The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-06-21
INDEPENDENCE DAY DISASTERS.


independence Day is coming; day
of powder-poisoning and lockJaW;
day of hospitals and ambulances;
day of mutilation and fire and death.
II there is anything that is sane In
the American people it is the grow
ing revolt against our insane manner
of celebrating the Fourth OF July.
II might be called "Incendiaries'
Day; for on that day the fire-hend
runs riot. No man having any pub
lie responsibility fails to dread IT,
No fire department gets through the
day. and the nights on both sides OF
il. without exhaustion. 1t is doubt
full if on some fifth OF July an entire
city may not complacently burn it.
self up in the faces of firemen and
fire horses too exhausted by silly fire
cracker fires the day before to cope
with it. The fire-fghting apparatus
of our cities and towns is so over
taxed by the numerous calls which
begin on the evening of July Sd that
response to possible summons lot
help by neighboring towns or cltles
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, nave
their dire significance, for they tire
ont the horses and the men, and re-
duce the ability of the department
to cope with actual fires. When the
gong begins to ring at headquarters
its call is as imperative for rubbish
heap ablaze as it is for the home OF
a 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 unspeakable to relate, but there
are instances where American fire.
men have been killed in runs to fires
on July 4th by being thrown from
trucks by frightened 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
jeopardized by explosives thrown
from windows above the level of the
street, setting fire to clothing and
menacing the eyesight of those pass
ing, while upon the child, who in his
innocent love of noise and objective
demonstration responds to our pres
ent absurd kind of celebration, falls
the heavy hand of disaster. When
our civilization was not so complex,
it was possible for those who had
the courage to leave their homes to
the mercy Of possible conhagrations,
to shut them up and escape to 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 explosives
at his head as they roar past in their
reckless responsibility.
And for what! Nobody stops to
inquire. Nobody any longer cares.
We have gotten wholly away from
the educational significance of 'In-
dependence" Day, and lost ourselves
in an orgy of fire and 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
intelligent forms of celebrations. II
explosives must be used the authori-
ties can limit their use to the public
parks during certain hours of the
day, where the folly-hunters may kill
and main themselves and each other