Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1895-07-26

Ordinary size, wnlcn emphasized Jne
close of each pack explosion with de-
cided bang, When the explosion OF q
basketful 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 funnylook-
ing fellows played They laughed,
shouted and acted like escaped luna
tics. You could scarcely realize that
they were the same solemn-looking,
stolid fellows who aimlessly iron and
wash, and wash and iron, all day long,
with never smile on their reflective
faces.
While whole baskets of crackers were
exploding, the Cinnamon with big Ro-
man 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 gause shirts and wide
trousers were in and out of the flames
so quickly that none of them caught
fire, although they seemed to be run
ming great risks There was peculiar
fire dance in which about forty partici-
pated Each one of them swung out
string of crackers about five feet long,
and lighting one end they ran back and
forth swinging these exploding strings
over their heads, while the baskets of
explosives were kissing and banging
about their feet. Each string must
have carried about two hundred crack
ers, and the noise was almost deafening
half block away. How they escaped
losing their eyes or being deafened is
almost miraculous. Everything ap-
peared 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-looking things over two
feet long. They carried these fireworks
into the middle of the street, lighted
the fuses and held them until they be-
gan to savagely spit fire; and then
tossed them into the air 30 that they
went sinuously far above the house
tops, all the while sending forth sparks
of red, green and yellow hues until
they exploded like mortars in the sky.
Four or five of them exploding at once
resulted in veritable rain of fire which
could be seen from many parts Of the
city. The lsundrymen who were not
acting like salamanders sat upon their
porches, in doorways and In windows
chattering like monkeys and grinning
like idiots, gesticulating like French
men and blinking their almond eyes
with gleeful glitter. All of them had
big packs of crackers. and lighting the
fuses they occasionally threw them into
the crowds of small boys on the side
walks. Before the little fellows real
lied the attack, the crackers were
cracking, Sizing and prancing about
their feet, and they ran wildly away
leaving the packs in full possession of
the pavements while the Cinnamon
cheered Justify at their hasty retreat.
These peculiar packs smelled as no
powder ever smelled before, and the
smoke which filed the air was almost
suffocating. There appeared to be an
aroma OF burning opium, but, what
SNSA ~ was, ~ Was DcrrlOle ana AlmOSL
terrifying to American nostrils.
Towards midnight they brought out
whole sheafs of American-made sky
rockets to which they had attached
bamboo tails with packs of firecrackers
for aerial display. These were fred off
by dozens. In fact the entire celebra-
tion was carried on by wholesale.
They had evidently purchased the last
remnants of the stock of some dealer
who disposed of them at cost. The dis
play was as lavish as might have been
expected at Inauguration time and at
government expense. The skyrocket
part of the show lasted nearly half an
hour, but the frecrackers kept on pop
ping all the time and the wild dancing
of the Cinnamon was as continuous as
though an army of Japs was after
them.
Then came the colored lights. The
crrbstones were covered with little