Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-07-08
The FOurthS of
YeSter Year.

In noting the quiet and altogether
desirable kind of Fourth of July this
year one hanks back to other Fourths
not so quiet, but from a boyhood
standpoint, very desirable.
Booming started at daybreak and
went on necessarily until after mid
night. Salvos of cannon, shotguns,
homemade bombs and giant firecrack-
ers greeted rosy dawn. Hour after
hour the din kept up. No one thought
OF Directing. The sick and nervous
suffered through the best way they
could. 1t was the Fourth of July and
Young America was celebrating.
In those days the memory of
troubles with John Bull, our heredit-
airy enemy, still fingered. We stood
around on the street corners and
Dragged about how we could pull the
Lions tail" England got her hands
in the pie a couple of times, but she
knows better than to do it again
During the morning there were
street parades. Floats of all kinds,
bands, noise, confusion and fun. 1t
was sweltering hot, but nobody mind
ed. In the afternoon there were more
kinds, creased pig races, climbing a
creased pole climbing contest, sack
races and so on. Speeches held the
attention of the adults. The small
boys followed a man full of witticisms
dressed as clown. Bands played and
there were few DRINKS and a few
fights. Horses ran and bets were made
and won or lost. Everybody was en-
joying the Fourth immensely.
In the evening came the fireworks.
Young men in rubber coats mounted
huge platform and to the peril of life
and limb and destruction OF half the
property in town shot Off thousand
dollars worth of pyrotechnics. Over
the water went the rockets and cand-
les. Mirrored on the lake were
Thousand and one beautiful lights. I'm
mense pieces" of various kinds were
set off. Famous men in living fire.
Battle of Santiago bay. And so on.
There were always a few casualties
but nobody minded that. Some lost
a hand or an arm and occasionally
someone was blinded. Cousin Tom
got in the way of a cannon and was
blown in two. Brother Frank filled
a pickle bottle with gunpowder and
set it off. He was laid up with facial
powder burns for six weeks. Brother
John kicked a boiling can of hot wa
ter over and stripped the skin off his
legs. Yours truly threw an empty gas
oline can at a bonfire to see if it would
explode. 1t did. Eleven weeks in the
hospital and scars to the grave. We
were a harum-scarum reckless lot in
those days.
There were lot of town drunkards
ready to take big chances. Tip"
Black, wreck of a brilliant man, dared
boy to bet him Csc and he would
hold giant cracker in his mouth and
shoot it off. The boy, fearing the
sight of Tips" head rolling on the
ground refused to bet Tip" hung
around the saloons doing odd jobs
for whiskey. Once he was brilliant
chemist His handsome little son,
George, the best looking and best man.
nered boy in town, followed his be-
sotted old dad and dragged him home
to their broken down shack. George
was motherless and all the old man
had. But that is another story.
Yes, the Fourths of years ago were
noisy, dangerous and expensive. Mod
ern ideas are much saner and more
progressive. But the boys nowadays
don't have half the fun we did