The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-09-06
BEHIND THE TIMES.
The Tallow Candle Still Reigns Su-
Dreme in Old England.

Dreme in Old England.
The English are slow to adopt new
ideas. Strange as it may seem, the
people are still using tallow candles
all over the country. They didn't
know what kerosene was in Warwick
and Blackwell. They had never used
it. At the Warwick Arms and Char
ing Cross hotels in London we had to
| go to our rooms with one tallow can
! die, and sit with it, too, or pay six
pence for an extra one. After writing
by our splendid kerosene lamps in
America, this trying to write by the
light of tallow candles is something
dreadful. 1t is going back to bar
barism.
At Oxford / got fairly exasperated,
and calling the porter | asked him if
he couldn't go out and buy me a
kerosene lamp.
What be that there?" he asked in
amusement.
why, something to burn-to give
a good light" l said.
''Lor', yeas. l do know whar to
find that there and off he started.
Dub NlldJ W JOu tAliAh tAo lOCA
brought me? Why, six tallow candlesl
Light themi Why, of course l did,
and if you'd seen me trying TO write
with eight tallow candles in a row
you would have taken my table for a
Catholic altar and the writer for O.
bald-headed monk.
In London they are just beginning
to use kerosene a little. They call it
paraffine, but it has the same old Oil
City smell. One snuff convinced me
that | had struck oil. The smell was
pleasanter to me than the perfume of
flowers. 1t was real good old home
smell. It was the first time that /
aver thoroughly enjoyed the smell of
coal oil. The dealer,told me that he
sold it at sixteen to twenty-four cents
per gallon. They have no splendid
lamps to burn it in yet, but they will
comessto time. They are nowaburning
it in small lamps without chimneys in
many instances. There is a field for
some e~nterprising American to come
over here and introduce some good
lamps. Candles are sold here at eight
to ten cents per pound; very cheap,
indeed, if you want a flame without
light, but dear enough if you have to
stand eight in a 10Y to write a letter
by. They tell me the French Ire
burning III kerosene very generally
and that they have very beautiful
lamps.-London Letter.
Was it Baby Mckee?
The beach is not all taken up by
the bathers. It's a promenade for
hundreds who don't battle - for
nurses, for sight-seers, for everybody
who wants a sniff of unadulterated
salt air. One day when the tide was
on the ebb and the surf hilarious
enough to satisfy the strongest swim
mers, a nurse came pushing a car
riage along to where a lot of us were
looking at a dead stingaree which had
been washed ashore. In her anxiety
to see everything she let go of the
carriage, and it started down the
smooth incline like a runaway sled.
In the carriage : was a very
wide-awake baby about a year old,
and when the alarm was sounded it
was too late to overhaul him. The
carriage entered the water just in time
to catch a return and before any
man could make three jumps it was
riding out to sea. A hundred feet
away it met a big green billow driy-
ing in and now it was picked up,
Graded in a smother of foam whittier
than.any snow, and baby came sailing
in with a woosh and a roar to be
caught by a dozen outstretched
hands. And was he terror stricken?
Not much. He clapped his hands and
whooped, and when the nurse carried
him off he kicked the blankets out of
the carriage and got red in the face
Detroit Free Press.
Picturesque HeIigo1anders.
The national costume is not yet dis
carded in this Arcadian isle, but it is
generally reserved for holidays and
Sunday. Women look demure in red
pe~tticoats fringed with yellow, dark
jackets, aprons of snowy white, and
black poke bonnets. AS a fact, how
ever, the bonnet is seldom seen, ex-
cept on dowagers, the head gear of
young women being a light
colored shawl, worn Spanish
fashion. The men wear top
boots, blue trousers, white linen
Jumpers and sou'wester hats. But
even they are seen more often in a
quiet, conventional dress of some SER
viceable stuff. A brides toilet is sur
pdSSluSly oIIdIS6s Tile Cni0l ledtuf6
being a tall hat or crown, deliberately
ornamented with pins, and from
which falls a fringed mantle. Even
her personal finery, however, is Sec
ondary to the trappings of the bed,
which is decked by herself and
her friends in the b~ridegroom's
house. The whitest of linen, plenty
Of lace, and doubtless a mountain
of feathers, go to make it sulnptu-
GUS. Guests are hidden by the lovers
together, in person. After the mar
riage ceremony in the church, the
party repair to the new home and
partake of a national cake, eaten with
a sauce of syrup and melted butter.
When the merry-making is over, the
whole party go in procession over
every street on the island. More eat
ing and drinking and dancing, and at
last home.-C. Emma Cheney, IN
September ScySbneg.
A Pretty Gust ON at a Royal Wedding.
Upon the occasion of the marriage
of the Archduchess Valerie at Vienna
an old and pretty custom was OBJ
served. The ancient dame who had
cared for the bride when q little child
-, ~ H. = - 49, -.