Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1909 — Fourth of July Comes On Sunday This Year. [ARTICLE]

Fourth of July Comes On Sunday This Year.

In 1908 there were 163 persona killed and 5,460 wounded as a result! of accidents on the Fourth.

Independence day, July 4th, la drawing near, but since it falls oaf Sunday this year the day will bei celebrated at certain points on Saturday and at others on Sunday. N<f celebration is planned for this city, but there will be much going and coming of friends and the day will be enjoyed by many in a quiet, rational way. At night there will probably be the usual amount of powder burned in the way of fire works, with the hoy of small stature and tender years the celebration has already begun. Fire crackers are heard each even-* ing and the bombarding will continue at intervals up to late bedtime July, sth.

No native American is so old as te dislike the snap of the fire cracker, if it does not come too frequent and

too close. If boys had older heads on them and if their blood was a trifle more sluggish there would be little danger, in a sane though noisy fourth of July, But as boys will be boys certain laws and ordinances have been found necessary to restrain their celebrations of the Fourth. While they are lying in bed between the doctor’s calls hers are a few statistics that might be of interest to them:

Statistics compiled by the American Medical Association show that in six years 1,316 persons have been killed and 27,980 wounded in Fourth of July celebrations, making the number of recorded accidents 29,286 which is doubtless far below the actual number. In 1908 alone 163 persons were killed and 5,460 wounded as a result of explosions, fires and accidental shooting on the Fourth, and 55 cases of tentan .developed. t