Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-07-03
oLD-TIME CELEBRATIONS.
Tarades, Dinners and Speeches Char
acterIstfc Features.

%nrades, Dinners and Speeches Char
acterIstic Features.
Parades, dinners and the drinking OF
a many toasts as there were States In
khe Union formed the characteristic fea-
tures Of the early Fourth OF July cele-
brations There was less noise century
ago than is usually the case to-day and
absolutely no overindulgence in fireworks,
because fireworks were so scarce that
their use was practically restricted to the
public gardens. These popular resorts,
of which there were several in New York,
Boston, Philadelphia and other large
cities, were careful to announce, often
weeks beforehand, the attractions pre-
pared for the anniversary day Nearly
every town and village could point with
pride to Revolutionary Veterans, and the
presence of these warriors who had con-
1:buted their share toward making thu
Declaration of Independence mean some
thing to the country added to the deep
personal interest in the day. The love
for their young country rang out trS
end clear in every Grafton and after On
ner toast. The following toast, given by
tho merchants of New York in 1913 at
the Tontine Coffee House, is but sam
pie of many which the day always called
forth:
The suspicious day that rescued our
country from the hated yoke OF foreign
tyranny and gave US boaorable rahk
enong The nations of the earth-Inay It'
glorious events never De efaced from our
memories; may the blessings Il has cen
ferred be as lasting as the globe we IN
Labit and may each revolving year hrd
us more united, more happy aud more
free
During the early years Of the last cen
turv the celebration in New York invari-
ably opened with discharge OF cannon
from the Battery. A parade of the militia
and volunteer rife organizations, accom-
panied by the leading societies OF the CITY,
IN which Tammany was always well rep
resented, marched through Broadway be-
low the present city hall, Wall street and
some of the other thoroughf2res.
After a march of about an hour the
paraders filed into st. Paups or some
other prominent church, where the Dec
laration of Independence was always read,
followed by an grafton.
In the evening every tavern and cof-
fee house had a special Fourth of July
dinner. This latter custom was univer-
sal. No hamlet was so small that 1t
could not gather it's company of patriotic
diners in the village tavern, where their
enthusiasm was displayed In repeated pro-
testations of oyalty to their country.
The resider 5 of Brooklyn 100 years
ago we're not to be outdone by their
friends in the greater city across the river,
as according to a newspaper account at
the time, the Fourth of July, 1904. was
celebrated in Brooklyn as follows:
The military of Kings county assembled
at the town of Brooklyn to celebrate the
day At sunrise a salute of seventeen
guns was fired. The uniform corps of the
Troop of Horse, Republican rifemen.
Washington fusileers and the Rising Sun
companies formed on Brooklyn Heights
at 10 o'clock and marched through Sands
street, Main street, Front street, up old
Ferry street, to the parade ground.
Later in the day there were dinners in
the various taverns and the customary
toasts.
An account of a celebration at Potts
Grove, Montgomery county, Pa, is inter
esting not only for the picture of rural
enjoyment, but as a sample OF the jour
nalstic writing commonly seen in the
early newspapers:
Two feldpieces, cheerfully served,
sent abroad in the forenoon the lofty re-
port of both fun and frolic by sixteen well
timed and successive discharges. Joy
beamed on every brow; the green valleys
and distant hills participated in the glad
ness of the day by reverberating the mag
nifcent and far sent sounds of liberty
and independence"
Mention is then made of the dinner,
with its attendant speeches, and in con-
Guiding the writer adds:
THE retired sun had Just by this time
let in the gloomy shade of night, upon
which the company betook themselves to
the tavern of James Kinkead, where they
enjoyed themselves with the sprightly
dance and feasted to late hour upon
song, sentiment and rosy wine."-New
York Times.