Reign Of The Candle

In domestic lighting, for nearly the first half of the present century candi.?.! he'.d almost undisputed sway. O ld stagers may yet recall the dimly ' ed parlor, the fire burning softly in the twilight, where the elders kept blind man's holiday. The bell is rung and Mary brings in candles, a pair of molds in tall brass candlesticks, brightly polished, with snuffers of steel, with jaws that opened and shut with a snap, and something sinister in their appearanee. There Were plated candlestieks and snuffers, too, for occasions of state with silver branches that suggested tho spolls of Jerusalem. But there was also a lamp - a stately ediflee of bronze that towered over the family circle at times, and shed a generous and genial light when so incllned. But what a demon it was to smoke and to smell! And it would burn, when it condescended to burn at all, nothing but the finest sperm oil at a fabulous price per gallon.