concocted with sugar
and the bark OF a certain tree whose
n me forget (soft maple, Think, but
which, when boiled with sugar anu
water, made a very black and gummy
ink that had glazed appearance when
it was written in a copy-bOok, an
which was apt, when laid on too thick,
TO have all the characteristics of COPY
g-ink, and to smear tie opposite Iage.
The trouble with our Ink was tina II
would freeze so id on a cold night, an
after il was thawed out we had pale,
aggraYating hue. Some one found that
If we heated the lux and evapOrated
some of the water the ink became
black again. l was talking about this
with one of the boys, and toll him, IN
confidence, il he wouldn't give 1t away.
that if he put his ink bottle on the stove
ami corked it real tight the ink would
become very much blacker than IL wOul
If he left the cork out. In the terrible
calamity that followed, this boy, for
'unately for me, forgot who it was that
gave him this interesting in ormat on.
anl so for the time escaped; bu: | WAS
in terror for many day and night af-
terward that memory would return 10
its sway d that the boy would tell the
teacher who had advised him 10 put the
ink bottles on the stove tightly corked.
One morning when the grea: box
stove was nearly red and he teacher
was engaged at the other end of the
School-room with class, this boy put
his ink hottie, tightly corked, on the
stove. Other boys, see ng this and not
knowing the reason, asked him about IT,
and he told them that made the ink
very mnch blacker and IN a very much
shorter time than by the oil method.
ThereupOn, without thinking of the
con sequences. each one drove the cor,
into each separate ink bottle and put it
on the stove.
Some of the pupils Who were rather
Inclined to be snobbish and put Oh style
over the rest of US, had glass ink bottles.
rhsse re cnnIcally shaIssd aH-.irs ..I.J
they gave lhs->-~>sses OF the a certsiu
Standing in school society which We
other fellows who had the ordinary
stone bottles could never hope to attain.
The glass ink bottles were not TO be
purchased in the village, but were
brought from a distant town. Shortly
after the first boy put his ink bO tie on
the stove there wee dozen or fifteen
bottles, both stone and glass, all tightly
corked, on top of the box stove.
If the teacher from her place at the
desk at the mther end If the room
noticed the bottles on the stove they
gave her no uneasiness, TO- 1t was IA
common thing after frosty night for
Us 10 put our bottles on he stove and
evdpordte some of the water anl get
The INK into its sproper writing condition
again Meanwhile, the whole school
was attending more or less TO its lessons
and nothing broke the stiffness but the
drowsy hum OF the class which Was re-
citing its lessons. From out the corner
of my eye l wat he'd with great deal
Of anN ETY. the effe:t OF the hot stove Oh
he cOrked I'D ink bottles
Little spurts of steam shct out now
and then ( ON the edge of the more
loose corks and one glass bottle began to
d nee around the stove in an odd man
ner, but this Wa { e only indication of
the disaster that WAS to follow. a natty
glass bottle was the first to CO. 1t eX-
ploded with a terrific crash, as If a can
uon had been fired off in the silent
schOOl-room. 1t splashei the hot ink
all over the place, and the wonder to me
5 that somebody wasn't hurt or cut
with tie flying glass or scalded with the
shower OF ink. Every one sprang from
mis- seat in terror. The teacher jumped
up and cried.
Gracious, what was that? ?' But
before any answer cou be given
another bottle exploded, and then one of
the stone bottles shot It's cork clear up
[, the ceiling and into the pure white
plaster drove a fountain of boIlIn hot
INK, which stained the ceiling with
ragged, ugly black blotch that never
could he got out TO the day the school
house was pulled down. By this time
all the girls Were crying and the boys
we're standing AS far away as possible
from the stove, with white races and
trembling limbs.
Tie teacher quickly took in the situ-
which was firing off a shot about once
second, and with one fell sweep OF the
pointer, which she held in her han :,
sv ept the remaining bottles out oil tile
door. As she did So two or three of the
bottles went off and splasl ed the hot
ink a over the wall at that end of the
TO IN and on part of the ceiling. The
pupi S who had been innocent vict ms OF
The affair and who had lost their nobby
glass bottles, at once told who had adj
Wis d them TO corr the ink bottles To
blacken the ink,
This unfortunate boy admitted that
he had done so, but added that he had
been told so by somebody elsa. In the
excits ment OF the moment, however, he
couldn't remember who had told h n-
He thought it was one particular boy
who had the reputation Of being eX-
ceelingly bad. but that boy indignantly
denied it and managed to prove an
alibi. and so for the first time now in
history the truth comes out about who
oriri lated that ink bottle eX losion-