“Yes, I know,” said Schwarmer, “that my property was meddled with and I know that accidents occur or are liable to occur all over the country on the Fourth, and we don’t know where they will occur, nor how many will occur at a given point, most assuredly we don’t, and we don’t know just how many occur in our own town. They are not always reported, or made much of. There will be accidents on that day as a matter of course, truly there always have been and must be—it’s an accidental world—full of accident policies—eh, ladies? The Fourth of July wouldn’t be the Fourth without accidents, surely it wouldn’t, would it ladies?”
“Yes it would,” said Mrs. Normander. “We have had one this year—a lovely Fourth. We all enjoyed it—especially the children. They said they had never had such a splendid Independence Day. They had no fireworks and not a single one was hurt. We heard there was quite a serious accident at your place where you had an elaborate pyrotechnic display.”
“O! a small one, ladies, a very small one—truly very small—not worth mentioning, ladies.”
“Not for you,” cried out a voice angrily; “but for the poor mother who lost her child!”
She broke off sobbing. She was the widow whose little boy had died of tetanus a few years before. The ladies all knew it and were visibly affected.
“Beg your pardon, dear woman,” said Schwarmer fussing with his pocket handkerchief. “Beg your pardon, one and all, dear ladies, I meant no harm—no insult to your sex—most assuredly not. I’m all sympathy for any one in a delicate condition and exceedingly sorry for any loss they may sustain and would not do or say anything willingly to aggravate the one or the other. I trust you know I would not. You know also that accidents of that kind do happen very frequently, and without any fright from pyrotechnics. The only damage that can be truly chargeable to the rocket, was very slight indeed, very—only a matter of a few bundles of straw and an old tumble down shed. It made quite a blaze of course, you know it would ladies, and the excitement may have been the one straw too much for the mother delicately situated but there is no real proof of it—that is, no absolute proof you understand ladies. I mean to say that something else might have happened that would have led to the same disaster—something quite trifling, such as a husband coming in late and slamming the door. To speak bluntly we have all heard of such things bringing on premature difficulties. Truly we have, have we not, my dear ladies?”
“I see, I see, silence gives consent,” continued Mr. Schwarmer quite jauntily, “and I know you have forgiven me any little hand I may have had in the matter—which was very slight indeed, I assure you. The pyrotechnics referred to were under the auspices of a much greater than I—that is pyrotechnically considered. No less a person than the young son of a billionaire friend of mine who has a great taste for pyrotechnics. The piece which caused the premature loss referred to was designed by him. It was very original and powerful—most assuredly it was—almost too powerful for inland display. It would have been truly gorgeous out at sea or off Coney Island or Manhattan Beach. He’s a great genius, the young fellow is, and an aspiring one and needs a great deal of room to display his talents, as all geniuses of any size, invariably do. When he was abroad he was royally entertained by the greatest of living Pyrotechnists, King Pang, whose father was knighted by the queen for doing something splendid. I have forgotten just what it was. By the way, he made a very good pun out of the little accident he had here, after he got back to the city. He said that his ‘Pet Rocket rocked the cradle prematurely’—or attempted to rock it, or something of the kind. I can’t quite remember which; but really it was very good and characteristic also. He always spoke of his creations as though they were live creatures and really they are very lively—very lively indeed, I assure you, ladies.”
“They are fiends in disguise,” exclaimed Ruth rising suddenly and lifting the rim of her hat so he might recognize her without difficulty. She had managed to hide herself from his observation, she hardly knew why. She had a mixed sort of a feeling that she would like to see him let himself entirely out and that he would be more likely to do so if he did not know she were there. She meant to have her say. She had come prepared for it; but she would not say a word until her whole soul was in it and she could hold back no longer. She had brought the spent rocket that had come so near killing or injuring Ralph’s mother. She held it up so everybody could see it plainly.
“Yes,” she went on with righteous indignation. “They are fiends in disguise. Here is one of them, with its pretty red, white and blue wrapping torn off. Look at it one and all. It’s only a rough stick and a lump of lead. It looks dull and harmless now but backed by powder and dynamite it can do terrible execution. Look at it Mr. Schwarmer. It was sent over from the hill on last Fourth and came within a hair breadth of hitting a lady’s shoulder! If it had, it would have laid her arm open to the bone, for it dashed down the whole length of it and buried itself in the ground. What kind of a pun would your City Pyro King have made of that? What does he care for the homes made desolate, the youths that are slain and mutilated, this son of a millionaire, so that he adds more millions to his possessions? What does he care for such misery as I have suffered? Every year for seven years I had to be taken from my home and sent to Canada in order to escape our Independence day horror. Every year since the terrible accident to my little brother. You all know about that. I was only eleven years old then. I did not fully understand what the English officers meant when they said ‘Very sensitive to foreign foes Americans are, and yet they arm the home foes and ignorant boys with enough powder and dynamite to kill and wound thousands every year.’ ‘A very free country that whose people have to fly to Europe or to us for safety.’ But it dawned on me little by little, year after year. Last year I saw it all. This year I am here, determined to leave no stone unturned to do away with the cruel, barberous idiotic celebration of our national day.
“Think of it, Mr. Schwarmer! How would you feel to have your little innocent brother, or child, frightfully scarred, burned or torn to pieces by fireworks that some careless person had put into his hands? Take it to your heart and conscience. Remember, we do not assume that you are a bad man because you distribute fireworks among the children of this town. We know you don’t think when you give a lot of boys a lot of toy pistols that they are going to kill or injure each other with them. You are just like a great many others. You have been brought up to think it right for boys to celebrate our Independence Day and you don’t stop to think of the new elements of danger which have been, and are constantly being introduced. The firecracker and the torpedo were always dangerous nuisances and should have been done away with long ago for something harmless and more sensible. Instead of that they have been developed into giants and are now manufactured in enormous quantities—enough to burn up the whole world; and they do burn up millions of dollars worth of property each year.