Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

A PLEA FOR GAS LAMPS.
Cities given, the problem was to light them.
How to conduct individual citizens about the
burgess-warren, when once heaven had \\ith-
drawn its leading luminary ? or— since we live
in a scientific age— when once our spinning-
planet has turned its back upon the sun ? The
moon, from time to time, was doubtless verj-
helpful ; the stars had a cheery look among the
chimney-pots ; and a cresset here and there, on
church or citadel, produced a fine pictorial effect
and, in places where the ground lay unevenly,
held out the right hand of conduct to the
benighted. But sun, moon, and stars abstracted
or concealed, the night-faring inhabitant had to