The Author of “Flitters, Tatters and the Counsellor.”

GAS-BURNING, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

“It is remarkable what attention has been attracted all over the country by the recent experiments with Edison’s inventions,” observed my friend the traveller as our host turned a fuller flow of gas in the chandelier.  “Even in the little villages out West, of only one bank and not one good hotel, the topics which last spring generally excited most interest in all circles were Edison’s electric light and Bell’s telephone.”

“Very likely,” replied our host, an elderly gentleman of fortune.  “If we had such impure gas as is found in many of the villages and small cities not so very far West, I’d never light a burner in my library again.  As it is, I do so very rarely.  The products of gas combustion act on the bindings until firm calf drops in pieces, and even law-sheep loses its coherency, as the argument of the opposing counsel does when your own lawyer begins to talk.”

“The effect on the upholstery and metallic ornaments is as bad as upon the books,” added our hostess.  “This room will have to be refurnished in the spring—­all on account of the changes in color both of the paper and the silk and cotton fabrics; and the bronze dressing on those statuettes is softening, so that there are lines and spots of rust all over them.”

“Perhaps, my dear, they would have suffered equally from the atmosphere without gas,” replied the old gentleman, looking at his wife over his glasses.

“Our friend here has a hundred thousand more in gas stock than he had a year ago, and I suspect that he is still a bear in the market,” said his neighbor a chemist, who had just dropped in.

“If I lose I shall lay it to your advice.”

“You did well to buy—­if you sell at once,” said the traveller, who was interested in the electric light to some unknown extent:  “gas stock will finally have to go down.”

“When the sun shines in the night, not before,” asserted a young accountant from the gas-works who had been holding a private talk with the daughter of the house at the other corner of the room.

“Gas companies can manufacture at less cost than formerly,” said the chemist.

“But yet gas has gone up again lately.  You may thank the electric-light boom for the temporary respite you have had from poor gas at high prices.”

“Yes; some of the companies put gas down lower than they could manufacture it, in order to hold their customers at a time when people almost believed that Edison’s light would prove a success.”

“But it was a success.  It proved an excellent light, displayed a neat lamp, and gave no ill effects upon either the atmosphere or the eyes; and the perfect carbons showed a surprising endurance.  The only difficulty is that the invention is not yet perfected so as to go immediately into use.”