Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1911 — Celebrate Fourth as Our Ancestors Did [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Celebrate Fourth as Our Ancestors Did

TOOMBS

1 BELIEVE in celebrating the Fourth in the 'GLORIOUS way that ou r ancestors did. What was good enough for

them in this respect should be good enough for us. MANY of the fatalities that occur on the great national holiday are not due to firecrackers and rockets, but to those individuals who AMUSE themselves by firing off revolvers. THE LAW SHOULD GO AFTER THE RECKLESS USERS OF FIREARMS AND NOT AFTER CHILDREN WHO ENJOY THEMSELVES WITH FIRECRACKERS. The Fourth of July is a PATRIOTIC celebration, and we should do all in our power to make it so. Men, as a rule, are not OPPOSED to celebrating the Fourth in the old fashioned way. They will not forget their boyhood days, with their THRILLS, and how they saved their pennies long before the Fourth to purchase harmless materials.

The Amterican people are a SPIRITED race and insist on something out of the ordinary when confronted by the matter of celebrating a day that means as much to them as does the Fourth of July. The accidents that occur to the THOUGHTLESS folks would probably happen anyhow under any system of regulation. You cannot make IRRESPON- ■ ..th SIB L E persons responsible through sumptuary restriction.. It seems to me that the manner of celebrating the Fourth should be left to the JUDGMENT of the individual American citizen, who, as a rule, is a competent, law abiding, sensible person. As for those citizens that are exceptions to this rule, the POLICE OFFICIALS will take care of them.