New-York tribune., 1874-07-04
THE SMALL BOYS DAY.

THE SMALL BOYS DAY.
Precisely why the fire-crackerf Why, indeed,
the stridulous Small Boy who, with ventilated
apparel, one suspender and unsandaled feet,
accompanies the fire-cracker in its orbit OF
Aameq Why pop and fizz to-day more than
any other 7 Why to-day more than any other
doth the Small Boy rage and grow violent and
touch off everything that has noise in 1t, from
paper torpedo to fish-horn, and frlshteh
horses and get asleep on curb-stOnes, and tear
his trowsers and burn off his eyebrows, ana
do all the ten thousand dreadful things Tor
which the Small Boy has been spanked ever
since he came in vOguef What relation mas
the fire-cracker to the Declaration OF lnde-
pendence or what the howling horse-lrlghten-
inc Small Boy The one is Chinese inven-
tlon that has no earthly significance beyond
sputter and pop-pray Heaven it may not be
a symbol of the Republic the othcr-the
Small Boy-has no relation whatever with the
Declaration of Independence he could MT
even declare his intentions, and as for indie
pendence, he is the most absolutely dependent
creature in Nature.
Who started this combination of youth and
saltpeter, of vocal haircloth and the limbs OF
the iumping-a jack, of fire, tizzle, and bangf
Ia it possible that the late John Adams
meant this sort of thing when he made his
celebrated remark about the ringing of bells,
firing of cannon, ETC.. Perish the thought
True. b[r. John Quincy Adams of Massachu-
setts-known to the gentlemen who have occa-
sionaly amused themselves and him by run
ming him for Governor by the endeaTiDg
familiarity of "Jack" Adams-not long ago
dnoted the remark of his great ancestor as a
fnisher to the discussion of the celebration
of the Centennial but we doubt II Mr.
John Quincy Adams makes a proper use
of the bones of his great grandfather. Had
the Revolutionary Mr.. John Adams not been
understood as iudulging in figure OF speech,
or had it been supposed that he was proposing
literally such a celebration of the day as has
grown out of it, we might be sure that the
members of q family so true to their tradl-
tions as the Adamses would have followed out
strictly his injunction. But the Adams family,
in this generation at least, is much more dis
posed to write for The North American ReUieC
than to sit on the curb-stOne of the Model
Republic and celebrate its natal day with the
sudden and unexpected torpedo or the loud and
aggressive cracker 1t is well enough for Mr..
John Quincy Adams to say that the fire.
cracker business is the proper and legitimate
celebration, but we doubt if any one ever saw
an Adams OF his line at any age doing it that
way.
To be sure, this is the Small Boys day; and
with The Small Boy, noise and happiness,
patriotic enthusiasm and Chinese crackers,
are synonymous and convertible terms. Gus
tom has given it to him. and we do not by
any means object. If he wishes one day in
the year-and that the NOTES.-The sit up all
night so as to usher in the day" with
noises, to accompany himself with fire and
flame conclusion and reverberation, and to
wind up all with WEAKNESS, blisters, and collie
why, it's the Fourth o. July and q free
country-we would not have him inter-
fered with. But one hundred years
of fire-crackers ought to be enough
of that sort of celebration. After
1870 would it not be well to change the
order of things and have the Small Boy in
structed as to what the day signifies and what
its proper celebration means, instead of letting
him loose upon society with his pockets full
of explosives, to go swapping and cracking
through the streets, terror and torment
For seventy or eighty years this was all very
well; Dut tne nre-cracker grows upon us.
Twenty or thirty years ago it was mitigated
somewhat by professions and orations. mu-
nicipal demonstrations, Cold Water Army cele-
bratons, lemonade, peanuts, and spruce beer;
but these have ceased, and we have nothing
now but pop, fizz, and bang from morning till
night and sober-minded people contemplate
ing with less enthusiasm, if not with less con-
fidence, the trials and perls of free government,
are beginning to cry, GIVE us rest" Mr..
John Adams was a good man, n patriot, and a
statesman. But really it does seem to us that
he made the mistake of his life-and not only
his but everybody else's lfe-when he set ON
foot the fre-cracker business.
For making these remarks we beg the Small
Boys pardon. He may be offended by them
in the dew aud freshness OF the dawn, but
their force and reasOnableness will grow upon
him as the day grows older and hotter, and
he gets moro and more sleepy and blistered.
and his fire-crackers more nearly run out, till,
when his blessed bedtime comes, he will
admit the whole truth of them, and remark
to his mother, in the language of the preacher,
"All is vanity"