The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-10-30
The Electric Lamp.

Several hotel men were standing in
agroup. in an up town hotel recently
chatting. The conversation turned
upon the eccentricities of guests.
The many odd ways in which different
people handle electric lights came up,
and one hotelman said:
ssNearly every one now knows how
the incandescent lamp is operated, but
still we meet with some funny instan-
ces of Ignorance Last week we nearly
had our hoteEset on fire on account Of
a piece ofistupidity on She part Of q
guest. Tie building being freproof
alone prevented q confagration !; Awo-
man came 10 the house who was iasthe
habit Of sleeping with a dim light in
her room, and the electric lamp both
cred her. She either had to let it
burn brightly or else turn it off alto
gether. Finally she hit upon the idea
of f,Wrapping.a. towel around it, Then
she began to question whether the
towel would catch FIRE. Then she adopt
ed the happy expedient of wetting the
towel. That was the worst thing that
shes could do. She soon; dropped
asleep, and of course the towel soon
began to burn. g Al Blazing piece drop
ped Hon the curtains, and soon the
whole room was afre. saShe was badly
scared and, ,of course, the contents Of
the room were ruined"
"That was odd" said another one
of the party, ''but the strangest thing
I have heard of was the case Of far
mer who came int St. Louis. He
went to hotel where electric lamps
were used. He tried for an hour to
put it out, and then sent for callboy.
The guest explained his dilemma, and
the boy promptly stepped up to the
lamp and turned the button. There
was moment Of silence, and then
from the place where the farmer stood
there came fash and report and a
bullet buried itselfin the wall, narrow
ly missing the boy. Again and again
the pistol was heard until every cham
Der was empty. Fortunately the boy
escaped, and che police entered the
room and placed the farmer under ar
rest. The old!fsllow was talking in
coherently and seemed mad clear
through. Whenhe was finally quieted
down, he gave his reason for shooting.
He said that he had been trying to
put out new tangled sort Of light
and had not been able to do it. Then
he called boy, who blew it out. Just
after the light went out he heard a
click and knew that some one cooked
a revolver. He at once thought he
was about to be murdered and robbed
and did not wait, but tsbegan shooting
at once. When told Of his mistake,
he mas much chagrined and apologized
most humbly."
This story brought forth another
one from q member of the party who
had not yet spoken. He said:
"When we put electric lights in our
hotel, we placed them so that they
could be moved to any part Of the
room, plenty of wire being allowed
for that purpose. One night a man
came to the house who was unfamiliar
with the light and could not find the
way to put it out. Evidently he did
not wish to show his ignorance, and
as he could not sleep with the light
burning he cast about for some way to
get rid of it. Finally he drew the
bureau up alongside the lamp. Then
he took the globe and placed it in one
Of the bureau drawers and closed the
drawer tightly. The result was the
light was practically put out. The
chambermaid found it there in the
morning, and it was still burning
brightly. He admitted his ignor-
ance then, and ne showed him how
the machine worked. "-New York