The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-07-05
SATURDAY EvEN'G, JULY s. 1873
Thc Fourth and its Pyrotechnics.

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The Fourth and its Pyroteehnics.
The anger of the gods (by which we
mean those invisible spirits that "walk
the air both when we wake and sleep ~
was brilliantly, if not Indignantly, dis
played last night, in consequence no doubt
of the neglect of our city officials in maxi
ing suitable arrangements for cele-
brating the ever glorious Fourth. The
spirits Of the mighty lead had lowered
all the earlier part of the evening in
little cloud, scarcely bigger than mans
hand, at the north of the city, and APP
parently but few miles distant from ii.
The cloud seemed to hang just out of the
city limits, not far from the fine country resi-
denee of Hon. James Lyons, at the point
where the renowned trooper, fitzpatrick, !"
with his twenty-five hundred men, all in the
I" best Of spirits" and eager for the ''com-
ing fray" didn't come into the city and
take it all valiantly as he ached to do,
because, forsooth, of one quaker gun, six
of Lyons old wagons displayed in the
road, and about one hundred civilians, rail-
lied to the defence of Lees outer lines,
mostly on horseback, riding back and
forth, and going magnifcently Through
the notions" as if they were giving orders
TO million of men inside the lines; just
at this point, we repeat, made historic by
the presence of the renowned New Jersey
trooper and his men, this cloud of indignant
wrath hung, splitting out its lightnings as if
charged with all the fiery serpents that the
maligner spiritual agencies of earth and
air could invent. isH
And there it hung for full one hour. Civ
ing us one of the grandest pYroteehnic
displays ever witnessed this side the vom-
iting throat of Vesuvius. But there was
no responsive display from the seven-
billed city. Church Hill, made immortal
by Patrick Henry, sent not up rocket;
Shockoe Hill, with its historic Capitol and
its grander historic monument, let not off
a Roman candle; CANDLES Hill, with its
tunnelled grandeur and the vast FORCES of
Vulcan lying below, where "erst the light
ming bolts Of war" were forged on
mighty scale, gave no sign of pyrotechnic
life, not even to the letting off of Chinese
cracker; Maddox Hill, not so grandly his
toric as it might be, but still ambitious for
fame in small way, gave no sign of
patriotic ardor at all calculated to appease
the angry cloud, not even to the spinning
of two-penny quill-wheel; Oregon Hill,
lying nobody knows where. but still ambi-
tous for renown on scale commensurate
with its future aspirations in that line, gave
no note Of preparation for the glorious
Fourth but in the bark of "a single sickly dog,
pitched to the third minor @ of the unnat-
ural scale, manifestly not in honor of the
day, but Of tin pail that some mis-
chievous brat had tagged to his appendage;
Navy Hill, that ought to have been ablaze
with enthusiasm and fireworks, and spin
ming with all sorts of quill-wheels, was
equally slumbrous and iorgetful of the day;
"Rocketts" answered not to its matchless
namesakes in pyrotechnic renown and
splendor, and the whole city, we blush to
report the fact, presented the deadest
Fourth of July night it has been our mel
ancholly privilege to witness in the last
thirty years. ai
This was more than the cloud could
stand. It evidently waited long enough
to give the seven-hilled city" chance to
display its extra-tropical ardor, and come
out at least in one burst of enthusiasm for
the day-the birthday of American inde-
pendence and nationality. But it didn't
come and so the cloud came. At a few
minutes before nine o'clock it {the cloud
dashed down upon the city, as if whipped
forward by all the fiery dragons of the
night, and impellcd by all the invisible
demons of the air; and such Fourth
of July hurly-burIy and window
blind commotion as lasted for about
ten minutes we never did see. MINI
bus. Ventus, Notus, Pluyius, all rushed
from the same cave Of Eacus together.
The winds blew as If tearing mad, the
rain came down in buckets full, father
Hther basted his old thunder-gong till he
was clean out Of breath, and the way his
lighting bolts were let fly over the city was
caution to our municipal fathers to spend
the next Fourth of July in manner be-
co,ulng the city Of Richmond and the glor-
ious old state that gave liberty birth.