Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1876 — Kerosene—How to Use. [ARTICLE]

Kerosene—How to Use.

A contemporary says that, “of every" hundred dollars lost by fire, not more than 20 per cent, can be said to have been lost by accident—that is, by cause®, against which ordinary care is hot an efficient defense; that 30 per cent, is occasioned by incendiarism and design and the remaining 50 per cent, by sheer carelessness.” For no small share of the latter we believe that the demon, kerosene, is responsible. It is used in almost every house where gas is not convenient or atSinable, and usually with so little care at the wonder is, not that there are so many accidents, but that there are so few. People keep it in jugs, bottles and ricketty cans, in all sorts of dangerous places, where an inadvertent tip may cause an explosion. They kindle fires with it, till their lamps at night or over the stove, and generally use it as if it was as safe as tallow, instead of being, as it really is, only less dangerous than nitro-glycerine and gunpowder. Familiarity has bred contempt for its dangerous qualities. A person ot ordinary discretion could not be induced to blow into the muzzle of a gun to ascertain if it is loaded. Certainly no timid woman could be prevailed upon io do so, yet she will cheerfully blow down the chimney of a kerosene lamp, at the imminent risk of her own life and that of her family. The practice is not only immediately dangerous to life, but the fumes given off by the protruding wick fill the room and house with a gas of highly-deleterious quality. Where kerosene is used these precautions are indispensable: Use lamps with chimneys—the taller the better. Always keep a supply on hand, in case of breakage. Fill and clean the lamps in the morning. Keep the body of the lamp nearly full of candle-wick. Trim off all the charred portion of the wick. On retiring set the lamp where there is a draft, out of the room, and turn down the wjck until the charred part, which is slightly enlarged, fills the tulie, and so prevents evaporation. Avoid always, if possible, carrying lamps from one portion of the house to another while lighted-" “So may your days be long in the land.” — RuraLNew Worker. A father at Reading, Pa., wants his daughter arrested because she parades the streets in nfale attire.