The National tribune., 1903-06-18
THE N'cLELLAN statue.

But they are his fingers and his hair, and
if he doesn't kick, after fair warning of
the inevitable, whose business is it? OF
course, proper care should be taken, and
the children protected from their own
carelessness, but do let them have their
4th of July fun. The chances in this day
of material things of getting much real
patriotism pounded into the average boy
are very small.
If he wants to celebrate Easter, he
doesn't do it with toy cannon or a tin
trumpet. He knows that flowers, pure
lilies and sweetsmeling pinks are the
tributes. On Memorial Day, he wants a
badge like his father or grandfather
wears, and he likes to help put the flags
on the low mounds. He lifts his cap
reTerently as he stoops to his pathetic
work, and he learns from this little lesson
how the dead who fall in defense of ma
tional honor are kept in memory. and he
longs to emulate them. His little heart
grows better for the ache that grips it as
he works.
Then comes the 4th Of July! Great
guns! Would you have boy sit down
and read a Sunday School book about
Little Algernon and his White Rabbit,
which he gave to the Starving People in
the Far East" on the 4th of July, when
he knows, if he knows anything, that his
great grandsire celebrated the day by
making bullets of the pewter spoons to
shoot defiance at old England and her
red d-coats, and busted great grandmother's
best copper kettle, using it as a torpedo
cover for the costly powder he burned
on Sunday afternoons when the boy
wants to go swimming, but he is a poor
substitute for patriotism on Independence
Day.
Oh, If We could but keep young! If
We could but carry with us to the day of
gray heads and easy shoes the keen de-
lights of the minute when the bunch of
frecrackers refused to fill the horizon with
lurid streaks of red paper and black pow
der! When. STOPPING over the smoldering
mass, ruddy face was unexpectedly
filed with specks of powder. and bucket
Of water and skilful hands were neces-
sary to put him out" Can one ever for
get the screams of delight that that small
"go Off" splitting the blue empyrean?
What did he care for the mishap?
Is there anything in the world COM
parable to the pride of the youth who
goes off on 4th of July morning with one
pocket full of ''nigger chasers," another
stuffed to the limit with firecrackers, and
his breast pockets bulging with squibs
and torpedoes? Down in his "pants"
pocket he had had dollar. That was n
mine of wealth back in those days, and
he bought red lemonade and gingerbread,
taffy and popcorn. He followed the
Drum-Major and thought him the biggest
man on earth. He made friends with the
band, tried the bugle, and paved the
other instruments over, and admired the
uniforms. He gazed in awe on the Mexi-
can War veterans. and thought his father,
who was marshal of the day and wore a
red silk sash, the very epitome of elegance
and patriotism.
Is there a man among you, or a wom-
an either, for that matter, who would not
like to go back to those halcyon days?
Then let your own kidlets have little of
the fun you SO much enjoyed. Let them
have something to remember, as you
have. The little pearls on memory's
string are not so many. We lose them as
we get older. but the 4th of Julys that we
had as children are among the last that
we forget.