The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-04-21
Accumulated Horrors.

Since electric lights have come into
use several persons in different parts of
the country have been killed by consti-
tuting themselves the missing link
between the two poles of the battery.
We would not wish to cause unnecessary
alarm, but in seeking to warn the public
against the wrath to come, if this thing
keeps on, We can only feel that we are
discharging a solemn duty. Accidents
have been few hitherto because this
high-pressure ninety-eight per cent cleo
tricity is Only In its infancy, and the peo-
pie are careful about 1t. But as 1t
comes into more general use, 1t will be
an old story, and people who place their
ear to telephone are liable to have the
ear blown Oft and walk lop-sided the rest
of their lives. Another new thing is also
about to come into use, water gas. At
Appleton they are even now using hydro
gen gas, made out of water, and it Is
only a question of time when oil, coal,
wood and coal gas will be done away
with and every house contain machine
by which warmth and light will be sup
piled by simply turning on the hydrant.
Water, it has long been known, Is COM
posed of two parts of hydrogen to one
of oxygen, and method has now been
devised by which these elements are dis
integrated, the oxygen driven off about
its business and the hydrogen placed on
file for future reference. Now, when all
these explosive and shocking things are
aggregated under one mammoth pavil-
ion, in house or hotel, and hired girl
who is a little rusty on her knowledge
of chemistry and electricity goes plung-
ing around among the pots, kettles and
pans, bouncing the billowy bed and
pitching the dyspeptic biscuit on
curve, there is going to be trouble.
When that time comes, a house with all
the modern improvements, with sixty
four stops, will be nothing more or less
than a chamber of horrors But that Is
what it is coming to. Country people
are even now getting afraid to come to
the city, as they feel that they can not
be sure of themselves. There are fire
bells, church bells, bridge bells, street
car bells and whistles, tug whistles, fog
horns, the street full of vehicles and
everybody on the keen scoot, snd when
their heads begin to swim and they seek
the seclusion that hotel grants, there
are telephone wires, telegraph wires,
electric light wires, gas retorts, mag
netic buttons of half dozen kinds, and
the result is, they get lost. Reason be-
6Aho " bObANA, shCy SAOPO LACA way
to the sample room and take drink
They would feel safer in powder fact
ory smoking burnside cigar, but the
hotel proprietor does not provide this
convenience for the comfort of his guests.
And so, fortified by an occasional drink,
they transact their business, go home,
and for years relate to their children and
grandchildren how they once parsed
whole day and night in frst-class hotel,
fitted up with all the modern improve
ments, where death seemed to be lurking
for them In every hidden spring, and got
back alive. This is no figure of speech,
no anti-fat that we are giving; it is what
We as a people are rushing on to at the
rate of 600 revolutions a minute. Since
that terrible explosion of orange peel
last week, scattering destruction far and
wide, death seems to be careening on the
gale.-Peck's Sun.