The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-24
THE GRANITE MOUNTAINS EXPLOSION

1t looks as IL the directors and man.
ayers of the Granite Mountain Mining
company are lacking that high sense
Of patriotism which should dominate
the breasts of all good Americans. The
next time they wish to get rid of three
and one-half tons of giant powder
which happens to be unsuitable for
their mining purposes, they should
bear in mind the peculiar claims of the
Fourth of July. The proximity of the
celebration of the national birthday in
this instance makes the waste of SO
much valuable material valuable for
Fourth of July purposes ut least, sin
gularly aggravating and, N might
say, reasonable. OF itself il would
have constituted q celebration to which
Philipsburg, Granite and Rumsey con-
jointly could have pointed with par
donable pride and truly patriotic ad-
miration. As IL was, the explosion
was devoid of any significance.
IL is true that the powder was not
wholly wasted on the desert air. At
Granite, three miles distant, goods on
the store shelves were turned over"
really a unique and startling phenom-
enon. At Rumsey, only three-quarters
of a mile from the scene of excitement,
almost every window i'm the place was
broken" an incident alone sufficient to
intlame every small boy in America
with a poignant sense Of disaproint-
ment at not having been present to wit
ness the crash and IL possible to assist
in the demolition of the few remaining
windows, SO as to make the catastrophe
universal, thorough and complete. At
Rumsey, moreover, SO M reads
with enkindling enthusiasm, "in one
of the boarding houses two men were
eating q late breakfast and the dishes
were thrown Off the table and a young
lady who waits on the table was vio-
lently thrown down. but not seriously
injured" What would not every lover
Of his country give to have been
there and to have seen with his own
eyes the saucers and vegetable dishes
rising from the table and flying fiercely
and p~romiscuously about the room,
dashing the uplifted coffee cups
from the expectant lips of the two late
boarders, and decorating the walls and
ceilings with new and original designs
in gravy, tomato ketchup and soft
boiled eggs, while in the midst of the
din and crash, the uproar and terrible
confusion, at the very climax and cul-
mination of IL all, while the vinegar
bottles shrek through the air, and the
hash trembles, and the sausages groan,
and the universe In agony of spirit
seems on the verge of going to eternal
smash simultaneously with the plates
and platters. and the heavens prepare
to roll away as a scroll and all things To
relapse into infinite nothingness, then
behold 'the young lady who waits on
the table" is suddenly forced into a
catch-as-catch-can wrestling match
with a whirlwind that could knock the
tar out Of Jobs, and is thrown heels
overhead violently down under the
table, where fortunately IL is found
that her injuries are not of so serious a
nature as to disable her from getting
Immediately up and upbraiding the
two boarders for being so shamefully
late 10 breakfast as to provoke provi-
dence and thereby precipitate the
whole business. Surely the Granite
Mountain Mining company deserves
the sharpest public censure for not re-
serving for the Fourth Of July along
with the pyrotechnics, the rope-walks,
the gyasticutises and the other feat
ures of Independence Day 50 admirably
calculated TO inspire universal patriot
ism and revive the latent loyalty of
every citizen-a spectacle so original in
its conception, 10 enhancing TO the
fancy, so brilliantly violent and SPLEEN
didly spirited in the attainment of its
aims.
Again n reads that "a large rock,
about the size of u mans head. was