Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-07-03
A REVIEW OF THE DAY.
How the Fourth of July Is Celebrated
the Country Over.

the Country Over.
All the bells in town ring on the
morning of the glorious Fourth.
What particular patriotism there is
in getting out of bed at twelve o'clock
of a hot night, and standing, sweating
and putting. in the sitting entry of a
Stuffy church, stale with the flavor OF
last Sundays sermon and the pepper
mint lozenges with which the long
suffering congregation assisted their
brains to digest it, and pulling away on
tarry smelling rope to ring BELL we
do not see; but there must be good
deal of it, or the custom would not have
been so long kept up.
All the small boys yell at the top OF
their small but determined and per-
severlng lungs.
All the dogs bark. Every body wakes
up, and is thankful that our forefathers
only made one job of declaring indie
pendence, else we. might have had two
Fourths of July in year.
We mentioned before that it is hot -
a cool Fourth of July would not be re-
ceived with any degree of favor, and in
all probability there will be rafting
old thunder-Shower before night. The
shower is invented to spoil the fire.
works. Fireworks are never appreci-
ated unless there is danger of their
being spoiled by shower. The fact Of
it is, we never appreciate any thing
that we feel too sure of.
Fire-crackers fizz in every backyard,
and insurance companies tremble.
The antiques and horribles come out
early in the morning, clad in hoop
skirts and false noses, and if you want
to look on their f'horribleness' you
must be early abroad.
Cannon are fired. and some body loses
fingers and eyes in consequence of
prema ture explosions; but it is all in a
patriotic way, and is borne with Christ
fan fortitude.
Fourth of July cam on have a sort of
hereditary tendency to go off before the
world is ready for them. The first
Fourth of July ca nnon went off good
while before England was ready for it,
and the throne of Great Britain trem-
bled at the explosion.
The Sabbath schools have picnics,
and the railroads run excursion trains
at reduced rates.
Ice-cream disappears as if by magic.
Lemonade is in demand. The spread
eagle style of oratory is in form. ''Our
respected and eloquent fellowtowns-
man" electrifes the audience in the
country village grove
The young farmers take their horses
from the moving machine, and give
them an extra feed of oats, and pick
the straw from their names and tails,
and wash up the antiquated family
buggy, and take their favorite girls
into town to see the sights And every
time the rural old horse jumps at the
sound of the cannon Or the footing Of
the brass band, the young man tells his
timid companion that ''she needn't be
afraid; he is there to take care of her. :"
The day we celebrate! What a host
of memorie crowd upon US as we think
of it! More than a century ago, from
the hills and valleys of New England
down to the verdant marshes of the
sunny South, rang the cry of independ-
ence, the cry of a Nation young and
weak in numbers, but old, and strong,
and valiant in the love of freedom, and
ready to fight for home and a country
over which no foreign despot should
hold control.
The dream of those brave men has
been realized. To-day they sleep be-
meath the sods of a free country, their
battles fought, their life-struggle ended,
and we, their children-ay, their grand
celebrate with loving
and loyal hearts the day on which the
shackles were loosed, and these United
States rose into the full majesty and
grandeur of free Nation. Kate Thorn,
in ~ V Week w.