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The Dreadful Fireworks: July

You know how careless young people are with outdoor fires sometimes. Well, now, I want you to know how much more careless grown people are; and in so many more ways, what with their burning off of grass, and the camp-fires of hunters and fishers, and the tens of thousands of automobilists with their camp-fires and their cigars and cigarettes and burning matches, scattered through the woods this time of year from Maine to California. The old way of celebrating the Fourth of July and the Declaration of Independence by blowing off fingers and putting out eyes and setting things afire with firecrackers, has gone out of fashion pretty much, but beginning in July, and even earlier, and lasting on until school takes up in September, we still have far more dreadful fireworks; fireworks that, if put side by side, would make 33,000 miles of flaming woods -- an unbroken wall of fire, long enough to reach four times around the earth and then have enough left over for another forest fire reaching from Chicago to New York! And, as if we had really set out to see how soon we could not only burn ourselves out of our houses and our homes, but burn up all the possible timber for building again, we start a winter house-burning campaign and get it into full swing about the time most of the forest-burning is over and the forest-lands are covered with snow. Independent of the fires in the forest regions a home burns somewhere in this broad land of ours every three minutes, on the average, throughout the year; and largely from causes which might be prevented -- defective chimneys, unprotected floors near furnace-pipes, the careless use of matches.

In connection with the fires in cities goes a heavy death-toll averaging 15,000 a year. The majority of the victims in these cases are the brave soldiers, the firemen, who make it their business, among other things, to risk their own lives to save the lives of others.

I. WHO SET THE WOODS AFIRE?

The burning of brush to clear land for the plough is a common source of forest fires. In the South it is the custom to burn over the dead grass in the woods every spring in order to improve the grazing for cattle and hogs. In the West this is frequently done on land used for pasturing sheep. Through carelessness in the management of such fires, particularly when there comes a sudden rise in the wind, they get beyond control. Massachusetts, Idaho, and many other States now have closed seasons during which it is unlawful to start such fires without a permit. Before a permit can be obtained the applicant must give a good reason for starting a fire at this time and give satisfactory assurance that proper precautions will be taken for controlling it. In forest regions of large extent, such as those in Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Adirondacks, the Rockies, and the mountains of the Pacific coast, carelessness with camp-fires or with matches, cigars, or cigarettes, may set a blaze going that will burn over hundreds of acres before it can be stopped. Between 1916 and 1922 forest fires burned over 10,000,000 acres every year. In 1923 this rose to 26,000,000, and in 1924 to over 28,000,000.

BUT WHY NO EXCLAMATION-POINTS?