The Topeka state journal., 1899-10-13
Climax of the Celebration In
Honor of Soldiers.
COST NEARLY $4,000
Many Beautiful Pieces Never
Before Seen In Kansas.
Rockets Whose Price Mark Is
$12 Each.

1OSlLY as TO Wllal the AOuA IA EA-00
is to be in the display of fireworks at
the Twentieth Kansas reception oscar
Swayze and Captain Phillips, who or
dered the piece, positively refuse to
give up their secret until the match IS
applied to it and then people can see
for themselves.
If they had not announced that one OF
the set pieces would be a fire portrait
of General Funston everybody would
| have guessed right away what the
mysterious piece will be. But they
! have said one of the pieces is to be Of
Funston, and they will give no intima-
tion concerning the last piece.
One man says it will be either a pic
ture of Ed Little or Colonel Metcalf.
He says no one would be expecting to
see the fambeau club show a picture
Of Lieutenant Colonel Little, and that
would be the greatest surprise the CLUB
| could spring on the public.
Another man thinks it will be pic
lures of Privates Trembley and White,
I the heroes who swan the Rio Grande-
Another surmise is that it will be
picture of the Tartar; another, Cover
nor Stanley; another. something about
the Twentieth Kansas entering Ca
loocan. But Secretary Swayze says
about the only way to find out is to
watch for the piece when it is fired.
The details of the pyrotechnic dis
play have largely been arranged and
the balance of the fireworks have been
ordered. The fireworks are much
larger than any that have ever been
brought into Kansas heretofore. This
is especially true with reference to the
/ sky rockets. None of these will be
smaller than four pound and the ma
jority of them will be six and eight
! pound. The public may not know
what these weights mean, but they will
|. readily realize the size of these rock
cts when it is stated that the common
| rockets which the hambeau club gen
orally uses in it's displays are only one
half pound goods.
There will be an even gross of these
| rockets, a dozen each of the following
varieties: Japanese, parachute, pris-
matte dragon, willow tree, cascade,
cOrnucOpia, telescope, searchlight, gold
/ en- cloud, shooting star, electric shower
and peacock plume. The price of some
! of these rockets is $40 a. dozen, nearly
| $12 each. This is a big lot of money,
/ but the fambeau club feels that it
/ will never have another opportunity to
( welcome home the Twentieth Kansas
/ volunteers, and it intends to do it right
| this time.
Mr. Swayze himself acknowledges
| that he has never seen some of these
/ varieties, as they have just lately been
invented and placed on the market,
! but the manufacturers warrant that
! they will be extraordinarily fine.
The prismatIc dragon rockets explode
/ in mid air, sending out a series of
| serpents of fire which strike out in
| different directions.
The parachute rockets ascend to a
great height before exploding, and then
unfold a beautiful fire parachute, which
floats slowly away in the distance,
| changing colors every few seconds.
The willow tree rockets have been
[ common during the past two or three
| years, but the ones which will be sent
up in this display will be much larger
| than any ever seen here before. When
| they explode little streams of fire come
| trickling down, presenting the appear
| ance of a weeping willow tree.
When the cascade rockets explode
| they form veritable waterfall Of fire,
} and the cOrnucOpia rockets, as their
name indicates, form a cOrnucopia upon
+ explosion, which goes floating away in
/ the distance.
The telescope rocket is a new variety.
i which expIodes several times, each time
sending a cylinder of fire through an
| other cylinder.
The searchIght rocket produces a
| single bright light when it explodes,
! but it is very large and of exceeding
/ brightness, and lasts for some time
| The shooting star rockets. as the
name implies, send a large number of
/ bright stars in different directions
/ when they explode. This is one of the
{ common rockets
| The largest of all the rockets will be
! the peacock plume and the golden cloud
! varieties. When the former expIodes
/ the fire spreads out in the shape of a
i veritable peacock plume of many col
/ ors. The golden cloud rockets form an
! immense cloud of. fine particles of fire.
1 Secretary Swayze is not familiar with
! either the Japanese or electric shower
/ rockets, and these will be as much of
/ a surprise for him as for any one else.
| Other expensive pieces will be the
( Shells which will be fired from mortars
on the ground. They will be II and IA
| inches in diameter, and some of them
| are as expensive as $50 each. These
/ high priced ones go to an immense
/ height and explode five times in the air.
! There will be SO of them all told
! Then there will be two dozen mines
! and two dozen floral shells. These last
/ are listed at $50 a dozen. over $3.50
! worth of red fire will be consumed. The
| club has ordered one gross of red fire
] bags, which will burn Is minutes each,
and they will be mixed with Bengal
| lights of great brtlliancy.
Then there will be the Roman can
| dies. There will be 80 gross of them
| 1920 They will be fired by 80 men
| moving in a circle around the gallery
of the state house dome. This will give
| the top of the dome the appearance of a
! fountain of fire, out of which will shoot
a large number Of stars of variegated
| colors.
On the ledge just outside the square
| windows a third of the way down the
dome red fire viii be burned. It viii
( form a complete circle of the dome
/ which will be punctured at intervals
| with the Bengal lights.
From the large windows just below
the circle of fire the rockets will be
| shot. There are two windows facing
each corner of the state house. and
from each of these windows a stream
of rockets will pour forth. AS they will
start from height of nearly 200 feet
above the ground they will ascend to an
immense distance
The ridges of the four wings of the
state house will be manned with 20
men, who will keep a line of red fire
burning along the ridge of each wing,
and Will Dre mines and other pieces