The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-07-09
The Day We Used to Celebrate.

We sympathize with the small boy with
whom noise of greater or less degree is
an inspiration, and to whom Fourth of
July is nothing, without the usual ac-
compartment of firecracker, torpedo, gun
and cannon. We remember when we
would willingly sacrifice our accumula'
ted stock Of pennies, for bunch of those
Chinese explosives, and would have
mortgaged our income for months in ad-
vance, for powder enough to make our
section of the earth tremble with the
reverberation of cannon. Notwithstand-
ing the dangers, the startling and terrific in
appearance and sound, have charm and
an inspiration not only for the boy, but
long after he is supposed to have put away
childish things, and "fourth" without
the suggestions of military and warlike
splendor, and the scenes through which
we passed to reach national independence,
is to many Of us very tame affair. But
owing either TO growth in civilization and
culture, or the gradually increasing dis
tance in time of those patriotic scenes, the
older classes of society have lost interest
in this method of celebrating,
and it has been entirely sur
rendered to the young men and small
boys, and though we must confess to hav-
ing lost our admiration for this kind OF
jubilee, it is chiefly because of the
fact of its attendant dangers to life and
property, which has become almost synony-
nous with calamity and death. The
small boy with less experience and obser-
vation, cannot be expected to sympathize
with this view of the case, and naturally
regards with indignation any interference
with his privileges. We assure our
our young friends that it is only after
careful observation, and ascertaining that
each of our annual celebrations cost much
in life and more in treasure than the
most sanguinary battle fought to establish
our independence, that we have brought
ourselves to consent to the wisdom and
the almost imperative necessity of enforc-
ing the law against the indiscriminate
and wholesale use of explosives on that
day. A large number of valuable lives
have been destroyed this year and fires
kindled by the inevitable cracker have de-
stroyed in one instance $7500O, and in the
/ aggregate hundreds Of thousands of dol.
lars.
A day or two previous to the fourth y
q firecracker thrown under horse by an
inconsiderate boy, nearly resulted in run.
away, and suggested to the authorities the
propriety and the importance Of enforcing
the ordinance against the use of explo.
sives and firearms on the streets, or in any
way to endanger properly or life. Weaap.
preciate the hardship to our young
friends, but assure them that with advanc-
ing years they will approve the order
which deprived them OF their accustomed
sport.
We are under lasting obligation to
those whose wisdom gave US q fourth
oe July free from apprehension and dan
ger, while all over the State and the Unit.
ed States, cases Of loss of life were fire.
quent. We hope it is but the beginning
of a reform which shall embrace every
town in the country, and for the satisfact.
ion of our young friends, we hope that
we shall be able to devise some more ra.
tional and less dangerous method OF giving
vent to the latent patriotism which is
struggling for expression in the bosom Of
irepressible young America.