The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1888-08-31

may pass through, and then falling in
folds. Japanese parasols also make
pretty overshades, Carefully remove
the bamboo stick, aud gather the
paper with stout thread at the top
and bottom of 1.-THE globe you wish to
cover.
Candles have also in these modern
days achieved popularity. or had it
thrust upon them, and this is well;
for, though troublesome, there is no
more becoming light in the world
than that of wax candles. They are
used in the profusion at all hand
some dinners, in high candelabra and
with colored shades, These shades
frequently carry out the primary
color idea Of the entertain For
instance, the flowers may be all pink
roses, the bouquets at each place tied
with pink ribbon, and the candles
and their shades also pink; or the
color of the table may be pitched
upon yellow key.
Candles are also used at luncheons
in winter, and it became 50 much the
fashion at one time to have such a
gerry "dim, religious light at these
entertainments that a very clever
woman who gave luncheon bur-
lesquing the prevailing fashions had,
among other things, her table fitfully
illuminated by two solitary candles!
But so like was the satire to the
thing satirized that few Of her guests
noticed anything strange in the
light.
One longs sometimes, when enter.
ing the dim aesthetic atmosphere of
certain houses, and painfully stumb
ling over the footstools, to give
frivolous meaning to the dying words
of Goethe, ard exclaim, "Light-
more light!'
An artists wife once made some
beautiful candle shades of thick
white paper, upon which she carefully
glued fine ferns and very da;ntily
pressed pansies. The light shining
through the shade quite restored the
natural colors of the pansies, and the
effect was more exquisite and deli
cate than the finest painting would
have been.
Lanterns have been very popular
lately, generally made of carved
metal, with bulls eyes or "iewels' of
colored light let in here and there.
They are pretty in hall, a vestibule,
or loggla, but are hardly appropriate
for a drawing room. Indeed, the
brass lamp shades with these same
knobs of colored glass are very try
ing TO the eyes. One no sooner adj
justs ones optic nerve to a ray of
blue light than he is straightway
smitten i'll the eye by red one, and
escapes that only to encounter a
yellow ray.
Gas is seldom used alone now in
tie lighting of a house. 1t is useful
in the halls and bedrooms land he
VINO uses a drop gas,light over his
bed possesses luxury, but it has
been crowded from the drawing and
dining rooms.
In a room which contains great
many fine pictures there is generally
some special arrangement of gas by
which the light is thrown upon the
pictures and shaded from the rest of
the room.
Electricity may the be light of the
future, but it will be long ere it en-
tirely displaces our beautiful lamps
with their bewlldering variety of
shades. One should be little care
full in the use of these fragile COM
bustiblc shades, remembering that it
was the injudicious kick of Mrs.
O'Leary's COW that nearly destroyed
Chicago, and one lamp shade care
lessly adjusted may lay a town in
ashes.
The lighting of our homes is first
of all question OF comfort, then of
beauty and picturesqueness. 1t is
not too small a matter to give ones
attention to, for Swift, long before
the days of Matthew Arnold, declared
that "the two noblest things" were
Ssnrx .