Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-07-20

"A MEXICAN MAN ON THE FOURTH.
several hundred laundrymen work and
live there. 1t is only about a quarter
.1nf a mile from the capitol building,
and is near Pennsylvania avenue. So,
7xThen all the Cinnamon turned out at
might to set off fireworks, everybody
could see and enjoy their celebration.
They very seldom spend any money,
and it was remarkable to see them
wasting so much money in flame and
aJnloke. Not less than two hundred dol
lars were spent in Chinatown for fire.
crackers and Roman candles, and the
square at Four-and-a-half street just
south of the avenue was filled from
early dusk till midnight with an eager
crowd, who waited and cheered each
--e.ccsh outburst of sulphurous enthusiasm
from the laundrymen. 1t was manifest
saat while John Chinaman is very
economical fellow he is a lavish Mel
5can man in @ celebration.
Usually the doors and windows of the
houses in the Chinese quarter are closed
80 the world, or else darkness reigns
within, so that no one can see beyond
their portals, but all of their homes
were wide open on the night of the
Fourth of July, and the Opium-smoking
Eea-drinl1ers were madly merry as they
played with fire. The habit of setting
Off firecraczers one at time is appar
emily an American idea; for the so
called Cclestials ecorned such little ex-
plosions. They did not seem to think
that even whole pack at a time was
noisy enough, for they brought out
whole baslzetfuls Of firecrackers and
set them off in the street all at once.
Rattle, craclzle, roar, zip, ping, bang,
: they exploded like volleys of musl1etry
. On battlefield. The laundrymen were
wilder than children and acted like a
mob of dancing, grinning fre-fends
..Capering about with both hands full of
exploding crackers. Their red crack
ers were very small, not more than
half the size of our crackers, but they
were twice as loud and to the end of
each pack was attached a particularly
viciously sounding cracker of twice the
ordinary size, which emphasized the
CLOSE of each pack explosion with a de-
.Qeided bang. When the explosion of a
basl1etful of crackers was finished, the
ground for yards around would be COW
cred with the red paper wrappers al
most an inch deep. In the very midst
OF the fire and smoke these funny-lool-
ing fellows played. They laughed,
shouted and acted like escaped luna
ties You could scarcely realize that
xhcy were the same solemn-loolzing,
zstolid fellows who aimlessly iron and
wash. and wash and iron all day long,
with never a smile on their reflective
faces.
While whole baskets of crackers were
exploding, the Cinnamon with big Ro-
amnp candles in their hands would jump
into and over the fire, shooting off their
yellow fire balls in the air at the same
time. Their gauze shirts and wide
trousers were in and out of the flames
so quickly that none of them caught
fire, although they seemed to be rum
ming great risks. There was peculiar
Sire dance in which about forty partici-
gated. Each one of them swung out a
string of crackers about five feet long,
and lighting one end they ran back and
forth swinging these exploding strings
oyer their heads, while the baskets of
explosives were kissing and banging
about their feet. Each string must
have carried about two hundred crack
ass-s. and the noise was almost deafening
half block away. How they escaped
losing their eyes or being deafened is
almost miraculous, Everything APP
reared to be done according to some
system. Squads of them were dancers
and wielders of the enormous strings
OF explosives, while others appeared to
be expert with Roman candles.
Then there were three or four little
Cinnamon who handled the Chinese
rockets, funny-lool1ing things over two
feet long. They carried these fireworks
-an20 the middle of the street, lighted
the fuses and held them until they be-
.ayaR to savagely spit fire; and then
tossed them into the air so that they
uent sinuously far above the house
tops, Ill the while sending forth sparks
OF RED. green and yellow hues until
they exploded like Tnortars in the sky.
ESnr or five of them exploding at once
x-csalted in a veritable rain of fire which
cnuid be seen from many parts of the
sity. The laundrymen who were not