The serenity of this seaside resort was disturbed yesterday by the banging of fireworks and other sounds of ney. When it is noted that the date was July the 4th it will be concluded that the American residents had something to do with disturbing the peace. A well-selected committee had arranged a programme for the day, beginning at 4 p.m. by aspread-eagle performance consisting of patriotic songs, two-minute orations by the juvenile element, and with a concert by the adult residents lasting from 9 to 11. All nationalities sojourning at this beautiful spot were ro-resented, not excepting the ubiquitous chinese, who hung on the fence and crowded the space in front of the Pavilion to witness the orgies and speculate upon the sanity of their foreign neighbours. As the shades of night descended of course there were fireworks without which no Fourth Celebration would be complete. During the exercises the audience were requested to join in Hail (columbia which proved, as usual, a questionable success. Americans always imagine they know this song until they undertake its rendition. The children's programme closed with a revised version of Rally round the flag, the chorus being altered to read **Down with the tyrant and up with the Star," at which crisis the newly adopted Lone-star banner of the Cuban Republic was unfurled. A visitor from the States amused the children by showing them how 1 five pointed star could be cut from a folded paper at a single clip of the shears. The children then distributed to each of the audience a little pasteboard hatchet decorated with tricolour ribbon, significant of the traditional encounter between the youthful George Washington and his father's cherry-tree. The inevitable, but nevertheless palatable, refreshments were then served by the Indies, and after a two hours recess, the community again assembled for the evening concert. The Pavilion is a frail build constructed without reference to acoustic properties or architectural beauty, but when decorated with the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack and further brightened by highly coloured por-"traits of the President and the Queen culled from newspapers and perchance, from some fortuitous advertisement, the effect. was not bad. In lieu of electric lights, sundry and- divers lanterns were hung from the rafters which served to reveal the tasteful costumes of the ladies, even if not sufficiently luminous to enable some of the audience to decipher their copies of the Star-Spangled Banner." Happily the occasion was not American for Americans only, for among the soloists were several representatives from Albion's-shores and the land of the Fear-de-lis. Nor was spread-eagleism a marked feature, for many were the allusions to the proposed Anglo-American alliance—each of which was greeted by hearty applause—and France was welcomed as an old-time friend of the Great Republic. Space will not permit a detailed review of the programme, but wholesome humour was a characteristic of each address, the soloists posed well and sang like professionals, while the violin virtuoso bravely won applause in spite of difficulties. Then from out the solid strata of Rocky Point's elite Society was unearthed a poet who reviewed past history and present political complications in verses that might have been worse. In short the whole occasion proved a sort of world-embracing mutual admiration society, and all who were present voted the Fourth Demonstration a grand success.
ath July.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.