Independence Day is just around the corner!
Though the popularity of the holiday seems to ebb and flow, the late 19th century saw the Fourth of July in its heyday. In the year 1870, July 4 become an official federal holiday, and one Miss Nettie Spencer, interviewed for the American Life Histories project, recalled that the Fourth was the biggest event of the year, drawing folks together from all parts of the countryside.
There would be floats in the morning and the one that got the [girls?] eye was the Goddess of Liberty. She was supposed to be the most wholesome and prettiest girl in the countryside — if she wasn’t she had friends who thought she was. But the rest of us weren’t always in agreement on that…Following the float would be the Oregon Agricultural College cadets, and some kind of a band. Sometimes there would be political effigies.
Just before lunch—and we’d always hold lunch up for an hour—some Senator or lawyer would speak. These speeches always had one pattern. First the speaker would challenge England to a fight and berate the King and say that he was a skunk. This was known as twisting the lion’s tail. Then the next theme was that any one could find freedom and liberty on our shores. The speaker would invite those who were heavy laden in other lands to come to us and find peace. The speeches were pretty fiery and by that time the men who drank got into fights and called each other Englishmen. In the afternoon we had what we called the ‘plug uglies’— funny floats and clowns who took off on the political subjects of the day…The Fourth was the day of the year that really counted then. Christmas wasn’t much; a Church tree or something, but no one twisted the lion’s tail.
How wonderful we can still twist the lion’s tail in our day and age! True, the political verbiage may no longer be directed at the King of England, but remember in the midst of your differences and debates, how very blessed we are to live in a country where we can argue to our hearts’ content.
quote: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul04.html
image: fanpop.com