Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-02
A CURIOUS CANDLESTICK.
Novel and Dangerous Use of Barrel
of GunpoHder.

From Notes AID queries.
Historical students when called upon 20
Iriticise relations of events, especially those
that seem In themselves unlikely, that are
recorded to have happened in the lives OF
persons whose careers are separated by
Icing period of time. when the said events
have a very striking similarity between
them are wont 10 regard the first MARIA
tive as the prototype and the latter a
case Of transferrence. Sometimes this may
be the correct view to take. but it Is com
mCnIy a dangerous proceeding to insist
upon. An example has occurred TO me re-
Gently which ill strates this.
At East utte1wick, a village the
bsnks of the Trent. some eight miles north
vest of this place, there lived in the mid
die of the century shopkeeper named
Marshall. He was general dealer, sup
plying nearly all the wants of his neigh
bcrs. Above this mans shop and adjoin-
ing outhouses vas a long chamber, open
to the roof, in which he kept such stores
as he had not room for in his somewhat
small shop. Among other things this room
contained a maEgle, winch was at the SefV-
ice of such of the women of the town as
made him su all payment one winter
evening several women were engaged In
ntangling, when one of them knocked down
their solitary ca pdlestick, and. being prob
ably of earJaenware, it was broken. Work
for the nignt was nearly over, and 1t did
not seem worth while to fetch another 30
one of the women took the still burning
caEdle-happily it was not very short
ore-and stuck II into some black, dusty
locking stuff which she had noticed in a
barrel standing near. Soon, however, one
of these good DANES had occasion to de-
scend into the shop. and, encountering
Marshall there, naturally began to apollo
gize for the candlestick having suffered.
We may conceive what was the shopkeep-
re yrh he hear u.
substitute that had been found, for he
knew at once that the candle was standing
in a cask Of gunpowdsr. He rushed upstairs,
and was Just in time. He made "a cup
with his two hands, as he sgid, so that
no sparks could get to the powder, and
drew the candle calmly out without utter
ing a sound. His words afterward, when
all danger was over. were, have been
told. of a kind not uncommonly heard on
board of keels and coal barges on our
rivers, but such as are discouraged else
where.
Marshall told me of this very soon after
ii occurred The date L am unable to fix,
but am sure that II was before the year
1854 In the year 1861 THE Dispositions
from the Castle of York in the
Seventeenth Century were published by
the Surtees Society. In note in this work
by its editor, the late Canon Raine, the
following passage occurs. The parallelism
between the two narratives to the way
the candle was removed from danger Is
Very striking:
Newcastle had a very narrow escape
about 1864. An apprentice. going up with
a candle into a loft which contained many
barrels of gunpowder and much combusti-
BILE material, thoughtlessly stuck the cam
die into a barrel, OF which the head had
been knocked off. TO serve for a candle
stick. He saw the danger and fled A ia
borer ran into the loft, and joining both
his hands together. drew the candle sortiy
up between his middlemost fingers so that
II any snuff had dropped 1t must have
fallen into the hollow of the mans hand. :"