Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1910-06-30
Independence Day Disasters.

hospitals and ambulances; day of mutt
lation and fire and death
If there is anything that is sane in the
American people it is the growing re-
volt against our insane manner of cele-
brating the Fourth of July. 1t might
be called 'Incendiaries' Day.; for on
that day the fire fiend runs riot. No
man having any public responsibility
fails to dread it. No fire department
gets through the day, and the nights
on both sides of it, without exhaustion.
1t is doubtful if on some fifth of July
an entire city may not complacently
burn itself up in the faces of firemen
and fire horses too exhausted by silly
firecracker fires the day before to cope
with it. The fire-fghting apparatus
of our cities and towns is 80 over-taxed
by the numberless calls which begin
on the evening of July 3rd that response
to possible summons for help by neigh
boring towns or cities is impossible.
What fire chief would dare allow even
hose wagon to go beyond immediate
recall while alarms in his own city are
coming in at ten-minute intervals?
Even the large number OF false alarms,
due to the reckless use of the day, have
their dire significance for they tire out
the horses and the men, and reduce the
ability of the department to cope with
actual fires. When the gong begins to
- ~ hno ifo IL,
perative for a rubbish heap ablaze as it
is for the home of citizen. The wear
and tear of the apparatus, and even the
injury to the horses during thirty-six
hours of almost constant runs, may be
as great for false alarms as for real ones.
1t seems a sort of folly almost too un-
speakable to relate, but there are in
stances where American firemen have
been killed in runs to fires on July 4th
by being thrown from trucks by fright
ened horses swerving from their course
at explosives thrown under them as
they galloped past.
Never an 'Independence" Day but
scores Of human beings are made de
pendent for life. Life and limb are
ieopardized by explosives thrown from
windows above the level of the street,
setting fire to clothing and menacing
the eye-sight of those passing, while
upon the child, who in his innocent
love of noise and objective demonstra-
tion responds to our present absurd
kind of celebration, falls the heavy
hand Of disaster When our civiiiZa-
ton was not so complex, it was possible
for those who had the courage to leave
their homes to the mercy of possible
conflagrations, to shut them up and es-
cape 70 the quiet Of the country. Not
so to-day. The trolley car and the
automobile follow the seeker after peace
to his country retreats, throwing ex-
plosives at his head as they rear past
in their reckless irresponsibility
And for what? Nobody stops to in
quire. Nobody any longer cares. We
have gotten wholly away from the edu-
cationaI significance of 'Tndepen-
deuCe" Day, and lost ourselves in an
orgy OF ire ana noise.
1t is, perhaps, too much to expect
any sudden return to sanity; but some
effort at least may be made by cities
and towns toward leading their people
into more moderate and more intelli
gent forms of celebration. Ii expl0s-
ives must be used the authorities can
limit their use to the public parks dur
ing certain hours of the day, where the
folly-hunters may kill and MAIN them
selves and each other TO hearts con-
tent, without injuring other people, or
destroying property by fire The fir
ing of Of explosives among the closely
built shingle-roofed frame houses,
which compose the greater part of our
cities, is wholly in accord with the
reckless spirit of Americans regarding
fire.
If before every Fourth of July all
cities and towns were given a thorough
cleaning of rubbish, aud all use of ex
plosives then restricted as To time and
place, the police and public wardens
might have at least fighting chance
TO minimize the disastrous results of
our public folly during the years it may
require TO inspire IN our people de,
sire for rational kind Of celebration.
Aud such desire must I've inspired IL
is the duty of every city TO arrange for
il people suitable amusements OF ex-
ercises definitely calculated 20 educate
them in a rational observance Of this
historic holiday. Habits Of folly can
be- most easily eliminated by a subsii'
tuition Of something better. The things
a city can do to interest its citizens in
. aapa and tvhaIaaans calehratfon are