Putnam patriot., 1908-07-24
 Degradation of the .. Fourth.

EDITOR OF THE PATRIaf;-EeT soFIs.
 weeks prior 10 The last Fourth the
 New York dailies presented statistics
 oi the losses of life and limb threag h our celebration of Independence Day
 which the Tribune well calls oin-
 sen>aie and degraded Comparisons
 were even made with the results oI The leading battles of the Civil War, sa the credit of the latter And asssf The day passed some effort was made to compare notes ea the basis of the new statistics. These, ef course, are still imperfect, but il seems certain thai
 oui little oF no net improvement will oe found when the figures are ali in.
 In this community they may he eallel the other way when We consider how so valuable life as that of the late w N. sheldon, of Woodstock. was So cruelty sacrificed. IL might have been that of any other passing citizen, and his presence al the point of danger on that fateful morning was, Il k said, only in the line of protection.
 fe Was not an officer uf the law. and had no power te arrest or drive away the disorderly elements that were there.
 The day Of moral suasion 5or di>saa- sion has passed on, and nothing but the tightening of the civil law seems Jeff for public protection.
 Why should not Connecticut be The first 10 try The remedy She was one of the original thirteen States which secured our independence, and, as the Land of steady Habits, may well desire 10 preserve the oest there is in sThe Day We Celebrate
 But how have the conditions Of h. dependence Day celebration come To be what they now are? The Embaitled Farmers stood up al Concord and ! fired the shot heard round the world;t Il has been reVerberating ever since. Noise seems to have been the first re- 
 quirement. ENeitable boys, with in- dulgent fathers. adopted the day as theirs-beginning early in the era, and, oi eour>e and always, early i'll the day
 But there was once an intellectual ele-
 ment in the celebrations which inter. ested teachers and students, al least
 and su perhaps saved the day from ra
 Did decadeaee. What has become oi
 the stately Declaration, whose read ing fell To the local attorney with tht
 sonoreu> eice, and the oratien which
 followed. by the M. [. or the State Se
 natora l suspect that the near preee dence of "necoiation bay" has taken
 from the Fourth some of its best ele
 ments of celebration, and left the resi- either To quicken it's downfall or to se cure it's reform.
 The argument for seserer legal inter ference is briefly this:
 1. The day has been left tas no ethel | day would now be left to the handling of the young and Incompetent, and that in respect to the most dangerous of ele l ments-tirearms, powder, explosiS Ses and fireworks shall these be placed by law only in the hands or under tht oversight of those who understand them?
 . The laws of nature are memorable and she will condone nothing to senti ment, patriotism, or the best of mo tises-when reason k laid aside. t1rt always did, and always will, burn com matter who has placed them there no for what purpose.
 Ne dc not want drastic law nor pro hibition that will not prohibit Btu s il that, when we seek to keep edged tools away from lunaties, and give thei use only to those who know them? When the late Henry C. Bowen wa giving celebrations on the evenings 0 the Fourth and Concert Days, at Rose | land Park. the discharging of tirework | was always placed ip expert hands and no one, believe. was ever injured | Our rural centers of population na,uf I ally are less well poiieed than ou | cities, on holidays, and would seem 1 then, to be placed in greater danger i I the lawess conditions Of the Fourtl
 shall remain; all the more reason n. the representatives of the countr' towns should be ready 10 support som | measure of restraint, and should be no | minated this fail, with the idea tha l they will do 50. l.. A. C.
 Woodstock, July =, 1908.