Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14
CURIOS OF THE TOWN.
An Inside View of Pyrotechnics-A Small
Fortune for the Fourth-Adventures of a
Baby Carriage-The Gossip of Day Re-
lated by the Topical TaIker.

An Inside View OF fyrObecnnlcS-A small
Fortune for the Fourth-Adventures of a
Baby Carriage-The Gossip of a Day Re-
lated by the Topical TaIker.
erBE kind enough to leave your cigar out
side the door," said the boss of the fire.
works department in q city store to me yes
terday, ''for we really can't afford to have
all these things go up in smoke before
July L."
I "And how much does Pittsburg send up as
incense to the patriotic gods on Independ-
ence Day." asked.
"a good many tons of freworks-and as
much proportionately as the most enthusi-
astic celebrant of the glorious Fourth in the
land" said he. 81 have made a rough cal.
culation many time of what the Pittsburg
patriots spend for fireworks on this holiday,
and last year-let me see! l should say that
10000 boxes of ordinary firecrackers were set
of, which would mean, with 40 packs to each
box, about 200 packs; at the same time
1000 cases of cannon or giant crackers, with
10 to 40 packs in a case, were consumed.
These, with the finer fireworks, rockets,
Roman candles, set pieces and so on, would
certainly involve an expense Of from $S5, 600
to $40 600. Pittsburg and all its suburbs, in
cluding Allegheny and the neighboring
towns, in trade part of Pittsburg, may be
set down as likely to spend $4,000 on
fireworks for the Fourth this year.
There are number of citizens here who
think nothing of spending $3.50 to $500 on
the Fourth's fireworks. You see there's
pretty wide range in prices. You can buy
firecrackers, for instance, at 81 so box OF
cents pack. or you can pay 20 cents for
single cracker; you can squander 90 cents on
q single Roman candle or get on cheaply
with modest article for a cent; and so it Is
with sky rockets, they begin at a cent and
go up to 81. The other day man walked
out of this store with a small package of sky
rockets-only two and a half dozen-which
cost him no less than $40"
Facts About Fireworks.
"The change in the mode of taxing i'm
ported fireworks has made them somewhat
dearer," the expert on fireworks said. "The
duty used to be levied on the case, and q
good-sized rebate was allowed on damaged
goods, but now the duty is by the pound
without any rebate. Importers under the
old plan, with more or less connivance on
the part of the customs inspectors, used to
collect rebates on large part of their in
voices on the ground of the goods being
damaged. A fireworks broker was telling
me the other day how few weeks ago he
was called in by the Government to reap
praise large consignment on which re-
bate had been originally granted. Of the al
legged damaged goods he found 70 per cent
were absolutely unimpaired in value. With
out any chance to get their goods through
cheaply, ut the expense of Uncle Sam,
the importers, since the Mckinley bill
passed, have raised the prices on the
finer kind of fireworks. Since June
combination of wholesale dealers in fire.
works in this country has been formed, and
as a result prices have advanced from 20 to
40 per cent. For instance, one article on the
list which used to sell at So 30 now stands at
So. All the same, as far as the general run of
fireworks in the popular grades s con-
cerned, PittsburgerS will not have to pay
any more for them than usual
"Most of the f1recrackers are still imported
from China and Japan, although in the last
three years America has come to the front
in the manufacture of giant and cannon
crackers. The crackers of American make
produce great deal more noise for their
size and money than the Chinese. 1t is a
good point for the small boy and his parents
and guardians to remember when they are
selecting crackers for the Fourth that the
somewhat attentuatedA American flrecrackef,
with its core of wood and compact case, will
give five times as much noise as the i'm
ported cracker twice the size, but loosely
wrapped and pulpy at heart.
"There are not many novelties in fireworks
this year; there are more varieties of fancy
rockets and Roman candles than usual; and
the balloon makers seem to have bumped
to produce oddities. The set
pieces are mostly made to order in the fac
tories, of which the majority are located on
Long Island-a desert is desirable, you
know, when explosives are being handled"