The total results of our last “jolly celebration” of Independence Day were 164 killed and 4,249 injured, many of them being maimed for life! Is this method of celebration really worth while?—Journal Amer. Med. Assn. (Chicago).
How can any satisfaction be taken in the perversion of a holiday to purposes of disorder and destruction, and how can any pride be felt in methods of observance which inevitably condemn hundreds—if not thousands—to be shot, burned, maimed, and otherwise disfigured and tortured in propitiation of the great god of senseless uproar?—New York Tribune.
As for those who are in favor of continuing our present mode of celebration, I can find but one who has written openly in its defense, and even then there is a suspicion that the article is ironical.
It is better to shock the sensitive nerves of a few grown people than to have the boys and girls grow up molly-coddles, with the fear of gunpowder in their hearts and no appreciation of a boisterous holiday, rich in patriotic appeal, and full of the “rough house” spirit of healthy Americanism.
This, if seriously meant, reaches the height of absurdity; for if there is one thing of which little children should have a wholesome dread, it is gunpowder, and I know of no other country in which such a weapon is put into the hands of babes.
It is customary with us to excuse ourselves for Fourth of July accidents by putting all the blame on the small boy. This, however, seems scarcely fair. The blame for much of the annual massacre rests not upon the careless small boy, but upon the careless big parent who places in his hand the instrument of destruction. And an even greater share of the blame is due to public apathy, which not only allows the annual suspension of sane and safe ordinances regulating the use of firearms and explosives, but also permits the disorderly few to injure the health and disturb the repose of the orderly many.
As proving that noise is the great desideratum in fireworks, a few extracts from various catalogues will prove interesting. Here, for instance, is a piece the figures of which, according to the thrilling description, move about “whistling and screaming in fantastic, wild, unearthly furore, terminating with a fusillading report,” and another which bursts “with terrific reports that can be heard for miles,” while a third explodes “with reports equal to six- and twelve-pound cannons,” and a fourth like “an imitation rapid-fire Gatling-gun.” An appreciative testimonial lauds a “Salute of LYDDITE SHELLS, nothing giving such a tremendous report having ever before been heard in our celebration,” while other goods are emphatically praised as being “loudest and best,” or “big in noise.” One particular piece is noticeable because it consists of a string of fifty thousand firecrackers. As corroborative of all this, which tends to show that noise is what is desired above all else in fireworks, comes this published interview with a dealer, which is certainly illuminating:
The exploding cane is always a winner so long as it is not suppressed by the police. Blank cartridges come up at the head of the list. Nothing gives a celebrator so much pleasure as flourishing a pistol and shooting several times in rapid succession. There is just one thing that determines the efficiency of any contrivance designed for celebrating the Fourth, and that is, the volume of sound it makes. For that reason the cannon firecrackers are popular, and always will remain so.
This, then, is what excites the patriotic fervor of the partisans of a strident Fourth, though it does seem as if their enthusiasm would be somewhat lessened in placing side by side with the above this extract from the Journal of the American Medical Association, which considers the causative factors of the aftermath of last Independence Day:
Of the 102 deaths aside from tetanus, gunshot wounds caused twenty, giant crackers caused thirteen, and thirteen deaths were due to explosions of powder, torpedoes and dynamite. Ten deaths were due to falls or runaways caused by firecrackers.... The limit of tolerance is reached, however, when we know that thirty-one persons were burned to death.... The principal cause of the most mutilating wounds is by far the giant cracker.... This year 1,489 injuries, including thirteen deaths and eight cases of lockjaw, were due to the giant cracker.