Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-05
THE FIREWORKS !.
An Immense Crowd Wit.
nesses the Display.
BOMBS, ROCKETS AND MINIS.
Terraces of ire--IngeniOus Set
Pieces-A Miniature Bonn
bardment.

The best feature of yesterdays celebra
tion was kept for the last. 1t was tht
display of fireworks on the hill back O
Flower street, between Third and Fourth
The space from which the entertainment
could be viewed was 80 enormous that il
is difficult to estimate how many people
were in attendance. 1t is safe to say
that about one.third the inhabitants o.
Los Angeles were there, and some ter
thousand more or thereabouts from the
country.
The selection Of location was GER
tainly very fortunate one. The side ol
the hill was terraced off in two grounds,
On the upper Wilson Bros, the local
manufacturers, arranged their dis.
play; on the lower was the dis
play of the Rochester house. The
public was thus enabled to compare the
W ork done by local industry with tina,
of well-known house, and it was gen.
orally admitted that the entertainment
furnished on the upper grade was in
every way superior to that given below
although the latter was very creditable
performance.
The crowd began to put in an appear.
ance before the sun get. By dusk there
were ten thousand people on the ground,
and steady stream was pouring in
from all diret tions. No carriages were
allowed on the lower street and the
small boys were forbidden to fire Of
crackers in the crowd. The drivers of
vehicles obeyed the orders of the ten
policemen who were present, but the
small boys behaved as they usually do
Oh the Fourth OF July, and continued to
celebrate. Pearl street, which was block
and half from the terraces on which the
display was arranged was tightly packed
with buggies, and from here, the ground
being elevated, was had one of the best
views of the performance.
AT little after s the first rocket was
let off, and from that time until after g.,
the show continued, to the music of one
of the city bands. There was no break
of any kind; no failures worthy of re-
cordiDg and no accidents. The whole
affair went off smoothly, and in way to
reflect great credit on all concerned.
The display from Rochester consisted
chiefly tot gigantic wheels, which
whirled around in bewildering fashion
and threw out myriads Of stars endless
quantities of rockets, mines and colored
lights and two or three set.pieces of mod
crate dimensions, shields, notices, etc.
The Wilson Brothers display consisted
principally of large set-pieces, for the
most part, of excellent design and sue
ceseful in action. One feature of the
Wilson show, which took quite as well
as the set-pieces, were the gigantic bombs.
These are large balls, ten inches in diam
eter; which are fred from a mortar
They go up several hundred
feet, and the tiny spark by
which the fuse is ignited is quite lost to
the eye. Then in the midst of dark
sky they suddenly burst and throw out
shower of stars and colored lights.
One of them is equal to 700 rockets. A
half.a.dozen of these were fred in the
course Of the evening, and they brought
out each time chorus of "Oh's" aud
"Ah's" from the admiring audience.
Several OF the Wilson's set pieces were
so good as to be worthy of special notice.
The "Onward Los Angeles" was
an elegant design OF happily
blended colors. The cold Mill"
and the "Setting Sun" were very sue
cessfully represented. The fight be-
tween the Charleston and the fort brought
forth long and continued cheering from
the crowd. The two parts of this piece
were about fifty feet apart. Each was
filed with Roman candles which dis
charged with loud reports, throwing hun
dreds OF colored fireballs acress the inter
vening space. 1t very much resembled
the scene it was supposed to depict.
But the finest piece of the whole show
was the cable car in motion. A ''life-
size" grip and passenger car, blazing
with fancy colors, ran slowly along a
track for some distance. 1t looked like
an ordinary train in motion, elegantly
illuminated. As it went its way it was
greeted with loud and enthusiastic cheer
ing, which went to show that for mere
eoulless corporation the cable company
enjoy good deal of popularity among
the citizens of Los Angeles.
At the end of the performance the
crowd dispersed but only small num-
Der were able to ride, although the var
ious car companies connecting
with that locality had placed their
cars in readiness. There was heard
among those who had witnessed the per-
formance only expressions of commenda-
| ton at it's success and the Fourth OF July
| of 1889 will be remembered as one which
went out in Los Angeles in blaze OF
glory.
BATTLE OF THE sQUIBs.
A great deal of entertainment was af-
| forded to a vast crowd which had assem-
bled in front of Temple Block, at the
| junction of Main and Spring streets, last
night, by an impromptu battle between
two sides stationed in front of Downey
Block, and about at the center of the
square. They were we'll supplied witt
ammunition, and the loud denotatiDe
squibs were exchanged fast and
| furious between the contesting fac
tions. Practice made them aim very
exact, and the crackers exploded with
great force at times in the very thick o
either party, causing a momentsry STAN
pede. They rallied and broke, and car
ried on a mimic warfare to the great de
light of the spectators to late hour. /
was great fun for the men and the boys
but the horses evinced their displeasur,
as they passed by, rearing and pitchinl
and expressing themselves in powerful
resistance.
| THE RACES.
| Owing doubtless to the number of at
fractions offered nearer at home, ther'
was very poor attendance at the Agri
cultural Park yesterday afternoon, or
the occasion of pacing race and somt
bicycle contests. The following is thu