It is only in the evening that Saratoga is in full bloom. When—

"—— night throughout the gelid air,
Veils with her sable wings the solar glare;
When modest Cynthia clad in silver light
Expands her beauty on the brow of night,
Sheds her soft beams upon the mountain side,
Peeps through the wood and quivers on the tide,"

then faces light up with the gas lamps. The parlors begin to fill with elegantly attired ladies, the piazzas are thronged with chatty and sociable gentlemen, and the streets are crowded, far more than they are in the daytime, by pleasure strollers of either sex in elegant array. The ball-room becomes radiant with costly chandeliers whose effulgence is reflected by diamonds of the first water.One dark evening, at the height of last season, in the midst of the preparations for a brilliant ball, the gas which supplies the whole village became suddenly exhausted. Candles were the only resource, and there was by some mischance a limited supply of these. Bottles were improvised for candlesticks, and stationed in the corners and on the pianos of the massive parlors, rendering the scene grotesque and ludicrous in the extreme, while the closer nestling of lovers and the solemn stillness reigning on every hand gave sublimity to the picture. The poet Saxe happened to be among the guests at Congress Hall, and borrowed a candle from a pretty young lady. The next morning she found under her door the following beautiful lines:

"You gave me a candle; I give you my thanks,
And add, as a compliment justly your due,
There is not a girl in these feminine ranks
Who could, if she would, hold a candle to you."

Verily "darkness brings the stars to view." On this occasion there was no little "sparking," and though the flames of the gas lamps gave no light, love's flame burned brighter than ever.