The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-06-27
The Eirecracker God


delight of other small boys and the
terror of their mothers centuries be-
fore Columbus discovered American
Does he ever think Of the little Chin
csc lads, with funny little pigtai1s and
shiny brown eyes, who played with
them two or three hundred years be-
fore Christ was born? Yet so it it
was. Niter, the principal Ingredient Of
gunpowder, has always been found in
great quantities in China, and the an
cient records of that country prove
that gunpOwder was there manufac-
tured at a time when Europe was
a bowling wilderness, except in the
little corner where Rome sat on her
seven hills ere she had become the
mighty empress of the world. Fire
works We're the earliest form in which
gunpoWder was used, as, oddly
enough, it's entertaining qualities were
discovered before it's destructive pow
ers. The showers of sparks that fail
from rockets have sparkled in Chinese
skies from time immemorial. The fire.
cracker is said to be the earliest form
of explosive, and was not so much in
tended for boys to use in sport as for
an article of heather worship. -
In the mountains of western China
tASAt - SuppOScu 10 ne d SlduL ueVA
of brilliant red, at the sight of whom
men grow faint with fear. A man
who lived about 5000 years ago by
the name of Leedien found that the
banging of firecrackers would brighten
him away. hence Leedien rs the GOO
of frecrackers All the red frecrack-
ers are intended to be used to Brighten
away the red devil, while the green
and yellow ones are offerings to Lee
dien. From the simple little irecrack-
er was gradually evolved the tdestr1c-
g tive cannon which was used by the
Chinese in their war with the MOngOlS
in A. D. 1882. 1t was introduced into
Europe about 1910. Thus we owe to
the Chinese the Invention of the most
useful article Of warfare in the world
The most interesting sights of Can
ton are the tea factories and the fire
cracker factories, and the most inter-
.esting Of the two are the firecracker
factories. These establishments can
hardly be called factories, if we use
the word in the sense of making my
machinery, for all of the work lis ae-
,complished by hand, and they are,
therefore, called by the English resi-
dents of that country "threcracker 60
downs"
Ou approaching 'uUc WuIkuEHS OUc FS
not greeted with the usual roar OF fur
naces and the mfany and one noises
that go to make up the din of a fac
tory, but it is anything but a quiet
place. At distance it sounded like
the riot of furious mob compared
with the quiet about Canton, though
Canton seemed noisy enough.
For a mile around the factory the
thousands Of inhabitants are all EN-
ployed in making irecrackers. AS
soon as the children are old enough to
be anything but babies they begin to
work, and as soon as their mothers
have finished the Homework they turn
their hands to making frecrackers,
but there is no confusion, for no one
knows how to do but a very small part
of the immense amount Of work re-
quired in turning out millions of these
little explosives. One man, for in
stances, makes fuses, another cuts
them in length and another sorts them
in sizes; one man makes the paper, an
other rolls the cracker, while his