Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 148, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1913 — WHAT THE FOURTH OSTSUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHAT THE FOURTH OSTSUS

F the experience of past IgfeZ " 'jt years is repeated the an.jjg.JSH nual celebration of the signing of the Decla■Li ration of Independence tw this year will cost lives. No more serious results, as far as casualJ ties are concerned, could be expected from a considerable battle. For though the number of dead will be relatively small, the list of wounded will be very large. Probably 20,000 or more will be seriously hurt in one way or another by explosives. Of these more than 100 will lose one or both legs. Nearly 100 boys will receive injuries In the right hand from toy pistols, from which they will die In a lingering and painful manner from lockjaw.

In the palm of the human hand there is a plexus, or network of nerves. When a toy pistol explodes, or shoots backward, as it is always liable to do, the wound inflicted is usually in the palm; there is laceration of the network of nerves aforesaid, and lockjaw is likely to follow. _—... - The estimate of 20,000 wounded does not include the slight-hurt, who will make a much longer list. But taking the figures given, and leaving out of consideration all destruction of property by fire, it would seem that the nation's bill for its Fourth of July celebration is a pretty heavy one. The property loss by fires due to careless use of explosives, will amount to at least >500,000. Possibly it may run up into the millions, but the estimate here given represents merely an average Fourth of July. People will throw firecrackers into places,, where they are likely to start conflagration, and skyrockets, which excjte such enthusiasm when they go up, have a deplorable way of coming down upon roofs and making mischief. Then, too, many of the modern kind of fireworks, such as the bombs, which rise 1,000 feet in the air and explode, liberating beautiful showers of varicolored stars, contain considerable quantities of high explosives, and are proportionately dangerous. Only last Fourth of July, it will be remembered, many people'were killed and wounded by the accidental setting off of a quantity of such bombs which had been put in readiness for a fireworks exhibition. t Some, probably a dozen, shops that contain large stocks of fireworks will be destroyed by the accidental setting oft of the combustibles, incidentally endangering much property in their neighborhood. Few finer and more striking exhibitions in the fireworks line are given on the glorious Fourth than are furnished by such impromptudisplays. but they cost a great deal of money. If grown people are satisfied to risk life and limb in playing with the high explosives contained in many kinds of fireworks, it is nobody’s business but theirs. Unfortunately, some of the instruments of celebration placed in the hands of children are loaded with small quantities of similar deadly materials. Naturally, the little ones like best the torpedoes which make the loudest noise, and those are the ones that contain fulminate of mercury (an exceedingly dangerous substance) and sometimes even dynamite. Just why the police do not take the necessary pains to suppress the sale of such torpedoes nobody can say. To offer them for sale is against the law, but ordinarily the regulation is not enforced, and little Bobby or Johnny walks Innocently about the streets on the Fourth of July with enough dynamite in his jacket pocket to injure him seriously, or possibly kill him, if a nyschance should set off his package of torpedoes all at once. Parents are not acquainted sufficiently with the danger that lurks in some kinds of torpedoes. If they were at all aware of it, accidents of the kind would be less frequent, and public opinion would bring about the proper enforcement of the law which forbids the sale of these bombs —for bombs they are, though only small ones. Of

course, most torpedoes are entirely harmless; but some of the small ones, round and very hard, about the size of a marble, which go off with a report like a pistol-shot, are in the deadly class, containing as they do fulminate of mercury. Years ago, as most people will be able to recall, there was a dreadful Fourth of July accident in Philadelphia. A large quantity of torpedoes, of a kind whose sale had been expressly prohibited by local ordinance, was exposed on a street stand, kept by an Italian, on one of the busiest downtown thoroughfares. Exactly what caused it nobody ever knew, but apparently a stone thrown by a boy struck the torpedoes, and all of them went off together. They were loaded with dynamite, and the explosion was tremendous. Seven children were killed, while a number of others were more or less seriously hurt. A great many of the Fourth of July accidents are caused by children’s mischief. A boy will throw a firecracker at a girl, for example, burning her seriously. Then there is the deadly cracker that has failed to explode, and which must be examined and relighted, the consequence being an unexpected report and possibly the loss of an eye. The large crackers, some of which are a foot or more in length, are really dangerous bombs, and should not be put in childish hands. No prudent father would allow his boy to use a toy cannon, with loose gunpowder, which is likely to become ignited with dis-

astrous results. Indeed, the list of killed and wounded would be enormously diminished if parents would take the necessary pains to keep toy pistols, raw gunpowder, and giant firecrackers out of the hands of their children, reserving to themselves also the business of setting off the fireworks in the evening. % If we must have a Fourth of July celebration, let us try to be more sensible about it, and so cut down the number of slain and injured, as well as the serious property loss of bygone Guns and pistols are not suitable playthings for children. The little boy who picks up his toy gun and playfully says, “I’ll shoot you,” should be taught that even in play he must not point a weapon at another, for it is in just such ways that respect for life is lessened and involuntary manslaughter is the result. Thoughtful parents will not give children such toys. It has been the custom for many years to celebrate the Fourth of July with noise and flreWOrkS. :. . . ——'

Children did not originate the practice. It is the method shown by their parents, and so each year we have a slaughter of the innocents equal in number to the loss in a great battle, and, as in the days of old, when human sacrifices were laid on the altar, we sacrifice to the nation’s glory hundreds of its embryo citizens. The man who takes his life in his hands and goes to battle for his country’s protection gives his life to a worthy cause, but the children whose lives are sacrificed to celebrate the na« tion’s birth have given their lives to little purpose. Is it not time that parents should think of this subject, and see if they cannot devise other methods of celebrating our national holiday that will not entail such sacrifices of life and property? Is it not time that in an age when peace and arbitration are in the air, and when the great nations of the earth are steadily advancing toward the day when disputes and differences will be settled by arbitration, that we should begin to teach the children higher ideals of patriotism than noise and shooting?