The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-08-03
The Mystery Of Matches.

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They are an evidence and accompani-
ment of civilization. The savage knows
nothing of matches. He has to depend
upon the tedious process of rubbing .
stick against dry piece of board when
he wants to kindle fire or to light the
gas, and very inconvenient he must find
It when he hears burglar in the night
and wants to light candle and go
down stairs to search for him. And yet
it is by no means certain that we are
any better and happier for the inven-
ton of matches.
Think for . moment of the danger
that always turks in matches; how chill
dren set themselves and valua BILE things
on fire with matches, and how rats try
experiments with matches which they
have stolen and dragged into their
holes. Such dangers were unheard OF
in the days of the flint and steel and
tinder-box. No child could start an
undesirable fire with flint and steel, for
in order to use those implements sue.
cessfully the intellect of 3 grown man,
together with long experience and great
command of temper, was necessary.
As for the rats, they scorned flint and
steel as articles maliciously designed
for the purpose of injuring the teeth.
In those happy days it was possible for
school-teacher to enforce discipline
among small boys without the risk of
setting them on fire by unintentionally
striking the matches which NOWADAYS
are found in every small boys pocket.
As to the influence of matches in pro-
noting the habit of smoking there can
be only one opinion. Not one-half of
the amount of tobacco which is now
daily consumed would be consumed
were it not for the fact that the smoker
always has matches in his pocket. There
would be comparatively little smoking
were it necessary for the smoker to sit
down in some quiet place and devote
half an hour to struggle with flint and
steel every time he might wish to light
cigar.
1t is one of the Objectionable features
of matches that they are enveloped in
mystery. Few people have considered
this subject seriously, for had they
really given their minds to it, the in
soluable nature of the mystery of
matches would have bred in them a
wholesome hatred of the battling little
splinters of sulphur-capped wood. Yet
there is more than one mystery in con-
nection with matches, and there is no
prospect that the mysterious element in
matches will ever be eliminated.
There are in the United States say
twenty millions of people every one OF
whom uses, on an average, twenty
matches daily. This will seem by no
means large estimate when we re-
member that the woman who lights
fires, lamps, candles or gas always uses
at least three matches before she can
get one to burn, and that the habitual
smoker rarely uses less than forty
matches per day. A match usually
does its work and is extinguished by the
time half of it is consumed, and Of
course the unconsumed half is thrown
away. 1t is estimated that these half
consumed matches would, if evenly
spread out over the surface of the earth,
cover the United States to the depth of
one inch. Obviously they do nothing
of the sort, and the question therefore
arises, what becomes of them? The
mystery of the disappearance of pins is
as nothing to this. Pins are more or
less sharp and can easily work their
way beneath the surface of the earth, or
in many other ways successfully conceal
themselves; but matches are large, blunt
and clumsy; they can not readily escape
notice, and they are so light that they
do not easily sink out of sight in the
grass or elsewhere. There is no rational
hypothesis which will explain the utter
disappearance of millions of half-burned
matches annually, and we can only as
sumo that there is something in the ma
ture of the match which enables it to
vanish at will.
This hypothesis is sustained by the
mysterious and utterly inexplicable way
in which matches disappear from the
match-safes in which they are placed.
No matter how carefully the housewife
may go from room to room appOrtion-
ing to each its due supply of matches,
and placing them where no rat or other
irresponsible animal can reach them,
the matches will not remain where they
are placed. A few days later the man
of the house, busy in his room up
stairs, wants match with which to light
his evening cigar. He looks in the
match-safe in his room, and finds it
empty. He goes from one room into
another, and in each an empty match
safe mocks him. He descends to the
first floor, and still his search for
matches is fruitless, and it is not until
he penetrates to the kitchen that he is
able to find match-safe containing, at
the most, three matches. If he meets
his wife during or soon after his search
for matches, he naturally informs her
that there is not match in the house,
and begs her to see that this state OF
things does not occur again. Of course
she sends for more matches, and fills
every match-safe to overlooking, but
three days later they are as empty as
before.
Now it has been established hundreds
of times by unimpeachable testimony
that no human hand is concerned in tho
of matches from match
safes. The man of the house is always
to make affidavit that he has
scarcely touched them, and has used at
the utmost say three matches out of the
which his wife has distributed
the house, the children main
tain that they have never touched a
match, and the wife is perfectly well
convinced that she hss used even fewer
than her husband has used.
The conclusion that matches have secret
and apparently supernatural ways Of
is irresistible. Clearly
there is something uncanny in this
mystery of matches, and when we have
once grasped the fact of its existence,
it cannot fail to influence our feeling
and conduct toward them.-HdrDer'S
Bdzdr.