Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-07-05
THE CITY,s DISPLAY.

Tt was not like that in the olden days,
 1t was not like that at all" The strains of this popular song played by the American band last night as a grand sky rocket, one of many, | pirouetted towards the sky, burst with loud report and shower of stars of all colors shone resplendent high in the air and fell falteringly towards the l ground, while thousands of persons looked on with pleasure, admiring the display and enjoying the music of the | band. This occurred in the vicinity of Browns hill, where the first public eel ebration of the Fourth of July which l Waterbury has had in many years was being held. Everybody agreed that 1t was a rather appropriate song. Last | night things were not as they used to ! be. They were not so dead as in for mer years. For once the people of. the city had interested themselves in 2 public celebration of the national holi- day and starter was made by holding 1 display of fireworks.
 It Is estimated that from 15,000 to 10000 people witnessed the fireworks,
 which lasted for about two hours. The hills on both sides of Browns farm were covered with couples, some stand ing, others reclining, but the majority sitting on the grass, which had some prospect of becoming hay; the Water town road was crowded with hundreds Of people, the meadows were filled with strolling couples and frolicking chil- dren, and the yerandas of houses on the l Watertown road and on MorningSide and Warren park were damned with sight seers. It was orderly crowd and there was little work for the guardians of the peace.
 The committee, who had spent much time and labor and money in making arrangements for the formal recogni- tion of Independence day, occupied ex- cellent positions near the point selected for the display. Their countenances bore happy expressions when they saw how the people had appreciated their efforts and how half of Waterbury had turned out to witness the display. The trolley cars did an enormous business. All the extra cars were out and were running in strings of six and eight on the OakvilIe line. Even then they could not accommodate the vast crowds of people Though the cars were damned until they could hold no i more and dozens of people were stand ing on the running boards, still many
 were left and rather than wait in the center and take chances on boarding
 the next string, they decided to walk
 to the grounds It was a fine night for
 stroll and during the early part of
 the evening continual stream of hu-
 manity flowed along the Watertown road.
 After the national salute'' of thir-
 teen reporting shells were fired, about
 S:15, there was continual round of bombs and bombshells and Japanese shells and Japanese f1refy rockets and dragons and ''dragons' nests" and trail- ing stars and fiery meteors, which
 whistled and screamed in wild, fan tastic and unearthly fllrore in the sky
 urYSll after 10 o'clock. The display was
 much enjoyed.
 l While the fireworks were being held l the American band rendered a concert on temporary band stand near the 1 Watertown road.
 The inmates at the almshouse were allowed to witness the glorious celebra- tion and they enjoyed 1t thoroughly. 1 With the exception of the exhibition of fireworks at night, there was little celebrating here yesterday. There were few people left in the city to eel l ebrate and they were contented them selves with shooting off blank cartridge revolvers, a dangerous manner of cele- brating and one which should be pro- hfbited. Many Waterbury people went l to Naugatuck and witnessed the parade in the morning and the bicycle races and games In the afternoon.