A Ghost Story (Detroit)

The Detroit Free Press, April 5, 1864

Partakers in fire water and firemen are often joined in the realm of calamity but it's seldom that they are congregated together to witnesses a spectral sifting. While moonlighting at the bottling plant on Cass Street one of the firemen from Engine House #1 claimed to have seen a friend who had recently died.

Following a brief embrace the ghostly figure helped himself to a stiff libation from the bottling supply. After quickly tossing back the contents he grabbed another to quench his thirst further. Upon draining the contents of the second vessel and reaching for a third the concerned friend proceeded to cut off his erstwhile mate. He grabbed the bottle and turned to set it aside. Upon return to his former stance his pal had disappeared.

The story was a belly wrecker back at the station but the man held true to his recollection. As proof, he rested his laurels on the empty bottles that remained in the bottling cellar, neither able to retain liquid nor curtail a dead man's thirst for the good things of this world.