The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-01
CHANGES WROUGHT BY NATURAL
GAS

GAS.
The fortunate people who live in the gas
belt are we'll aware of many blessings the
new fuel has brought them They can
point joyously to reduced expenses; they
can discourse by the hour on the saving of
labor it causes and on the convenience to
the housewife of being able to regulate the
heat by a simple twist of her wrist; they
can grow eloquent over the absence of
smoke and SCOT and the consequent purity
of the atmosphere; they note the dsap-
pearance of disfguring ash heaps that
would harrow the aesthetic souls of female
sanitary and identifying societies; they
think they appreciate and understand the
full benefits and effects of the modern
substitute for wood and coal, but there is
reason to believe that several results, pres
ent and prospective, have escaped their no.
| tice. For one thing, they have probably
not observed certain charges that have
| come about in the newspaper literature of
| the gas belt. though they have uncon-
| scicusly enjoyed and profited by the inn
provement. The people who make the
newspapers know, however, that many
things once current everywhere now appear
| no longer in the press of the thrice-favored
gas territory. The time-honored joke con-
corning the man who quarrels with his
| wife about getting up to make the kitchen
| fire is still on its perennial tour in the old
| and much-to-be-commserat coal belt, but
| here it has no significance and does not
| go Cast into outer darkness along with
| it is all the funny business about the
| lady of the house splitting her own kind
| ling and the man of the house wrestling
| with a refractory furnace fire; about the
| refusal of the tramp to wood in return
| for his breakfast. and the propensity of
| Bridget to take herself to kingdom come
| by pouring coal oil on her kindlings These
| things have lost their application and have
| ceased to be funny. Gas-belt jokers have
| turned their attent; N from this ancient
| subject-matter and are quite up to date.
| The influence of gas and its accompani-
ments the rising generation is another
thing likely to have escaped attention. A
| six-year-old boy, born in Indianapolis,
| recently went with his mother a visit
| among the New Hampshire hills. where
| cool evenings and log fires in the fireplace
| are incidents of June life. The boys men,
| DRY did not extend back to the coal
| period Of indianapolis history, and
| 1t was a revelation to him, and
| greatly excited his curiosity and in
4 terest, much to the amusement and surprise
( of his New England hosts. He was accus-
toned to imitation logs covered with
/ bestos moss. through which blush gas
| flames played in exactly the same way all
winter. but here was wood that actually
| fell to pieces when burned, that showed
beautiful changing pictures in its Goals.
and that finally vanished into a hearthful
4 of ashes. How was the fire turned on he
| wanted to know. and why did the logs
burn up, and why wouldn't tin logs do just
as well. and wasn't it too bad to cut trees
down just to make ashes of them-and a
host of other things that could only sug-
gest themselves TO the inquring mind of
| childhood.
This child is only one of multitude that
| know nothing of things that made a part
of life for past generations. If the re-
Gently altered conditions have already made
a change in ephemeral writings, is not per-
manent literature sure TO be affected by
them also? The fire that burns bright,
that dies away, that flashes up among the
embers; the fire that brings dreams and
| brightens memories-that fire has figured
in prose and verse from time immemoral;
but it was not gas fire. That six-year-
old boy and his kind may, when their day
comes, fall into poetry" but they will
| have another theme. The old fires that in
spired their fathers will be in ashes, and
will serve them not. 1t is doubtless time
for variation in the subject, but it must
cost the passing generation a pang to think
their posterity will not know the element
Of daily life that, with all its inconven-
fences was a source of pleasure from its