SNUFFERS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1997, 29 May 1875, Page 4

SNUFFERS.

Br M.oeK

Mankind —■ in which comprehensive term. I include womankind, also, as tho greater always includes the less— is only too ready to grumble at every grievance that afflicts it, while the removal of the grievances is passed over without recognition. The present generation of men arc, with a few; wretched, exceptions, ignorant of the misery and unhappiness that their fathers had daily to endure in the act of shaving. Byron did not exaggerate when he said that the aggregate sufferings of men from shaving were equal to the sharper pains that women who "loved their lords" were occasionally called'upon to bear. But I doubt if the average masculine temper is sweetened to any appreciable extent by';the liberty they have gained of letting their hair grow wildly over their faces. Tn sickness we think that health i» all that is wanted to make us happy—in ignorance knowledge— in poverty riches—or inlovemarriage; and yet healthy, wealthy, educated, married men and women may be found, who would resent almost as an insult the suggestion that they have everything on earth they need. Year by year science and common sense are removing or softening the small evils of life. Men are allowed to go unshorn; women are no longer compelled to lace their figures into caricatures of the human form; we send a telegram of a few Ytords where our fathers would have had to write a solemn letter ; we carry a bos of matches in our pockets, instead of the awkward flint and steel; travel by steam; read yesterday's European news in to-day's Australian papers; get our likenesses taken in a minute by the sun, and have our morning bath filled by the sTan" Yean—except when the weather is hot—in the time it would take a servant to bring us a jug of cold water, and still we grumble as if we had nothing to be thankful for. The last, and certainly not the least, of the small evils of life that the present generation is freed from is the*^ necessity of using snuffers.^ and I will make an humble endeavour to show how in that point we have gained something sufficient to reconcile us to our lot.

Those •whose memory stretches back to the days of tallow candles need not to ■be told what snuffers were. The children and young people who have-been, born under the blessed dispensatioiFof gas, oillamps, and sperm candles hardly form an idea of the continual misery formerly endured by,the human race by being com- j pelled to make use of snuffers to save themselves from gloom. Before the evening candles had burned 10 minutes the" snuffers had to be brought into play. Huge, black, funeral-plume-looking wicks would grow out of their tops, of a thickness sufficient to throw a shadow on the ceiling, which it was absolutely essential to remove if one wanted to see. The removal was effected by one or other of the following methods : — First—With the fingers. 1 his rude and primitive plan of ; restoring light to a darkened chamber , was an exceedingly disagreeable operation to those who had to adopt it. People sometimes wet their fingers before, trying it; then with a swift and sudden movement they seized the burning wick between the fore-' finger and thumb of the right hand, plucked it sharply away and threw it from them—l-need hardly say as quickly as possible. But the precaution of wetting the fingers was an unwise one. It frequently caused the wick to stick till "it . burned, and the most experienced finger- . snuffers found it better to go about their task with fingers rubbed perfectly dryJ It need hardly be said that this plan was only adopted when there were no mechanical appliances at hand, and that "it -was only chosen as a last resource. -Secondly—by putting the wick against the table or chimney peace, and pressing -it off with any hard substance at hand. This was, perhaps, preferable to burning one's fingers, but it was a dirty and disagreeable way of getting over the difficulty. It used to .waste the tallow shamefully, the wick would be 'damaged in the operation, and before the snuff could be extinguished or put into the fire-place the smell could be felt in theroom. Thirdly—The tongs. If tongs Were what they should be, they served the purpose admirably. I have myself often snuffed"; candles successfully with tongs. If the- tongs were not stiff —if the nippers met evenly—and if one's hand was steady and one's eye true it was rather a pleasure to snip off the wick with them and quietly deposit it in the fire. But my experience on the whole is v against tongs. I .have frequently put out' the candle altogether. I have sometimes hauled it clean .out of the candlestick by going down a quarter of an inch tpo far, and I have mashed the wick about till it flared wildly, like a slushlamp. Fourth — Far better was the scissors. There was only one objection to the scissors—one never knew where the snuff would go to. You could cut the wick down to the exact point you required. The candle would be snuffered in the#niost thorough fashion, but whether the snuff would fall into the tallow of the candle itself or on to the table was a matter quite out of the control of the operator. Having to hunt ■ for the snuff and put it away destroyed what would otherwise have been pure pleasure of the judicioms use of the scissors. I come at last, through the process of exhaustion, to the subject proper of this article. I have shown where fingers were at,fault. I have pointed out the evils inseparable from decapitating wicks on the chimney-piece. I have treated of the merits and defects of the tongs and the scissors, and I must now, address myself to the task of describing the important part which the snuffers hays displayed in th§ domestic economy of our fathers. I. own that I approach it with hesitation. Thenearer I come to it the greater tb" difficulty appears; The subject ' vast; the happiness and con 1* _ .is so ancestors were so co*1 *" . _ A ort of our proper undersfc"^' .^ected with the snuffers; *> .^aing of the use of $ime- v cv are such venerable and v* honoured institutions that I feel a j natural repugnance in saying anything against them; while, feeling as I do, I cannot say anything in their favour. But I may as well get it off my mind afc once —I always hated snuffers. There are certain things that every man imagines he~can.;doJ3etter than any other man. I never knew~^_man who was thoroughly, satisfied with another's poking of the fire. We feel sad when we contrast the way our friend tells a story with the way we would have told it ouraelves. We would, tell his tale of love in a more persuasive manner, play his hand at whist to win where he loses, bring out the points in the letter where ho has left everything ambiguous. But the natural conceit that men indulge in was never exhibited in'a more offensive

form than in the days of candle-snuffing. It was a positive pain to see any but one's self attempt to do it. _ Old friendships have been snuffed, out in the operation, quarrels have arisen that have survived the period of tallow candles. Some men would rather have seen their wives kissed before their faces than their candles snuffed by a stranger's hand. There is a story told of a Highland chief, who was presented with a pair of snuffers and a snuff-dish ; but the donor forgot to forward instructions with them. The consequence was that the chief adhered to the family custom of uiing his fingers, and after removing the snuff with them, he carefully opened the snuffers and placed it inside. He told his friend when he saw him that it was a neat invention, but complicated. There were plenty of people, by courtesy called civilised, who had no truer idea of the proper use of the snuffers than this wild Highlandman. I have seen men open the snuffers just over the candle without taking the slightest precaution, thereby discharging the contents into the heated tallow. A mould candle covered over with extinct snuffs is not a pleasant sight to see ; and still less pleasant it is when the snuffs take fire and send forth a heavy odour of mutton fat through tke room. Snuffing out a candle was a matter of such common occurrence that no one wondered at it; but it is a remarkable fact, and one that can be vouched for by thousands, that the want of success in the first effort never prevented a man from trying his hand at the second candle on the table, with the frequent result of leaving the room in total darkness. Sometimes the snuffers would not be sharp enough to cut the wick across, and the snuffer would have to renew his attempt on the mangled candle, with perhaps half a teaspoonful of snuff sending up curling clouds of greasy smoke from the table. Some men always snuffed so close that for five minutes after they performed nothing but a little blue flame in the midst of a lake of molten fat remained to tell that light was alive; while others fell into the opposite extreme, and merely snipped away the top of the wick without doing the slightest 'good. It was a horrible sight to see the uses to which the point at the end of the snuffers was put. The wick would be poked up with ifc after the snuffing «vas successfully performed, . An artificial channel would be drawn on the edge of the candle to allow the tallow to run down the side. But enough of this. We" are done with tallow candles, and snuffers are now things of the past. They served their purpose badly, as I consider, but still, on the whole, better than fingers,- or scissors, or tongs. When we grumble at the smell of the kerosene lamp, let usjremember what our fathers endured from the smell of smouldering wicks. When we complain of the splashing of stearin!?. candles over our clothes, let us be thankful that we are spared the pervading presence ©f grease of the old moulds. " And when we find the whistling of the midnight gas a nuisance—as Ido now—let us contrast it with the misery, the discomfort, andthe positive anguish we are spared in having no longer any use for the once indispensable snuffers.—-Australasian.