Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-12
AND NOW FOR A REFORM.

The celebration of the fourth day OF
July is conducted in defiance of law, so
| far as one feature is commemorative ex-
plosion of fire-crackers and bombs upon
the streets and in the alleys and lots. For
some inscrutable reason the authorities all
over the State on that day close their
eyes and ears to the infractions of the law.
Now, it is worth while to consider if
we are justified in such procedure. We
think that sensible people, after little
thought upon the subject, will arrive at
the conclusion that it is very unwise
thing to do, this winking at the violation
Of the law in the matter of exploding
crackers and bombs. We maintain a fire
department at heavy expense; fire
service water-pressure system at about
equal cost, and we pay heavily for insur-
ance. On the fourth day of July we put
an extra strain upon both departments,
pull out our policies and see to it that
they are alive and safe. Then we pro-
coed to attach the garden hose, fill barrels
and buckets, wet down the rome prem
ises, nail up gratings, and prepare for a
day of unrest and nervous anxiety.
All this is done, simply to enable boys
and some men TO explode fre-crackers and
bombs, and throw the burning debris
where they will The discomfort to the
nervous, the downright inhumanity to the
sick, the frightening of horses and the
blowing out of eyes and the disfguring of
countenances, may all be cast out of the
calculation, but are nevertheless impor-
tant elements in it. The question re-
mains, then, as the explosion of fire.
crackers and bombs, etc, with the risk of
conlagration attaching, necessary to the
proper celebration of the national holi-
day? Is it denying young or old America
any desirable privilege, any lesson in
patriotism, or any instruction in Amer
icanism to shut off the indiscriminate
license of shooting Chinese crackers and
other explosives, that leave behind them
burning material that endangers prop
erty and renders life torture to the very
many?"
We think with the San Francisco Bt,Ue-
an, that society viii have to come around
to better regulation in this matter. 1t is
not necessary that the national holiday
shall be celebrated with the racket and
uproar and appliances of barbarism. 1t Is
not essential to patriotic manifestation
that the well shall be blown up, the sick
imperiled, and property put in imminent
danger The use of cannon and even of
gun salutes at sunrise, noon and sunset
ought to be sufficient noise for those who
delight in it. All of US who in earlier
years have INDUCED in the cracker and
bomb racket, have come to realize that it
is not American in any sense, and that in
the explosion of these dangerous nipple
ments we but initiate the heather who in
vent and manufacture the things. We can
understand now that the "the Fourth" can
be and should be celebrated in manner
less noisy, and that will not imperil life |
and property, as the present system GER
lainly does.
In Sacramento the Fourth" practically |
began on the second, so far as the use of
explosive was concerned, and we were thus
.hree days and nights sleepless and in
peril. That we escaped serious condagra
lion and got off with four fires, was the
cause of congratulation, thankfulness and
'emark on all sides among householders on
saturday and yesterday.
If the people as whole are then so
nervous, and so dread the infiction as they
certainly do, why is it that they put up
With it2 The question is not difficult to
nswer; 1t is simply because they have
come TO look upon the evil as
irresistible. But it is not. There is no
eason whatever why the boys of to-day
hould be allowed, as they did in this city