Life — June 27, 1912 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1298 ‘LIP E# Danger! Look Out for the Fourth of July! T is not known by more than one million people that Lire was the originator of the idea of the sane Fourth. Not that this matters a great deal now that the idea has been so general- ly accepted by such a large number of people. We mention it merely be- cause we wish everybody to feel that our responsibility with regard to the completion of this idea is still as great as ever. The idea originated in a conversa- tion which was held one day about twelve years ago between two of the editors of this paper. One of the editors at that time was confronted with the problem of what to do with his young children on the Fourth, and he ventured the (at that time extreme- ly unpatriotic) statement that fire- crackers and noise were bad for chil- dren, and he had refused to let his ewn children have them. Why not let the world know about this idea?” exclaimed the other editor. Thereafter a paragraph appeared in Lire dealing with the subject, and it was not long before Lire’s artists be- gan to draw pictures about it. One of the most noted, and now the most famous of these pictures, was en- titled “ The Morning After,” and was published on July 10, 1902—ten years ago. This picture attracted great attention all over the country and it was re- peated the following year. This called the attention of editors generally to the subject. Among others, our friends on the Ladies’ Home Journal and the Woman's Home Companion took the matter up, and afterwards it was con- tinued by the local press in the larger cities, In the meantime the picture, “ The Morning After,” which we reproduce once more upon this page, was pre- sented by Lire to the press of the country generally, and an invitation extended to all editors to use it in the good cause. This invitation still holds. In the meantime the agitation in favor of a sane Fourth was taken up by citizens, and in New York City an extensive committee was appointed by THE MORNING AFTER (This picture was first published in Lire June 10, 1902.) We shall be glad to furnish an clectrotype of this subject (suitable for news- paper work) at cost to those desiring to use it. the Mayor and aided by the Russell Sage Foundation, the idea of the com- mittee being to eliminate the destruc- tive and dangerous fireworks and fire- crackers and to substitute in place of these a number of patriotic ceremonies. Last year, for example, one of Lirr’s most able poets, Mr. Arthur Guiter- man, wrote the Fourth of July ode for New York City. “In 1909,” says the New York World, “only twenty cities adopted the proposed methods of supervision, and the casualties of the day num- bered five thousand three hundred and seven. In 1910 there were ninety- one cities to follow the new order of things and the casualties numbered two thousand nine hundred and twen- © ty-three. Last year one hundred and sixty-one cities held sane celebrations and the number of casualties was re- duced to sixteen hundred and three. There remain over eleven hundred cities of over five hundred population that have neglected the reform.” It is only a question of time, how- ever, when every American citizen will know what a sane Fourth means and will insist upon its observance by his children. NAUTICAL MAN OVER-BORED" comicbooks.com