The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-12
FOURTH OF JULY CAIAMITIES.
Responsibility Rests with Those who
Permit Violations of Law:

To the Editor OF the indianapolis Journal:
The Journal and its contemporaries, East,
West, North and South. have rendered valu-
able service in calling attention to the in
creasing number OF calamities that attend
our present method of celebrating our ma
tionai birthday. No complete statistics are
furnished, but from the reports it is not ex-
travagantt to assume that the deaths will ag-
gregate more than a thousand: the wounded.
many disabled for life, more than ten thou
sand. while the losses from fire will run into
the millions. But such losses, whether
counted by the thousands or the millions,
constitute the very least of the calamities
incident to our barbarous method OF remem-
bering the day. 1t is no little thing that so
many persons can be killed or wounded with
little or no regret from the public, though in
most cases the victims are the young, whose
lives are generally precious to all. They are
In most cases the victims of as bold a def
ance Of law as If they were members of a
mob. While everybody regrets such results
there Is a feeling that they know the dan
gers before entering upon the defiance, and
they are less entitled to sympathy than If
they had met death or manning in some 9TH
er way, while the losers from the inevitable
fires feel hat incendiaries have done the
mischief, and these incendiaries are the law
officers who have tolerated the violation of
law. knowing that such calamities are al
most sure to attend the use Of fire, as 1t is
used on such days.
Much more serious than the loss of life
and limb and property is the fact that ii is
a school of vice in which thousands of bows
take their first lessons. With the prevailing
sentiment that this is the proper way to
celebrate the Fourth it is impossible for any
Individual family to wholly restrain the lit
tie boy OF the family, hence all boys are
compelled to take this first lesson. 1t is not
probable that in any part of Indianapolis on
the last Fourth there was any group of a
dozen boys I'm which there was not one or
more 10 suggest that a burning explosive
should be thrown under some passing horse,
or under some passing car, for no other pur-
pose than to cause ain to one or more
persons by fright and otherwise. The recent
inmate Of the Plainfield Reform School who
threw a lighted explosive into the midst Of
a company of passing women on Washing
ton street, to the serious danger of all and
to the actual injury of many. was only the
small boy of yesterday practicing what he
learned from larger boys in his first lesson
In frecrackers. Every group of small boys
mas such a teacher in il, and thus small
boys are educated to do mischief Just for
sport. In its far-reaching results this is a
greater calamity than any possible physical
or material result.
More than forty years.ago 1 had watched
Tor weeks what seemed TO be the ebbing out
or life in a lovely daughter of six ummers
W ONANC a lldIhtu
change for the better and the physician as
sured us the crisis was past and an early
and complete recovery might be expected.
But 1t was Washington's birthday, and the
popular thought was that it should be ceIe-
brated by the firing of cannon. and one was
placed within a hundred yards of the cham
Der In which the convalescent child was
sleeping sweetly, and a band Of brutal men
began to fire Ii. At the first discharge she
awoke with a heart-piercing scream, and
scream after scream followed every dis
cnarRe or the cannon. until she want into
commissions, which lasted for hours. and
she died. just as the sun went down. That
child was as truly murdered as il she had
been stabbed to the heart-murdered, not by
the men who manipulated the cannon, as
much as by the city authorities who neg
iected to enforce the law which was intended
10 protect such sufferers from the barbarous
custom of firing cannon In celebrating ma
tional holidays. We appealed to the brutes
to stop firing. but were yer with pro-
fanity and sneers. Such customs make
brutes OF men. On the late Fourth an aged
woman lay dying near Broadway and Tween
ty-fourth street. She had been unable to
speak for several hours and the end was
evidently near. when the firing began early
In the morning. Though she could not speak
she gave signs or great suffering, often
breaking out into loud crying. The anxious
family appealed to the boys to stop the fir
ing OF their most noisy explosives at least.
but all in vain. This firing may not have
caused her death, but il added needlessly
and cruelty to the anguish of the parting.
1t is hardly extravagant TO say that in ev-
cry block in the city some sick or dying per-
son was disturbed by the firing of noisy ex-
plosives on that day, not 10 mention the fact
that in most families there were those who
suffered from the intense din of the day.
But. serious as these results are, all of
them combined sink into insignihcance when
compared will the chief of all. namely, the
assumption OF the city authorities that they
may, at their discretion, suspend the laws
of the State and city in the interest of any
man or any custom. The Journal of the 10th
instant was eminently right when ii at
tributed the disgraceful riot at Evansville
to the long habit of the city authorities of
refusing TO enforce municipal and State
laws. The refusal of our authorities 10 en-
force law is breeding a duplicate of the
Evansville mob, and this law is one they do
not enforce. 1t will be different some day.
The people who make laws will elect officers
that will enforce them, and another such a
Fourth will not be seen. L.. L. SEE.
indianapolis, July IL.