with due consideration to the uses of each room. If there is a high
chest of drawers for a certain wall, the size of it is just as important
in planning the lighting fixtures for that wall as is the width of the
fireplace important in the placing of the lights on the chimney-breast.
I advise putting a liberal number of base openings in a room, for it
costs little when the room is in embryo. Later on, when you find you can
change your favorite table and chair to a better position to meet the
inspiration of the completed room and that your reading-lamp can be
moved, too, because the outlet is there ready for it, will come the
compensating moments when you congratulate yourself on forethought.

There are now, fortunately, few communities in America that have not
electric power-plants. Indeed, I know of many obscure little towns of a
thousand inhabitants that have had the luxury of electric lights for
years, and have as yet no gas or water-works! Miraculously, also, the
smaller the town the cheaper is the cost of electricity. This is not a
cut-and-dried statement, but an observation from personal experience.
The little town's electricity is usually a byproduct of some
manufacturing plant, and current is often sold at so much per light per
month, instead of being measured by meter. It is pleasant to think that
many homes have bridged the smelly gap between candles and electricity
in this magic fashion.

Gas light is more difficult to manage than electricity, for there is
always the cumbersome tube and the necessity for adding mechanical
accessories before a good clear light is secured. Gas lamps are hideous,
for some obscure reason, whereas there are hundreds of simple and
excellent wall fixtures, drop lights and reading lamps to be bought
already equipped for electricity. The electric wire is such an
unobtrusive thing that it can be carried through a small hole in any