New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-04
KEEPING THE FOURTU."


Asa rule we have, on the Fourth of July
regarded noise rs necessity OF happiness
hence the dangerous bell the thund rous can
non, the alien and impertinent cracker. we
are sorry to say it, but the general style OF our
Independence has been COARSE and a great
deal too much in the Guy Fawkes way. Former
", it was the fashion to become excessively
inebriated and to try mems bodies III hohof OF
the day which tried mems souls. Indeed, there
is too much tipping still, especially IN the
cities but outside of these less british pleasures
have been adopted. The Fourth has become a
wonderful day for picnic parties made up OF
old and young, of parents and children Oh
Sunday-schools and engine-companies, OF gai-
liant lovers and thoir lassies, and OF friendly
associations, meeting in the groves which were
Goods first temples" and behaving usually
with cheerful decorum, which does not
shame the decency of surrounding nature
These occasions test the general good
breeding of holiday makers, nor often, nor
to any great extent, is 1t found wanting. sun,
the liberty of the Fourth of July, as OF other
festivals develops character sometimes agree
ably and sometimes most extensively. There
are men. too many Of them. and women,
tbough not many Of them, who have no notion
of what they call ga good time" apart from
license and excess. They carry the vulgarlty
of their natures into their sports, and are IN
capable Of making any distinctions between
license and liberty Sometimes. they develop
an extraordinary faculty of rendering them
selves disagreeable, and will manage to spoil
the sport of a respectable company into when
they have purchased their way. 1t would De
10.
well if the misfortunes which often overtake
them could lead them to modify their
peculiar view of what constitutes merIl-
ment but lfc's experience seldom teaches them
to behave themselves, and those who get into
scrapes to-day will probably get into scrapes
one year from to-day, with intervening scrapeS
too numerous to be conjectured other than III
gross.
II is pleasant to turn to the cOmely and IA
tional happiness of which the national holiday
affords an opportunity. More and more 1t has
grown to be day Of hospitality, and OF the re-
union of friends and households. The citizens,
with their families, fly from the intoerable
noise of the city, and are welcomed to the
suburban villages, the fields, the farms, the
gardens and the hills. They went off by boat
and by rail in hocks last night, each party
with its luggage light enough to show that the
trim will not be a long one, so that most of
them will be back again, refreshed, we hope,
and physically and mcatally regenerated by
Saturday evening. 1t is one thing to get away
from the fuss aud turmoil of the town for Il
whole Summer, and another to escape just for
| n moments but tile steady workers through
the dog-days, are none the less grateful for
breath of the pure country air, and nights
good sleep undistllrbed by the rattle of cars
and of carts. To these, the Fourth OF July Is
n blessing of peculiar richness coming just
when it is most wanted, lasting long enough,
and vet not long enough to interfere with the
necessary av0cations, and sending back the
fugitives not a little rested, and quite ready
to begin work again.
This method of keeping Fourth of July is
much better than the old, and has to great
extent become the popular one. Noise still has
its votaries but they are not so numerous as
they once WERE The Fourth of July process
sions used to be full of marching martyrs, not
going to the stake, but as hot as If they had
already been there. The Fourth of July ora
tons, full of swollen sentences and prlsmatlc
rhetoric. were as hard to be listened to as they
must have been to write. The universal burn
ing of gunpowder the incessant discharge of
cannon and musket, and rocket and sqmb, Is
at best but a childish and Chinese method of
iubilaton Let us hope that the whole popu-
lation of the Republic may enjoy itself to-day
in a more rational way-in fashion which
"aft er no repentance draws"