The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09
Mickey Firms Big Fireoracker
The Explosion That Wound Up the Fourth Of July Celebration
on Cooney Island

Two mammoth firecrackers stood in
the window of Cassys grocery. They
were twelve inches long and proportion
| ately thick.
! For month before the Fourth of July
these gigantic Indicators Of enthusiasm
had stood in the window like British soldiers
| on dress parade, while a predatory spider
! hung flmy hammock between them and
calmly killed his buzzing victims over two
powder mines,
The irecrackers were the admiration
and the envy Of all the boys in Cooney
Island 1t was seldom that youthful
nose was not hattened against the window
pane in ardent covetousness.
But the price demanded by Casey for
the tdlunderers was prohibitve, so far as
the boys were concerned and there was
not one of them patriotic or courageous
enough to invest 25 cents in a SIM gle ecStatic
explosion.
Said Mickey Finn timidy one evening
when he had been sent by his mother to
get quarter OF "a pound Of tea and half
pound Of pork;
mir. Casey. l suppose now, that whin
wan O. thin big fellows wint of it would
blow the stars out Of the SKYE" his mind
filed with blissful thoughts Of mighty ex-
plosions.
Casey stopped measuring out half pint
OF New Orleans molasses, raised monitory
finger, and replied
Mickey, my boy, I'd be afeerd to tell You
what would happen if l stood wan o. thin
big fellows out on the sidewalk and touched
the stem wild the lighted end Of five cent
ciga-ar. The noise would be terrible.
terrible. my son, 'Twould make your head
ring like an anvil and You would see sparks
like trehies,
"Would it blow the house down." asked
the boy in an awed whisper.
mo, don't think ii would" said Casey
at might shake the chimly down and break
all the glass in the windys in small pieces
and there would be paper in the street
as would fill an Imply barrel o. -four. Oh
but thin big fellows is mighty powerful,
Mickey, mighty powerful, They use them
in China to kill murderers and robbers.
They put wan O. thin big firecrackers
bechune the teeth of u murderer and make
him LIGHT the fuse wild his own hand and
blow his own head of, Thin Chinese is
mighty crool, Mickey. mighty crool.'
This vivid description inhamed Mickey's
desire, which was Casey's motive in telling
it, for the incident occurred on the eve of
the Fourth and Casey was afraid that the
big tirecrackers would he carried over the
national holiday and remain loss on his
hands. In order to deepen the impression
already made upon the boy Casey per-
mitted him to handle one of thu twins
The boys eyes had widercd to their
utmost capacity when he was outside Of the
window, but now that he could feel the red
ia cket his hands tremhled with the eager
ness Of possession and he would have
given ten years of his life to own it.
Take it along wild you, Mickey" said
Casey cajolingly. Thin crackers were
ma dc in Chow Chow, in China, for the Cooney
Island trade and want To get rid Of thin
! have on hand before l send another order
to Wan Lung, the haythin."
But ! have no money said Mickey
sorrowfuly. MY father is goin' to give
me three punches OF little firecrackers
and pinwheel but know he wouldn't
buy wan O. thin big firecraokers for me-
Well continued Casey, you come
down here tomorrow mornin' and carry