THE MURDEROUS KEROSENE LAMP. yi 



they are our superiors. You will never find a 

 stove in an English railway carriage. Their 

 idea is that it is quite sufficient to keep the 

 feet warm and not to exhaust the lungs or 

 stupefy the brain. Passengers are provided 

 with cylinders of hot water, renewed as oc- 

 casion requires, on which to place their 

 feet ; they are therefore safe from stove acci- 

 dents. In the early railroad days of this coun- 

 try the cars were lighted by enormous candles, 

 giving all the illumination that was necessary 

 for ordinary purposes. If the car was over- 

 turned, the candles extinguished themselves 

 without causing any damage. But the insati- 

 able greed for reading, to which the newsboys 

 so much contribute, has supplanted the inno- 

 cent candle with the murderous kerosene 

 lamp, which in a collision scatters destruction 

 far and wide. The public must be accommo- 

 dated at the risk of their eyes at all times, of 

 their lives sometimes ; and when disasters 

 come, the railroad company is blamed, justly 

 in a degree, but unjustly inasmuch as the very 

 thing complained of is demanded by this inex- 

 orable public. 



All this is not irrelevant. If it shall be pro- 

 ductive of good to call attention to it, it will 



