Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-02
GIRL OF The FOURTH
SHE WILL BE uLTRA-PATRloTIc,
DRESSED IN NATIONAL COL
ORS, WAVE FLAGS.
She Will be in Evidence Not Only in
America But All Over the World, land
Fair Women in All Chimes Will
Touch OF Fireworks on July 4.

|
Touch OF Fireworks on July 4.
New York, June 29.-The Fourth of
July girl may or may not be pretty
but she will be patriotic. No Barbara
| Freltchie leaning from the open win
| dow, frantically waving her little flag,
ever presented more determined
| spectacle than the Barbara Freitchie
| OF today as she dresses in the red,
white and blue and industriously
flourishes the flag of the Fourth
| of July.
| To be patriotic now is the style,
| though it was not always so. Many
| people can remember when it was
quite thetthing to be English in ones
| inclinations and when it was the thing
to boast of being of every descent I'M
der the sun except the pure, true
| American.
But noy it Is the boast of the
Americansgirl that she is this-country-
born for three generations and more
back. and if she can add that her
ancestors fought in three wars then
she truly proves her claim to true
patriotic blood. The Fourth of July
| girl will come forth this year in a
gown of blue, and it will be trimmed
with red; and with it she will wear
her little hunting pink jacket which
is quite red. 1t is a trait of patriot
ism that it does not row, nor sickle,
at color nor tone; and that all reds
are red and that all blues are blue on
this great and glorious day.
The Fourth of July girl may have
a small brother, but if such creature
exists he is a very unhappy boy in
deed, for he is deprived by the Fourth
of July girl of his Just dues-of that
which has seemed to him like a
birthright.
/ Once upon time the Fourth Of
1 July boy did the fireworks honors of
/ the family. To him belonged the glory
of dropping the torpedoes, OF setting
1 off the firecrackers. and of swinging
! the Roman candles. And to him be-
4 longed also the honor of using tn can
non, that wonderful thing of iron and
brass which was set off in the mid
Idle of the street to kick and roar and
1 plunge and dash about to the destruc-
ton of the quiet of the neighborhood
and often to the destruction of the
small boy.
The Lady and the Cannon.
But now, the little boy of the fam
lily is sent to the country on Fourth
of July. II good he is given few
| torpedoes packed in sawdust and a
pin wheel and with these small tokens
| he is hidden to enjoy himself on the
glorious Fourth.
His sister on the other hand stops
at home and does the celebrating. II
i is she who has fallen heir to thai
which was the prowess of the small
y boy; and to her now belongs the honor
and the noise of setting off the family
! fireworks. With untrembling hand she
j plapts the giant powder crackers and
4 touches the wick with a lighted fuse:
/ and with an arm that might set off one
I Of the big guns of the Oregon she sets
4 her brass cannon and prepares to sci
# it eff with wonderful racket AID roar
Such beautiful fireworks as come 70,
I the edification of the Fourth OF July
/ girl, and such a lot they do cost Fan
4 from being a little bit of necessary lux
1 ury they can be numbered among the
\ greatest extravagances of the season
I and to suitably equip a Fourth of July
4 girl with fireworks is to give her any
where from $50 to $500, all of which
she will send up in smoke and let out
4 in noise within a very few hours,
4 The Fourth Of July girl is an intrepid
! creature. Nc longer does she hide al
4 a little roar; and no longer does shs
4 put her fingers into her ears and Shrek
i at the eannons belch. On the con
! trary all OF this is music to her sou
4 and she stands at the cannons side
and laughingly sets 1t off and only
4 waits for the clsaring of the powder
I to set it off again The smell of the
4 smoke is on her clothing and she glor
] les in it for she knows by it she will BIZ
recognized as Fourth OF July girl.
/ No other country has Fourth of Ju
ly. And no other country has an In
4 dependence day, which equal the indie
! pendence day of America. There are
small celebrations in other lands, pc
cu1iar to themselves but to the United
i States belongs the honor of having the
one true and only independence day.
All Over the World.
/ But though the Fourth OF July is
purely United States institution it is
4 not only in the United States that it is
4 celebrated In far off Cairo there are
4 fireworks on the American Fourth ;anc
in India there is always a little reie
BARTON in the English colony where
so many Americans are.
! Paris, on the American Fourth il
very gay; and in London. the Stars ant
\ Stripes float from many a window tt
show that Americans dwell within.
The American Fourth of July would
1 be a feeble thing without the co-opera
tion of China and the Chinese anc
without the influence of the Yang-tse
Kiang. For it is along the banks of the
F. Yang-tse-Kiang that the firecracker is
made. The natives of China that live
along this river are busy all the yeal
round getting ready for the. American
Fourth and from the time they take
the paper and prepare it for the little
rolls, until the powder is finally twist
ed inside and the little cover of Chin
ese red paper is added, they keep stead
lily working, doing the work, not by
machinery, but by their own supple
/ yellow fingers.