The morning times., 1896-04-22
TALE OF THE. ANIMATED JUG
Told by Capt. O 'Haver of the Memphis
Police Force.
Commercial appeal.

Several years ago." the captain be gan,
"Bill Pryde and had to go TO Little Rock
to appear as witnesses in a burglary trial.
One mile this side of the town of Carlisle
Ark, there was freight wreck. 1Le
cars were torn up and the track was
twisted. There were very poor facilities
for clearing the track, and Bill and i
sa w 10 sticking out plain that we would
have TO stay there in the woods all day
II we waited for the track to be cleared.
We might have stood il all right, but
we couldn't get any thing to drink. So
we inquired how far it was TO the next
town. We were delighted to fiud that
Carlisle was only d mile further. That
was Just like having drinks Jup to your
room, and Pryde and l struck down the
track for the town.
I'VE walked down the nSin street and
then up and down all the others, aud never
a place did We see where man could get
a drink. Finally we inquired of a citizen
if there was a drop of liquor sold in the
town. The man looked uneasy aud said:
Not since the local option law went into
effect Then we tumbled. After walking
a mile we had struck a dry town. There
wasn't evsn any ice water. Pryde and l
were both accustomed to looking for blind
places, but, try as hard as we could, we
couldn't find any bole that looked like a
The day after local option carried in Carlisle
the town well went dry out OF sympathy.
We were in despair when we met friend.
He opened our eyes by telling us that wehad
beenrecognized. The estoryhadimmediatel
gone around the town that some Memphis
policemen had been hired to come to Carlisle
and run out the blind tigers. Ten minutes
after we struck the town every blind tiger
in the place was closed as tight as your
fist, and the proprietors had all left the
country. Our friend said that while we
were tapping on doors and looking into
stairways some of the good citizens OF the
town were quaking in their shoes. How
ever, he told US that he would put us on
to something. He directed us to little
frame house in an isolated part OF the to wn
and told us IL we would work the thing
| right we could get drink there; in fact,
several of them.
I'VE joyously started for the little house
| and bOlted in. There was only one room
| so far as we could see. In the center was
table. On the table was a jug, a towl
OF sugar, pitcher OF water, and several
| glasses. Pryde and j walked right up and
were Just going to pour out few fingers
| when right before our eyes that Jug began
| 10 soar aloft. Grab it" 1 hollered to
| Pryde, but it was too late. From the way
the jug hung in the air, thought 1t must
| have string tied TO the handle. In a
second IL was out of sight,"
"Well," put in the reporter, ''the pitcher
| Of water was still there, wasn't it?'
The captain only indulged in a panied
| look and continued: "BiIl and l wanted a
| drink worse than ever then, for we had
| smelt it and almost tasted it. We were al
most wild when Bill was struck by a happy
| thought. Blow your breath, George, blow
| your breathT he exclaimed eXcitedly.
| found a quarter in my clothes and laid it
on the table. You may not believe it, but
| the jug came back asifit had dropped from
the ceiling. This time I distinctly saw the
| string tied to the handle. We poured out
our stuff and were so thirsty that we did
not notice half how bad it was. The rest
| ofthe hestoryisshort. Every time we wanted
i some more we laid down u quarter and
hit the jug. After while we thought we
and the jug were good friends. and Pryde
suggested that we try and see if we couldn't
| work il without putting up quarter
just for the fun of the thing. We voted
down that scheme, however, for we were
/ afraid the jug might get mad next time
and not come back. Well. when we lef
we had fewer quarters, and the jug wasn'i
nearly as hard TO lift by thestring as it was
| W hen we came in.''