as well as means to the task of making the occasion the happiest of all the year to the ignorant and the wretched. Let us give them a day of liberty in the country or in the parks, where they will see our beautiful flag floating everywhere about them, and where their untrained ears will become accustomed to the ringing rhythm of our national melodies. Let us give them mementos of the Fourth, such as flags and pictures of our heroes and of those whom we love as well as honor. There let them listen to the story of the birth of our Republic, and have it told simply and, if necessary, in their own tongues, so that all can feel how great were those who made the country free, and how wonderful is the boon of liberty now extended to the oppressed of other countries. A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH OF JULY BY HENRY LITCHFIELD WEST (From _The Forum_, August, 1909.) A little more than a year ago the _Century Magazine_ contained a vigorous and convincing article by Mrs. Isaac L. Rice, entitled “Our Barbarous Fourth.” It was a protest against a condition of affairs in the United States which had long attracted attention but which no one, up to that time, had criticised in such emphatic terms. “The grim statistics of the Fourth of July,” said the article, “probably furnish a sadder commentary of human folly than that afforded by any other celebration in the world.”... It is true that a few thoughtful people had in more or less nonchalant manner observed the terrible toll of death and injury which the evil celebration of the day demanded. Quite a number of newspapers—notably the _Chicago Tribune_—were questioning the wisdom of a method which in one day had resulted in the death of 164 people, and the injury of nearly 5,000. “How can any satisfaction,” asked the _New York Tribune_, “be taken in the perversion of a holiday to purposes of disorder and destruction, and how can any pride be felt in methods of observance which inevitably condemn hundreds—if not thousands—to be shot, burned, maimed, and otherwise disfigured and tortured in propitiation of the great god of senseless uproar?” The _St. Paul Pioneer Press_ deplored the fact that a day which ought to be the most enjoyable in the calendar had become a day of general carnage; while the _New York Commercial_ characterized the popular celebration as ridiculous and senseless.