THE GLORIOUS “FOURTH.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1280, 4 August 1914, Page 4

THE GLORIOUS “FOURTH.”

ONLY” THIRTEEN KILLED

SAN FRANCISCO, July 5. This year’s celebration of the Fourth of July was unusually mild and, bloodloss. So far as pros&it incomplete reports show, only thirteen persons wore killed and 243 injured in the nation's jubilation, while the fire losses amounted to little more than £IUOO. This is quite a victory for the advocates of a •‘safe and sane Fourth.” fTor years past the American people have been m the ha hit of celebrating the throwing off of the Jlritish yoke by a saturnalia of fireworks, toy cannon, and bonfires, m which literary hundreds of lives were sacrificed. A Chicago newspaper some years ago made a speciality of gathering from every State in the Union the figures of the deaths and l casualties, and publishing the totals on the morning

of the sth July. The colossal foolishness of exhibiting joy by killing ami maiming thousands of people—mostly small boys—appealed to the practical American people, and mast cities and towns now have ordinances prohibiting the use of all but tho most harmless types of fireworks. During the seven years preceding the anti-fireworks agitation there were 34,000 people killed, maimed and wounded in the larger cities of the country, according to figures compiled by fire marshals of various parts of the country. In yesterday’s comparatively trivial mortality and casualty list, the greater number of injuries were, however, due to fireworks, 105 being set down to this cause. Injuries caused by toy pistols, from which tetanus frequently develops, were 68. Forty-one persons were maimed by small cannon, ;j(l burned by gunpowder, 5 were hurt by torpedoes, and 4 in runaways. Several of the injured will die, it is believed. Six persons were killed by fireworks, 4 by gunpowder, 2 by torpedoes, and one by a revolver.