The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-08-02
The CelebratiOn's Cost.

Whom the American public has been
exposed on the fourth Of July to fire.
crackers cast by the rampant boy, SAYS
the New York Herald, it naturally avails
itself of the first glimpse of sanity. the
first lul In the storm of pyrotechnics,
to consult its mortality lists and under
writer's records, and to endeaver to as
certain, if possible, how many of it re-
main and how much of its property has
been destroyed. Before we drift further
upon the waves of these statistics we
may say that we have been far more
fortunate this year than we expected to
be than our neighbors have been. The
suburban towns have relatively suffered
much greater loss of life and property,
and we doubt not that the same state
ment holds true Of neighboring cities.
Thus at Philadelphia one fire caused by
pyrotechnics involved loss of $780,
600, and single explosion killed four
men. This comparative exemption has
been due to the watchfulness of the city
and fire police, the earnest endeavors Of
private citizens to prevent or check
patriotic incendiarism, and the re-
markable absence Of intoxication and
consequent paucity of affrays. Never
theless, the killed and wounded is sufi-
GENTLY formidable. In New York, dur
ing the two days covered by the cele-
bration, four people were killed or fatal
ly injured as direct result thereof,
twenty nine slightly injured. OF those
badly hurt, thirteen blew off or shattered
their hands or fingers nine were seri-
ously burned; two lost eyes, one Of
whom will probably be completely blind !;
three were crushed or bruised !; two
broke limbs three were shot in the
body, four in the head or neck, and five
in tho arm or leg. OF the twenty-nine
whose injuries were of a character less
grave, one had an eye injured, another
was bruised and a third burned. The
remaining twenty six were wounded by
explosions of firearms or their careless
use. Ten patriots were shot in the leg,
seven in the arm or hand, six in the
head or neck and three in the body. It
is possible that some of tn severely
wounded will die; it is certain that many
accidents were not reported it is equal
ly certain that the suffering and injury
caused to invalids and nervous people
will, though they cannot be estimated,
swell considerably the tale of death and
pain.
These figures can be more forcibly
presented. Let us take the population
ut 1,175, ZOO, according to the appor-
tionment census, and suppose that the
celebration were thing Of every day,
affecting tho mortality rate like dysen-
tsry, or typhoid, or measles. Then in
the course of year one person of every
1,609 would lay his life on the
altar of his country; one person of
every 154 would be severely wounded
or injured, and one of every 222 less
seriously hurt. Or, to look at it in an
other light, if we assume that the rate
of patriotism throughout the Union is
but half of what it is in New York, our
Centennial has been celebrated at the
expense of eighty persons killed and
], 400 wounded, 800 of whom have re-
ceived severe injuries.
In the matter of fires our local show
ing has been most favorable, for though
there have been during the two days
eighty fires caused by the careless use
of explosive and inflammable materials,
the aggregate loss, as nearly as can be
estimated, is trif1e under $2l, 500.