Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-08-08
Smiths Pyrotechnics.

the steamer had flung into the heav
ems some sky rockets to announce our
arrival to the lonely man at the light
house. We thought that this would
remind Smith of something. Every
thing that happened generally did
When we were settled again in the
smoking ro ON Smith said:
"That reminds me Of"
Cries of Hear, hear" thought it
would" etc.
Smith did not heed the interruption
He was on his way to England to buy
goods. He had told more stories than
any one else on board, and was gen.
orally looked up to as our most ac-
complished liar.
at reminds me of little fireworks
display l had myself on the plains
ever SO many years ago. You see al
that time | was keeping general
store out in one of the frontier settle
ments. Trade was principally with
the cowboys, and right good custom
ers they were, too. Easy to get along
with, when they weren't drunk. and
then all you had to do was to give
'em the earth. That was all they
wanted, that and their own way.
Next week they would come back so.
ber and pay for the damage without
grumble. They never cared what
they paid for thing SO long as it
suited them, and in that they differed
from the eastern customers | have
now"
Eyes, but how about the fireworks?'
"Oh, I'm coming to that. About
the 1st of Maya lovely day it was
too-snow and rain, and then sleet
and snow again-a typical May day
for that district, cowboy from Eng
land rode up and"
"From England r.
"Why, yes. In every sense of the
word. There was a ranch couple
of days travel from my place that we
called England 1t was owned by
an English company, and most of the
boys were from England. guess the
majority of them didn't care TO go
back, either, for one reason and an
other. Some Of them were Oxford
and Cambridge men-at least so ] was
told. I'm not college man myself,
although you may have thought So"
Murmers of astonishment, during
which Smith filled up his pipe again
and took IAN observation" as he call
ed it, from the glass on the table.
"Well, he swung off his horse and
said to me Smith, says he, do you
know anything about fireworks ?
Not much, says l, except what
you fellows give us on Saturday nights,
and the sort Maloney keeps at ten
cents glass
"Well, he says, we want bang
up display at the ranch on the night
of the 24th.'
''Twenty-fourth of what?' says |
you mean the Fourth of July don t
you?
"'You bet we don't, although if
this is success we will have one then
too. The Oath of May is the Queens S
birthday, and we are going to cele-
brate it this year out at the ranch.
Now we don't care what it costs, we
want it done right. Can you order a
lot Of fireworks p
81 can order anything, if you fell
lows say you'll pay for it,
"All right. Here's $500 on ac-
count, now you go ahead. Sky rock
cts, pin wheels, red fire, Roman can
dies, bombs and all the rest of 1T. Be-
sides we want couple Of barrels full
of squibs.'
"'Squibs, says |, what's them.
"Well, fire crackers, l think they
call 'em here. DO you know how to
set them OFF,
"Not a thing. Set 'em off with
match, don't you p?
al fancy so. but we want this thing
done right, and don't you forget it.
Where will you get them from ?
Chicago
"'All right; tell them to send along
tenderfoot who's posted on that sort
of thing. We want first class dis
play. Well pay all his expenses and
use him white. He'll have the biggest
time he ever had. You come out
with him aud show him the way, and
we'll use you white too.
"Well, about the 10th along came
the Chicago man with the ammunition
in boxes and barrels. We loaded 'em
up on hurros aud off we started for
the ranch. The boys had been in off
and on, TO see that there would be no
hitch in the thing, and the night the
things came two of the cowboys came
in and said they would see us through
to the camp, for there were rumors of
Indians about, and we didn't want to
lose our scalps. We kept sharp
lookout all that day, but saw nothing
of the redskins. In fact, we did NOT