Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-07-11
FELSENTHALS' GUN.
TALE OF a CHICAGO FAMILY OF AN
GENT LINEAGE.


GENT LINEAGE.
How They Celebrated the GIorious rourth
Firing Begun at san up-For r,rh+.a.
Hours Fat Beliied Cannon Rsarsa n.
fance to Ravishers of Liberty.
The Felsenthals lived in Desnlaines
street. patriarchal family of a lineage
SO ancient that they might have claiued
relationship with the erepusenlar fcr,,,s
OF life, own kinsmen to the amnbae
and their fellow aristocrats. They KEN
a rag shop, and it was their purpose E
conciliate at times, to placate more often
occasionally to bewilder the products ~
another race--a very old and bonorahle
race, TO be sure-whieh crossed the orbit
of civilization to the lasting terror Il
the stars some 2, 900 years after Moses
There was Solomon Felsenthal ma
triarchal as to beard and mien. slow Int
sure OF speech, to whom all the tepe.
ment looked up as if his queer old hand
had guided the way to the tablets II
stone. There was his young brother Da.
yid There were Solomon's David AMI
David g solomon and Solomon,s David, I
Solomon and David's Solomon,s Dav;5
and Roses Rachel and Rachers RoSv
and Lewis and Jacobs and Isaacs until
the Irish neighbors, skilled enough in
discriminating Mixes Paddy from Pad
dy's Mike and Big Mike from Little
Mike, were in distress to properly differ
entiate, but classed the ragman's family
as "thim Filsinthals, and made de-
scriptive particulars as ''the Filsinthal
that lost his ear" or s'the Filsinthal
that belongs TO the Sicond regiment .
1t was David's Solomon's David who
owned the Fourth of July cannon. as
much as any one of that pastoral family
could own anything as an individual.
The cannon was curious contraption.
long as 1t was broad, with huge belly
resting on wooden carriage, gaping
mouth and general appearance Of sui.
len ferocity, in which it was challenged
by nothing else under the heavens ex-
cept the pictured ella monster. 1t
would hold as much powder as man
could carry in his hat It was touched
off with slow fuse. In its commissions
it leaped upward and bounded as much
as ten feet 1t had come to tho Felsen-
thals in the course Of business, and the
use Of it for patriotic purposes had been
suggested by the cannon of the Quinn
boys across the street, Thereafter the
Quinn cannon spit and barled in vain.
1t is the Fourth of July-the morn
ing. There have been various trivial
outbursts of explosive patriotism in the
barrooms along Madison street. Sundrv
bibulous persons have set of crackers in
the street cars and met with reproaches
from their fellow passengers and the
top of the handle brake from the con
ductor. But at last silence comes. The
city lies asleep and the blanketing hush
of the hour before dawn has settled M
on its chimneys. Suddenly
Crashl Bangl
Little boys and young men awaken
and rub their eyes. Feyerish older peo-
pie toss over in their beds and CRY.
D those Felsenthals. . A thrill Of
life runs through the west side A
cracker starts, another, bunch in a
Darrell The saloon keeper on the corner,
with his suspendcrs hanging from his
hips, blunders to the door, and, sighting
with an eye like q slit in poached egg,
fires both barrels Of his shotgun into his
neighbor s windows. The Husher boys
have exploded the anvil in their fathers
smithy. The fire wagons are scurrying
to Strunk barn. Herman Fink, tapster
under Toms lodging house-he and his
hired help are wrestling out the trees in
tubs that signalize a holiday to West
Madison street. Brief. another indie
pendence day has dawned on the west
side.
But are the Felsenthals moved by the
Importance of their situation? Are they
concerned because they have awakened
100, 600 of their fellow citizens to an
adequate appreciation of American indie
pendence? Not they. II Felsenthal had
put his name to the Declaration Of indie
pendenee ar bawled his defiance at Lord
North in the house Of burgesses, you
would have learned Of it from other
lips. Not from theml What have the
scions Of race that blinked in the twi-
light of history to do with the day be-
fore yesterday? Their business ia at
hand. Itconsists in firing the fat bellied
cannon for 10 hours
Thus soberly and orderly proceeded
the Felsenthal celebration in the alley
back of the rag shop, one shepherd sue
ceeding the other in superintendent Of
the cannon. The cannon itself was true
to its employers, 1t belched out flame
and coughed and roared and leaped
across the alley and hurled his frozen
fat against the clapboards of the under
takers house next door. Other weapons
might fail The roar Of crackers and
firearms would pause, would futter,
would break out in crazy discord, would
pause again. But with the punctuality
of a cosmic cause the Felsenthals' cannon
renewed its sullen defiance to the ravish-
ers of liberty.
A@fCAAAIS tdlllO al4tk ~ was otAAA u ~ :
ing. The Felsenthals gave no heed to
the geegaws of celebration. Red fire
burned from Fischer's four mill to the
new hay market and the balls Of roman
candles burned around the spires Of st.
Patrick's church and rockets ran fiery
course above Maskell's hall But no
light CLEANED in front Of the rag shop.
Nevertheless every rocket that blazed
along the curtain Of heaven, splitting its
cinders across the arch, quavered in the
reverberations Of the Felsenthal cannon.
irrepressible. chronometrical, unappeasi-
BILE as fate.
The evening came and went The last
blazing spark had challenged the stars.
The blistered and ragged patriots had
returned to well earned rest. Fer q
moment there was peace. Then the earth
quaked, the stars reeled, the NAV CT
eternity opened. There came belch Of
fire from the alley and biliowy echo
rolled to the confines Of the city. The
Felsenthals had fired al that remained
Of their gunpowder. And all the world
slept Chicago Times Herald
nn Van XUonf IN HEnv a