n are expensive, the simplest sort
costing $4 or $5 apiece. There are numerous artistic brackets,
however, that may be had for smaller amounts. Bulbs are made in all
sorts of shapes to fit recesses or for special purposes, and the
designs in shades and candelabra are legion.

ADAPTABILITY

Electricity's strong card is its adaptability. It can go wherever a
wire may be carried, and into many places where gas or oil lights would
not be safe or practical. The only thing lacking is to make it
wireless, and perhaps invention sooner or later will be equal to that
demand. Early installations were rather carelessly made, but municipal
and underwriters' rules are now so strict that practically all danger
of fire has been eliminated. The householder in the country should
make sure that the underwriters' prescriptions are fully observed, as
his insurance may be affected. In the city, official inspection
usually guarantees correct wiring.

Probably only in the hall, dining room, and living room will we be
greatly concerned with the decorative phase of lighting. Elsewhere the
question is largely one of practical use, though considerations of
taste are not to be neglected. Careful study should be given to the
adaptation of lighting to the future uses of the rooms. This will
perhaps avoid the use later of unsightly extension cord, though this
avoidance can scarcely be made complete.

PROTECTION

A very useful light may be provided for the veranda, just outside the
door, illuminating the front steps and path to the sidewalk. This
light may be turned off and on by a switch key inside the door. It is
particularly comforting when some stranger rings the doorbell late at
night and one does not feel overpleased to be called upon to open the
door to an invisible person. Other switch arrangements make it
possible to turn on the upper hall lights from below, or the lower hall
lights from above, and the lights in each room from the hall. When
there are unseemly noises downstairs in the wee sma' hours it is much
more agreeable to gaze over the balustrade into a bright hall than to
go prowling about in the darkness for the bulb or gas jet, with the
chance of grasping a burglar instead. Some burglars are very sensitive
about familiarities on the part of strangers, and it is always better
to permit them to depart in a good humor. The basement lighting, too,
should be regulated from above, and the dark corners should be