The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-07-18
Breezes Blown from Boston.

JULIA 1000
To the Editor Of the Virgi1adan:
The sun has gone down ON another
Fourth of July, and as each year brings
that day, feel, when night comes, like
telling some one how these Bostonese
make Notification on Independence Day.
They take all other holidays with be-
coming exhibition of decorum; the worst
little rag-a-muffin of north end'' would
never venture to pipe a tin-horn on the
street on Christmas day, though some
unexpected Santa Claus may have made
him feel richer than king by bringing
him one. Everybody who means to be
anybody swaps presents with other
bodies on that day, and good feeling doth
much abound, but the fun is very quiet
very proper, very Bostonian.
AS if to make good amends for over
doing the decorous business on the other
gala days, everybody goes in for roar
ing good time" on the Fourth. The city
is fully alive to the demands of the oc-
casion and contributes generously to the
amusements. Itrequired three columns,
fine type, of our city papers, to give a
complete list of the events in the city
celebration, the sum of $12, 800 having
been appropriated by the city fathers to
be expended by the. proper officials for
the entertainments for the day. The
bells of the city rang d merry peal at sun
rise, noon and sunset, and by seven in
the morning the fun began. In fact it
began last night, for there We're crackers
popping, bombs bursting and lights flash
ing all the night through.
Games began at seven o'clock in the
morning, and every hour has had from
one to half a dozen different attractions.
The intellectual were fed at Boston
Theater by Gen. Swift, an orator not
without honor, even in his own land.
Hurting matches, bicycle races, athletic
and Lacrosse games were to be seen in
the various parks. On the Charles river
a rowing regatta came off, and on the
Bay the sailing vessels contested for the
prizes offered. A balloon ascension was
provided those with sufficient patience
to wait it's imitation, and the people from
the country are always equal to that eff
fort.
That the children may have amuse-
ment in safe places, twenty seven halls,
in various parts of the city, are hired,
and a good entertainment provided in
each-so good, in fact, that we older
children count ourselves fortunate if
card OF admission strays Our way; for
like the Lowell Institute lectures of
which once told you, money will not
buy the bit of paste board necessary to
secure entrance
Sacred at all other times, on this one
day OF the year, everybody asserts his in
dependence and pays no attention to the
many warnings to keep Off the Grass
which dot our lowly Boston Common.
Every inch of its forty-eight acres, not
occupied by tree, statue or fountain, has
y human foot covering it, and tomorrow
morning hundred men will be set at
work, gathering the fragments the
crowd will leave behind them.
Booths border all the walks, in which
sons and daughters of all nations offer
for sale medley of drinks, adornments,
gew gaws, eatables-some things | am
sure it could be no sin to worship. for
they are an image of nothing on earth or
in heaven, or beneath the wasers OF the
earth, nowhere do | remember seeing
such a mixture of both peoples and
things. It is a Worlds Fair in minature;
baby exposition living its little life of
one day, then disappearing as quickly
and mysteriously as it seems to have