Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-01-22
Silt gake democrat,
FRIDAY. JANUARY %. 1886
AN ELECTRIFIED PARTY
New Years Festival Given by n
Modern Magician.

|
Modern Magician.
Mr.. William Hammer gave an electric
supper to few old classmates on Christ
mas Eve. 1t was like an evening in sheol
Mr.: Hammer has been associated witt
Edison, the great electrician, for such :
long time, and has become SO STEPPED If
electricity that it fairly oozes out at his
finger tips. He carries lightning about
IN his pockets as carelessly as boy would
carry toad. His pretty little home al
No. % Rowland street is built upon Lev.
den jars and batteries and queer electrica]
inventions, and everything about the
place from opening the front gate to
placklng shoes is done by electricity.
You can't walk across the threshold with
out ringing bells or sounding burglar
alarms, Or lighting the gas, or doing some
odd thing that you never dreamed of do
ing. Thursday evening Mr.. Hammer
had all the hidden wires about his house
connected so as to give his twenty guests
a lively time. As far as outward appear
ances went, the paSlors and dining-room
looked like any other well-furnished
apartments. But hidden beneath the
carpets and in the walls and ceilings
were strange systems of wires and but
tons and 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 the
lower stoop three electric lights blaze out
and the number of the house appears in
bright relief. The next step sets bell
to ringing. and the third throws open the
door and lights the gas in the hall bv
electricity, transmitted by the pressure
of the foot. Inside the hall there is an
odd-looking foot rest, attached to the hat
rack, and by pressing button pair OF
brushes come out and shine your shoes.
Up stairs, where you remove your wraps,
there is a bedroom that would be worth
a fortune to a lazy man. By touching
your head to the pillow the gas fifteen
feet away is distinguished, and by press
ing mob at the foot OF the bed it is lit
again. Outside the door a clockwork
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 on the floor.
In the parlors the guests who had come
early stood about in little groups. No
body sat down, although ottomans and
sofas and chairs were scattered through
The rooms. Every newcomer was cor
iially greeted and chair pushed toward
him. If he sat down-as he usually did |
the chair either doubled upon him or
started for the door with him, or disap-
feared, or completely exploded. If he !
sat on the sofa he set a banjo to playing |
IN the opposite wall, and drum to beat
ng, or if he took another seat the move
nent put out the lights and introduced |
queer phosphorescent figures. No man
Knew when he was safe, although there
we're a few apparently safe seats. In one
If these Humorist Brown was telling a
-ery funny story. He had left electricity |
ar behind, and just as he reached the
climax pretty, funnel-shaped Japanese
lffair, like big Ounce cap, that orna-
nented the ceiling overhead, dropped
quietly down and covered him up, silently
the story and the story
eller Somebody proposed music, and
half OF selection went very nicely on
he piano. But just as every one became
Interested something seemed to give
ray, and instead of strings the keys beat
lpon horrible jangle of gongs and
runs and bells and every kind of noise
Producing implement. But the worst
anne in the dining-room. About II
'clock the twenty guests sat down to a
able loaded with the usual delicacies.
It the head figure of Jupiter presided.
It signal the great god began to talk
Geographically, and made welcome
ddress. He wore electric lights for shirt
tuds, bibulous red light for a nose, and
is green eyes had the snap of lightning
1 them, while blue bolts blazed from his
ocket. The table seemed bewitched.
Touch knife or fork and it put out the
ghts and introduced queer sights. Put
our spoon into a dish of cream and it
AIRED up in great columns of green or red
ames many feet high, like fountain of
re. Reach for an innocent-looking
lndwich and it rang bell inside, where
he meat ought to be. Try to pick up an
range and a drum beat inside. Help
ourself to pudding and the dish and all
id silently into the great unknown. Ask
II Malaga grapes and find that an
ectric light flashed from each one as
OH pulled the stem. Pour a glass of
and it was incandescent and
Ill of fire as it touched your lips. And
ct everything was good to eat and the
,ffee was cooked by electricity. And
hen the little clock tinkled out IL,
shering in the new year, and the chimes
ON the distant churches came softly
ito the rooms, pandemonium seemed TO :
ave changed places with the modest
Two big cannon unexpect-
lily went off with a suddenness
lat rolled every man back from
lie table, the lights disappeared,
,ngs under each chair beat tattoo,
nd two bricks dropped off the chimney.
or few minutes every malignant noise
Ter invented was piled on top of one
lother, and then silence and the lights
me back, and supper was resumed as
Ilmly as if such a thing as scare had "
ever been known. After supper electric
,eworks and photographic experiments
I'd a luminous chamber of horrors sent
e guests home with a bewildered feel
g that somehow they had been living
IF century ahead of the new year +
EN- York World