The Washington times., 1902-08-10
THE GIANTS FOURTH.
His Celebration of the Day as Described
by the Old Circus Man.

mo American that ever lived had
more patriotism to the square inch.
said the old circus man. land so. wheD
Fourth of July came around he ALWAYS
wanted to celebrate; and-but | guess
we've known other grown-ups that were
like him in this respect. hey?-big as
he was, the greatest of all giants. liked
to shoot of firecrackers and that sort of
thing. and SO the old man used TO pro-
vide him with Fourth of July things OF
this sort in ample quantity and in sizes
proportioned to the great giant him
self: torpedoes the size Of turnips. fire.
crackers the size OF rolling pins, and so
on. everything suitable.
"The giants roman candles. for tn
stance, were of about the length OF a
kitchen boiler and about half as big
around: and when the giant lit cnc OF
these and held it up and waved L
around in the air above his head, there
was something more than mere
gentle spray of sparks out of it; this
candle was a great fountain of fire; and
the flreballs that popped out of it every
second or two were pretty near as big
as watermelons.
Now. that, you know to see the
great giant standing up shooting off a
Roman candle and that sort-that was
something worth seeing. And when the
giant had fired one OF these great can
dies out he'd just give the empty tube
a fling. careless like just like you ard
l would a common size tube, and turn
to something else. It was great; but
OF all the things that the giant used to
fire off in this way. personally. Romo n
candles and all. the thing. after all. that
used to please the people most was the
skyrockets.
THE skyrockets that we used to have
made for the great giant had heads of
just about the size and proportions of
cylinder stove, the sticks for them being
stout. straight saplings about the size Of
cedar beanpole and about twice as
long. We used to bring from New York
only the rocket heads. contracting in ad-
vance, at wherever we were going to be
on the Fourth OF July. for sufficient
number OF these big saplings and getting
the fireworks man, when he came out
with the things. to wire the heads onto
them.
And these rockets certainly were tre-
mendous. We used to make a rocket rest
out of some suitably grown and suitably
situated tree, saving off the branches
just above the crotch and leaning the
rocket in that. The giant used TO touch
'em off with a cigar.
1T was always sort of funny. some
how, to see him, after he had got one of
those rockets stood up there, take a
foot-and- -half-long cigar out OF his
mouth and touch the fuse with 1t: but
1t was funny for moment only; touched
with fire, the rocket in an instant became
something terrific.
1T scared into the air with the roar
of an express train going through tun-
mel; it left behind it trail like the tail
of great comet, and when it exploded
it fairly filled the sky with meteors and
shooting stars. The people used to for
get even the great giant himself when
he fired off one of these skyrockets.
Every year when Fourth of July came
we used to have great fireworks display
like this; all to the great giants great
delight, and might add that there We're
few things. If any, that we ever did.
that seemed to give a more vivid and
profound satisfaction to the general
public. New York Sun.