"Think of it, Mr. Schwarmer! How would you feel to have your little innocent brother, or child, frightfully scarred, burned or torn to pieces by fireworks that some careless person had put into his hands? Take it to your heart and conscience. Remember, we do not assume that you are a bad man because you distribute fireworks among the children of this town. We know you don't think when you give a lot of boys a lot of toy pistols that they are going to kill or injure each other with them. You are just like a great many others. You have been brought up to think it right for boys to celebrate our Independence Day and you don't stop to think of the new elements of danger which have been, and are constantly being introduced. The firecracker and the torpedo were always dangerous nuisances and should have been done away with long ago for something harmless and more sensible. Instead of that they have been developed into giants and are now manufactured in enormous quantities--enough to burn up the whole world; and they do burn up millions of dollars worth of property each year. "Think of it! It's not only the loss of life that is to be considered but it's the waste of money. It's a pity to see it recklessly burned up when we are needing so many things. We need a public library. All we have now are a few old ragged books. We need a public park, where the children can go to fly their kites, look at the gold fishes, listen to the music, smell of the flowers, laugh, play and sing, and be out of the dust and danger of the crowded thoroughfare. We need good roads and bridges. There isn't a thoroughly good road in town except the speedway, which the corporation helped you build over beyond the hill. The sewers and water works are incomplete. You have about all there are at your place and the towns-people have paid the corporation taxes, although they have been doubled since your coming, without grumbling. Think of all these things, Mr. Schwarmer. Investigate this whole matter for yourself and see if you can't do something better for us than you have been doing. You have refused to take pay from us for the destruction of your property. We thank you but we do not wish you to think that we did not give our whole strength and influence to the work. What I did was to put it into the head of my husband (that now is) to help me do something at once, to prevent the horrible burnt sacrifice that would surely take place if your fireworks were distributed here as usual. I could not rest after hearing the English boast as I did last year that a shrewd English Pyro-king had sold millions of dollars worth of fireworks to the American people to burn up on their '_awful_ Independence Day' as they called it, and that the demand was so great that he had to send a supply from the London manufactory. You see how it is, Mr. Schwarmer. I have heard and thought about these things through days and nights of suffering and exile on English soil.