One of the footmen at Ottawa must have been an
abnormally high-strung young man, for should one inadvertently
touch silver dinner-plate he handed one, a sharp electric shock
resulted. The children delighted in one very pretty experiment.
Many books for the young have their bindings plentifully adorned
with gold, notably the French series, the "Bibliotheque Rose."
Should one of these highly-gilt volumes be taken into a warm and
dry place, and the lights extinguished, the INNER side of the
binding had only to be rubbed briskly with a fur-cap for all the
gilding to begin to sparkle and coruscate, and to send out little
flashes of light. The children took the utmost pleasure in this
example of the curious properties of electricity.
The Ottawa of the "eighties" was an attractive little place, and
Ottawa Society was very pleasant. There was then a note of
unaffected simplicity about everything that was most engaging, and
the people were perfectly natural and free from pretence. The
majority of them were Civil servants of limited means, and as
everybody knew what their neighbours' incomes were, there was no
occasion for make-believe.
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