New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-12
THE aAsSACRE OF TIE INNooENTs

THE MASSACRE OF TIE LNNOCENTS
The newspapers continue to come to us fear
fully freighted with that record Of sudden
deaths by physical injury which seems to have
become inseparable from the observance OF
the Fourth of July-limbs broken, skulls frac-
tured, BOYS burned, girls drOwned-all the So
called accidents which have made Of our
chief holiday a sulphurous anniversary OF In
toerable distress and bereavement. 1t is
positive pain to take up the newspapers and
to read the kilograms which must carly desc
latiOn into so many affeCtiOnate families. 1t
would be bad enough if any other day OF the
year should be thus like day of desperate
battle, but it is intoerabe that season set
apart for festivity and cOngratulatiOn should
be filed by our own folly with the tidings of
death and disaster. Every year, with our in
creasng population, the record becomes worse;
and it is high time the matter should be Sc
riOusly considered and some effort made to
protect at least the young people from the
consequences of their own ineXperienCe and the
inexcusable carelessness of those who are older
and should know better. Considering that it
falls in Midsummer, the celebration of the
Fourth should have been made as quiet as
possible. We have cOntrived to render it the
noisiest, the most dangerous, and the most
disagreeable day Of all the year. Our mad
methods of observing it have resulted in burn
ing killing, manning, drowning, and the de-
struction of property. 1t is absolutely neces-
sary that we should have reform, or give up
| the Festival altogether. And this reform, we
think, should be at once considered, while the
| recollection of orr disasters and mistakes is a
fresh one. We have now a whole year in
which TO think of and arrange it.
We want in the first place, a number Of
Societies for the Better Observance of the
Fourth of July. These associations should be
small, and composed as much as possible of
families and friends. The main purpose should
be the achievement of a rational holiday, and
this is incompatible with thronging, jOstling.
hustling, perspiring, shouting crowd. As a
rule, whoever can do so should flee from the
city even as from Sodom. IL we start with
the idea of quiet happiness, we shall find our
selves instinctively rushing to the rural regions
TO picnic under the trees for most of the
beaches are spoiled by excursionists and tavern
haunters, with whom it is best for innocent
children not to come in contact. There are
seaside spots not yet discovered by pleasure
seekers TO which our boys and girls may still
be taken and almost anything is better than
to keep them all day in the city. Now, if
parents will but feel and understand that the
Fourth of July is day of positive danger 70
the lives of their children. if they are permit
ted to remain and to run at large in this metro
polls, the young folks may possibly receive
more of that protection to which they are
nationally entitled. AS We have said before,
the matter is getting serious. These long cata
logues of accidents are discouraging and dis
graceful, even if We say nothing of infantile
diseases ocCasioned by exposure and reckless
eating. If parents cannot do their duty, can
not afford that watchfulness to their offspring
which is only natural, cannot help us to pre-
vent this annual murder of the innocents, then
parents must take the consequences in constant
fears and continual funerals, or at least as
many of them as the police are unable to
prevent.
In Boston, this subject has been for some
years carefully considered, and much has been
done to keep the children on the Fourth of
July out of the streets and away from the
piers. Free entertainments are given in various
halls, and the Sunday Schools arc also to-
gether bSet even in Boston, last Monday, about
fifty distinct inquiries were made for lost chill
dren ut one police station alone. Such negli-
gence is enough to make Herod grin in his
grave. Here in New-York it was ten times
worse-eyes put ont, fingers shot of, every
thing happening which can possibly happen
from the injudicous use of gunpowder
How many children were lost and found, as
well as lost and not found, here on this fatal
day, We do not know, and perhaps nobody
ever will know.
If the fecundity of mankind were not greater
than its wisdom, it is evident that the race
would long ago have become extinct. Nothing
better illustrates our folly than the facility
with which we turn holiday into a small
massacre, and then contemptuously talk about
the dreadful doings in honor of Juggenaut
and other Eastern idols. Thousands of chill
dren who were not killed outright on Inde-
pcndence Day will die In the course of the
present week of cholera infantum and kindred
diseases, occasioned by imprudent eating and
badly ventilated buildings. The waste of life
all Summer goes steadily on. Every day the
rows of little graves in the cemeteries grow
longer. If there were a stone at each which
could tell the truth, upon how many would be
written, Died of the Fourth of July.n or
"The Victim of Parental Ignorance