Show uly july before noisy crackers THOUGH giant ers era are a recent innovation and modern modera fireworks are actually more colorful the rollicking fun of the hazardous celebrations of independence day in the fifties will never be ba recaptured writes dan beard famous in boys lite life on the morning of the fourth recalls the author every boy tried tiled to be first up and out to start the racket which was to continue all day most of us had some kind of a cannon which we fired as soon as we got outside of the house some boys made cannon by mounting the brass barrels of flint lock pistols on blocks some even molded their own cannon by making a cylinder of writing paper setting betting it into a hole in the earth or damp sand whittling out a stick for the core and when everything was in in place pouring melted lead in and around the core inside the paper cylinder some of the abre more reckless boys made cannon of beet beef bones by digging out the marrow and fling cling 1 41 1 k I 1 Q X 4 youngsters took dangerous risks with homemade cannon a touch hole such cannon burst frequently ly sometimes with serious and painful results 1 I was blown up but twice on fourth of july or any other d day once I 1 had the powder from my cannon heaped up on a piece of brown paper and it and the cannon went oft off at the same time but did no real damage my face ace happened to be turned the other way the second time a pot of 0 red fire exploded when my face was not turned away and I 1 was laid up for or repairs for about six months on fourth of 0 july continues dan beard flags were displayed at every house indeed the fronts of all the dwellings were more or less de decorated with patriotic do da signs big pictures of washington red white and blue blua streamers and all night the houses were illuminated along the line ot of parade red and white and blue tissue paper was tacked or pasted over all the window panes and illuminated by the light from inside candles were often placed in each window pane making a very arll brilliant effect and a very dangerous one as the frequent clan clanging ing ot of the ore fire bells testified pin wheels sky rockets roman candles flower pots fiery serpents double headed dutchmen and all sorts ot of things wore were sputtering and booming on every street to our great dell delight abt reckless young men would often stand in the middle ot of the street and fire roman candles candies at each other and many very painful and dangerous burns occurred from this practice but I 1 think all survived it Is however a good tiling thing that all this belongs to the past for the country is too thickly populated to admit of such primitive sport our cities are to too congested and today an old fashioned fash toned fourth of july would claim far too many lives |