The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1874-07-06
The GiOfioas Fourth.

editors OF the hegIser'
The glorious Fourth OF July has
come and gone. The ninety-elghth
natal day OF the American Eagle, the
Goddess of Liberty, Yankee Doodle,
and all that sort OF thing has passed
away. In the city, we suppose, nearly
every one celebrated. Excursions
select moonlight Fourth of July ex-
cursions-went down or up the great
rivers or around the many grand har~
bore. Pic,nics were scattered through
the groves of the suburban districts.
Seamstresses and shop girls rushed off
to coy hooks, or took buggy rides with
their admirers, and old bruisers
slipped cocktails in the shade
or under the broad spreading
cover OF beachen trees quaffed mint
iuleps. The boys fred off their crack
ers and squibs, frightened horses, blew
out their little brothers eyes and
Knocked off their little sisters heads.
The usual number OF cannon have been
fired, the usual amount OF noises were
heard, aud OF course the usual chapter
of mishaps and casualties ensued. In
the country the Fourth has been also
celebrated. There they have had gen.
uine old-fashioned celebrations, obey
ing the song,
squeak the fife and beat the drum,
independence Day has come"
Every body turned out for miles around,
farmers brought 10 town their soma and
daughters. All who could procure a
ribbon marched 10 the procession, save
the marshals, who, mounted on fiery
Beucephaluses, like Tom Corwln's mil
| tia general, were the big guns OF the
day. Some retired minister, whose
sands OF life are on the run out, read
the tissue of Offering generaiities" to
the crammed audience in the church
OF country ssses IN bright ribbons, and
boys and men who trained. Several
elderly ladies faint with the heat, and
some of the nice young men o. the
town are Sun s'ruck. But the GRAFTON;
the speech. A broken down political
horse from some neig boring town, who
orales by the hour, is chartered for the
occasion. How he pitches in HIS
Rawlings can be heard for miles; his
rantings awaken Numbering echoes on
the mountain crsgs beyond. Not a
height OF rhetoric does he leave unsul-
lied bv the tail feathers o. the Aneri-
can Eagle. How admirably he man
ages the bird Carefully at first, and
warily too, he brings HIM forth, not as
Signor Blitz brings forth the brood Of
singing blackbird from the empty hat
by saying "Preeto," and in a twinkling
they fly OUT but slowly and cautiously
he leads him forth lest he catch the Bit
and throw the rider, or shoot up like
a rocket to descend like stick. Away
goes the bird. He scales the topmost
summit OF the clouds, tears the clothes
of the Goddess OF Liberty, and sa.s her
up on the constitution as a pedestal.
He tells OF republics played out, and
the great America people that are and
are to be. He travels with the bird III
Imagination to Rome, that from her
seven hills o. beauty, ruled the world"
to Greece, the birth place OF poetry and
the arts; to Venice, with her is!es OF
the sea; up amid the rocky crags OF
Switzerland; then bringing him around
by Boston, the Hub" gives him a
rock in Fauuiel Hall, "the cradle Of
Liberty" tarries at Independence Hall,
where he rings forth his glory from the
Old cracked bell of the Quaker City,
that pealed forth its notes in Hancock
and Franklin's day-liugering for
awhile on the monument oil old Hiek-
ory at New Orleans, he screeches forth
notes Of alarm at tine third term Of
Ulysses the First, caps the climax by a
moral lesson, and from all this splurge
fails not 10 impress upon his hearers
his fitness for certain official distinc
tions in control OF mis- distinguished
| hearers ballots.
Then comes the dinner when more
specializing occurs, and the day is over
in the country.
Ia truth thee pompous celebrations
are a humbug and bore, and the
American PEOPLE are fast becoming con-
scious OF the fact. Less "oratory" now
occurs than formerly, and ere long We
hope crackers, cannon and rockets will
be bauished, and people will settle
down TO rational, common sense en-
ployment of the day. b.