The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-01-14
zAN ELECTRICAL SUPPER.
The;New Years Feast Given in a ::Masi-
cian's Dining Room.

3 80, CLANS Dining Room.
Mr.. William Hammer gave.an electric
supper to few old classmates on New
Years eve. It was like an evening in
sheol. Mr.. Hammer has been associated
with Edison. the great electrician, for
such. long time, and has become so
steeped;in electricity that it fairly oozes
ont at his finger tips: He carries light.
fling about in his pockets as carelessly as
sboy would carry a toad. His pretty
little home. at No. % Rowland street is
built upon Leyden jars and batteries and
queer electrical inventions, and every
thing Aboat the place from opening the
front gate to. blacking shoes is done BY
electricity. You can't walk across the
thseshold without ringing bells or sound
ing burglar alarms, or lighting the gas,
Or doing some odd thing that you never
dreamed Of doing.
Thursday evening Mr., Hammer had all
the hidden wires about his house con-
nected SOFAS to give his twenty guests
lively time. As far as outward appe,r-
ances went, the parlors and dining room
looked lie any other Ewell-furnisbed
apartments. But hidden beneath the
carpets and in the walls and ceilings
we're strange systems of wires and but-
tons aud signals that made the place like
one of the enchanted castles we used to
read about in fairy-tale days.
You enter the gate and the house ap.:
pears dark, but as your foot touches he
lower stoop three electric lights blaze out
and the number of the house appears in
bright. relief. .--Thelnext step sets bell
to jingling, and the third throws open
the door and lights the gas in the hall
by|eleet etricity transmitted by the press
uras 81 the foot, Inside the hall there
isans ddslook king foo.-rest attached to
the nat rack, andeby pressing button
pair Of brushes come out and shine your
shoes. Upstairs, where you remove your
wraps, there is bedroom that would be
worth . fortune to q lazy man. By
touching your head 70 the pillow the gas
fifteen feet away is extinguished, and by
pressing 3 knob at the foot of the bed it
lis lit again. Outside the door clock
work attachment sounds drum at the
proper waking time. and if the occupant
does not get up after fifteen minutes
grace, the bed rises on its hind legs and
dumps the sleeper out on the floor.
In the parlors the guests who had come
early stood about in little groups. No
body sat down, although ottomans aud
sofas and chairs were scattered through
the rooms. Every newcomer was cordi-
ally greeted and chais pushed towards
him. IF he sat down-as he usually did
the chair either doubled Up on him or
started for the door with him, or disap-
peared or completely exploded. If he
sat on sofa he set a banjo to playing on
the opposite wall, and drum to beating;
or if he took another seat the movement
put ont the lights and introduced queer
phosphorescent figures. No man knew
when heIwas safe, although there were a
) few apparently safe seats. In one of
these Humorist Brown was telling very
funny story. he had left electricity far
behind, and just as, he reached the eli
max pretty nnel.shaped Japanese
affair, like big Ounce cap, that orna-
mented the ceiling overhead, dropped
quietly down and covered him up, silent
ly extinguishing the story and the story
teller,
Somebody proposed lusic, and half
of selection went very nicely on the
piano. But sjust as every one became
interested something seemed to give way,
and instead of strings the keys beat upon
a horrible jangle Of gongs and drums
and bells, and every kind of noise-pro-
ducing implement. But the worst came
in the dining room. About II o'clock
the twenty guests sat down to table
loaded with the usual delicacies. At the
head a figure of Jupiter presided. At
signal the great god began to talk (pho-
geographically, and made welcome ad-
dress. He wore electric lights for shirt
studs, bibulous red light fvr a nose,
and his green eyes had the snap of light
ming in them, while blue bolts blazed
from his pocket.
The table seemed bewitched. Touch
knife or fork and it put out the lights
and introduced queer sights. Put your
spoon into dish of cream aud it fared
up in great columns of green or red
flames many feet high, like a fountain of
fire. Reach for an innocent looking
sandwich and it rang bell inside, where
the meat ought to be. Try to pick up
an orange and drum beat inside. Help
yourself to pudding, and the dish and
all slid silently into the great unknown.
ask for Malaga grapes and find that an
electric light flashed from each one as
you pulled the stem. Pour a glass of
lemonade and it was incandescent and
full of fire as it touched your lips. And
yet everything was good to eat and the
coffee was cooked by electricity.
And when the little clock tinkled out
IL, ushering in the new year, and the
chimes from the distant churches came
softly into the room, pandemonium
seemed to have changed places with the
modest diuing-room. Two big cannon
unexpectedly went off with suddenness
that rolled every man back from the
table, tho lights disappeared, gongs un-
der each chair beat tattoo and two
bricks dropped off the chimney. For a
few minutes every malignant noise that
was ever invented WAS piled on top of
one another, and then silence and the