Wisely, authorized commercial fireworks displays in New York City are launched over bodies of water, though it seems it took the city a while to realize this was the safest way to enjoy the colorful explosions. This cartoon ran in the Sunday edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 29, 1902 in anticipation of Fourth of July, with the caption “Our Annual Reign of Terror.�

Although a city ordinance at the time outlawed fireworks displays unless a permit was granted, those permits were granted a bit more loosely than they are today. The large number of wood frame houses made any fires caused by the spectacles that much more dangerous. In November of 1887, a physician living on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, Dr. S. Fleet Speir, had the unpleasant experience of a rocket flying right through his front door when the Academy of Music was lighting a display on Montague and Clinton streets. His house burned and the city was found liable for granting the permit. Real tragedy struck, however, a few months after this cartoon appeared when on election night in Manhattan a fireworks incident resulted in the death of 13 people.

Mayor Low called for more stringent rules in granting permits and placed the authority to do so solely with the Police Commissioner. The Fire Commissioner at the time condemned the “reckless risk of life and property involved in the indiscriminate granting of permits for fireworks displays in crowded and closely built up streets in the city.� Indeed.

— P.N.

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