Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-03
Lights Out.
He Broods
By Candle T.
And There's No Redress
for Barked Shin
By DAMON RUNYON

ON HIBISCUS ISLAND. down
~ in Dade County. Florida, the
electric lights sometimes go out
late at night without warning.
They almost invariably pick a
night when the moon is not over
Miami and you find yourself in
Stygian darkness, which we I'M
derstand is the darkest darkness
there is.
So you call up the Florida
Power and Light Company and
ask the girl whom you can con-
suit about the lights being out
and the girl says she will con-
meet you with electric trouble.
You get electric trouble, who
seems to be young man with a
precise voice, and you inform
him that the lights are out on
Hibiscus Island, but the news
does not seem TO startle him.
Most likely he has already heard
from other sources.
"Yes, sir" he says. 1--WE are
working on that. The lights
will be on SOON"
"HOw sOon?" you inquire, per-
haps a bit ENORMOUSLY.
~ do not know about that.
SIR" he says, soothingly. But
SOON"
Well, if you are an experienced
Kermit on Hibiscus Island you
know that what you may con-
slider "soon" has much more lati-
tude in the lexicon of the Florida
Power and Light Company. so
you grope your way out into the
kitchen to get the hurricane
lamps, which are not really
lamps at all. but candles stuck
in holders and enclosed in glass
chimneys and of late years de-
graded from honorable eifftf-.-
gency unitarian purposes to
table adornments in tea shoppes.
4 ND of course somebody has
"A one a ! e q the hurricane
lamps with incredible cunning
and you fall over a chair in the
dark and bark your shins and
stir the dogs to the most alarm
ing ki-yi-ing and a negligeed
figure appears wraith-hke out
OF the gloom.
So the wrath finds and lights
the hurricane lamps while you
stand bordering the inequity OF
human existence that permits a
wrath TO find her way un-
"A ffingly to any given point III Il
darkened house while you can
not move two feet without al
most knocking your brains OUT.
And When The wrath has with
drawn from the scene with a
tart reminder not TO set the
Joint on fire, you sit down by
the dim glow of the candles and
reflect further on the inJusticcs
of this world as illustrated by
the electric lights going out.
THE power company agrees for
i a certain fee TO provide you
with illumination and If YOU
fail TO pay said fee the company
would probably turn you over 10
its lawyers. who would sue you
IN a court of law
But, as you sadly reflect. IL
would avail you nothing TO sue
the company for not living up
TO its agreement because 1t
would most likely allege that
the sudden stoppage of service
WIS due to an act of Divine
Providence over which II has no
control.
Yet there is your barked shin.
and the ensuing cost of iodine
and your loss of time. 10 say
nothing of the wear and tear
on your nerves.
IF YOUR telephone suddenly
goes dead on you while you
are in the thick of an important
conversation. II would probably
do YOU no good TO bring action
against the company though II
would most certainly bring ac-
ton against you if you failed 10
pay for the service.
The list of injusticeS Is rapidly
mounting in your mind as you
sit there rejecting by the glow
of the hurricane lamps but sud
denly the electric lights come
on again on Hibiscus Island. and
YOU say 10 yourself. well. the
dickens with it. and decide to
postpone the revolution for
awhile.
tcfpyrieht 1871, King Features synd.. Inc
DLs-LLhuled ha lnternaiLnnAl Vow serAL-