The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1910-06-28
THE Use of Fire Works In
Fourth of July Celebra-
ton Under the Ban. Ten
derfoot Touches Up Ad-
vertising Grafters.
THE SUNDAY LID
Is DISCUSSED
Statehood Is No Longer an
Issue In Territorial Poll
tics and AS a Space Filler
Will No Longer Serve the
Country Editor.
The New Fourth.

Contrary TO the popular conception,
W" of the west are conservatives, and
while the movement for a sane Fourth
of July will he felt all over the coun.
try, we will for the most part celebrate
as in days of yore, with a wealth of
fireworks ,and red fire, of noise and
powder. We are slow 10 change in
such matters, M witness the shock To
The rest of the territory vixen Ros
well omitted the observance of Decorn.
tion Day Later on, perhaps, the sane
idea will be taken up in New Mexico.
II mpy even be one of the first enact.
ments of the new state. II will he
following a distinguished example, as
seven Legislatures and 246 city coun.
ellis have passed stringent laws against
The sale and use oI fireworks since
1901, when the agitation began. There
is abundant reason for the reform, as
the m"rtuary table of the anniversary
show, viz:
1908. dead 1913, wounded, j,lGO, total,
1923.
1907, dead, i6i. wounded. 4,2i9, total.
I,4l3. Tetanus, 90.
1906, dead, ljs, wounded, 5.3OS. total.
i,id6. Tetanus, ~.
1905. dead, lS2, wounded. 4.9oi. total.
j,l7d. Tetauus, 81.
l9ot, dead, ls3, wounded, 1886. total.
i,ld9. Tetanus. 81.
1908, dead Id6 wounded. 1898. total.
i,il9. Tctanus. iOG.
Total-dead, 1916; wounded, 27,9sO.
Total, s9,296. Tetanus, 776.
1909. 2l5 boys and girls killed. BE.
tween five and six hundred injured
over $4,000 persons, blinded and
maimcd. The record for past seven
wears.
With such an appalling tariff ON
patriotism, drawn for the most part
from childhood. there is abundant Jus.
tliication for the reversiOn To common
sense IN the matter of the celebration
of the national birthday. Custom NAV
make il hard To deny the Young Amer.
lea its crackers. Roman candles, toy
cannous and squibs, but life Is an
infinitely more precious thing. aud
since Yankee ingenuity progresses
steadily toward more noise and more
danger, the sensible thing to do is To
eat out the pyrotechnics, or AT least
eontne their use to trained hands, in
such volume that all may see and en-.
JOY but not handle.
II has always been au open question
to me rs to whether or not the Amer.
lean people were not mistaken in their
ways of observance of many holidays.
There is nothing in the specifications
that warrant an explosive Fourth. The
esthctie way is to devote it 10 Oratory,
prayer, praise, picnicS aud sports, aud
II there is any Use of fireworks To safe.
guard them that they may not be a
menace to life. limb aud eyesight. "A
producer OF the deadly lock jaw, aud a
manner of tender bodies. Thoughtful
peofle generally are seeing the point,
and the Fourth the country over is grad.
ually coming To he something besides
II nightmare to the fire department, a
harvest for the physician, aud an over.
time motive for the undertaken. Real
patriotism demands no such toll as that.
II has been said that the argument of
those who would reform the day IN that
the Fourth should be kept not so much
in remembrance Of the feats OF Amerl-