Gunpowder vs. Kerosene.

Gunpowder vs. Kerosene.

Somebody ought to publish a household tract, and advise people to kindle their fires with gunpowder, instead of kerosene. It would be vastly safer, indeed, for the gunpowder only explodes and then is done with, and if it blows out the windows and doors, or takes off a leg or an arm, or puts out an eye, that is all there is of it, and people know what to expect. But the kerosene not only explodes but takes fire, and its burning vapor is pretty sure death to the woman who tries this sort of kindling. It is a very easy thing to tilt what is left in the lamp or the oil-can right over the coals to make a blaze when the fire is slow, but the hospital ambulance and the coroner’s inquest arc pretty sure to follow. The most sickening of all horrors, being burned alive, is the natural outcome of this hurrying up of slow fires by the quick kindling of kerosene, but every woman who tries it ought to know that she would be a good deal safer in the front of a battle than behind the kerosene-can in such an experiment.— Philadelphia Ledger.

Somebody ought to publish a household tract, and advise people to kindle their fires with gunpowder, instead of kerosene. It would be vastly safer, indeed, for the gunpowder only explodes and then is done with, and if it blows out the windows and doors, or takes off a leg or an arm, or puts out an eye, that is all there is of it, and people know what to expect. But the kerosene not only explodes but takes fire, and its burning vapor is pretty sure death to the woman who tries this sort of kindling. It is a very easy thing to tilt what is left in the lamp or the oil-can right over the coals to make a blaze when the fire is slow, but the hospital ambulance and the coroner’s inquest arc pretty sure to follow. The most sickening of all horrors, being burned alive, is the natural outcome of this hurrying up of slow fires by the quick kindling of kerosene, but every woman who tries it ought to know that she would be a good deal safer in the front of a battle than behind the kerosene-can in such an experiment.— Philadelphia Ledger.