Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-12-18
.ss.ssSsstss .sss.ss sss.s.s%.s.s.s -
= A Preacher -
). Among the People. I.
THE GAS THAT FAILED.


decorated and crowded with people
bent upon finding appropriate gifts for
their loved ones, Mysterious pack
ages were finding their way into many
homes and whispered conversations in
Railways, followed by hasty flights to
unused chambers or dark closets, be-
tokened the coming of Santa Claus
heavily laden with gifts for expeetanl
children. The mercury was down near
zero 1t is true; but no one seemed to
heed the cold. Homes and stores were
warm, hearts were highland The frosty
air out doors gave color bo the cheeks
and impaired vigor to the throng
hurrying to and fro upon the streets.
Everybody seemed to be happy and
all was going merrily as marriage
bell, when, suddenly, the natural gas
upon which the city had, for many
years, depended for fuel, began to fail.
Slowly but surely the erstwhile happy
but now shivering people saw their
fires going out. The prospect was not
cheering. Mothers huddled their
children together between themselves
and the waning flame, trying vainly to
keep them warm and when the fire,
like dying man breathing his last,
1uffed and was gone they turned from
their cheerless CRATES in despair. In a
sense it was like turning from the
corpse of a trusted friend just after the
soul had taken its flight. There are
out few t-ings more cheerless and for
bidding than cold, fireless crate On
a bleak December day.
The failure was an extremely SER
lous matter to the aged in whom the
fires of life burning low made a high
degree of heat necessity
Cooks, knowing not what to do
stood beside the cold stoves, looking
helplessly at their partially cooked
dinners or half-baked bread Business
was BADLY crippled and moved forward
with a very uncertain and limpine
gait. For time there was doubt in
the minds of the people as to the cause
and probable duration of the great ca.
lamity that had so suddenly befaller
them, and everywhere they could be
heard anxiously inquirlng, "Wha
shall we dor"
Those whose fire places could bC
quickly adjusted to coarser fuel a
|
ply of coal But gas having been thu
common fuel for years. many firt
places in the city had been CONSTRUCTED
for gas only and even if this had no
been the case, dealers in coal were no
prepared to supply all the needy peo
pie in an hour. That general adyer
sity begets widespread sympathy wa!
once more emphasized by the fact tha
when the gas failed, those who haC
other means of heating their house:
were not forgetful of their less fortu
nate neighbors. The proposition o
MalthHs was that the realization o
a happy society will always be hinder
ed by the miseries consequent on tn,
tendency of population 20 increast
faster than the means of subsistence.
Looking in upon a family, gathered
perchance around the kitchen table
drawn up near cold stove, thei
hands icy and their lips blue, partak
ing of a meager and half cooked meal
, one might have argued with himsel
a chat the evil day indicated by the the
ory of Nautilus had really come. Blu
it is believed that the vision of man
coupled with the great stores of earth
will indefinitely postpone, if indeed i
does not prevent forever, the coming
of the fearful calamity that the teach
I ing of Nautilus pressed to its logca
I conclusion, fCreshadows, just as. il
, that time of sore need the real caus,
f of tne distress was soon found anC
= quickly removed.
: The report was soon current tina
there was break in the main and tina
q it would be mended before nightfall
! With this news the people returned Il
their homes, and in a hopeful frame
Of mind shivered and waited anC
watched. In due time the break wa
mended and the abundant supply o
6 gas that otherwise would have beel
4 wasted was soon being utilized in tn
I homes, business houses and publ
, buildings of the city. Domestic al
lnfy -,
+ assumed its normal state and goo
cheer seemed to hold universal swa
! once more. But it was only a seem
o ing.
: AS | sat in my study chair lookin
into the CRATE, no longer a dead an
cheerless thing, but all afiame and fill
ing the room with WARMTH becam
e painfully conscious that the tryin
e but brief experience occasioned by tn
e breaking of the main is, with create
e or less intensity, the enduring lot c
Z, many of my fellow men. And this
s not due to the fact that population ez
0 ceeds the possible means of subsis
enee; but because, figuratiYely speak
ing, there is a break somewhere /
the main that prevents a just distr
J. button of products.
:, One day when the mercury wa
: down to zero, l was delegated to Wis
l. certain families supposed to be
:. need. Not more than a square ava
from a coal yard where there wei