So it appears that the willingness of the people to eat artificial
butter, and the progress in schemes for internal improvement, such as
the De Lesseps Canal, for instance, to say nothing of the European
revolutionists, are responsible to a great extent for the scarcity of an
important article of pharmaceutical use.
On the other hand, while there is a notable increase in the demand for
the article, there is a gradual but very sure and noticeable falling off
in the production.
At present the supply for the whole world comes from the candlemakers
of Europe--chiefly France and Germany--and, as improved methods of
illumination push candles out of the drawing rooms of the wealthier as
well as the cabins of the poor, and consequently out of the markets, the
production of glycerine naturally grows less. In France, for instance,
candles are coming to be regarded among the wealthy chiefly as articles
of luxury, and are lighted only for display at festivals of especial
magnificence and ceremony, while among the poor the kerosene lamp is
coming into almost as universal use as here.
To be sure, the inexorable inn-keeper still keeps up, we believe, the
inevitable _bougie_, but even that is fast becoming more of a fiction
than ever. Even in the churches, it is said, the use of candles is
gradually falling off.
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