6 HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH Established 1831 PUBLISHED BY THE TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO. E. J. STACKPOLE Prtsident and Editor-in-Chief F. R. OYSTER Secretary GUS M. STEINMETZ Managing Editor Published every evening (except Sun day) at the Telegraph Building, 21C Federal Square. Both phones. Member American Newspaper Publish ers' Association. Audit Bureau of Circulation and Pennsylvania Associ ated Dailies. Eastern Office, Fifth Avenue Building, New York City, Hasbrook, Story & Brooke. Western Office, Advertising Building, Chicago, 111., Robert E. Ward. Delivered by carriers at <HfflMfcwl3SEC> six cents a week. Mailed to subscribers at $3.00 a year In advance. Entered at the Post Office In Harris burg, Pa., as second class matter. Sivorn dally ivrrngr circulation for the three months ending Dec. 31, 1910. Jf- 22,412 ★ Average for the year 1014—21,WW Avernjee for the year 15* lit—lJMHi- Aiernae for (he year 1912—1H.H49 Average for the year 1911— A\erage for the year 101(^-l#,iltll The above figures nre net. AH re turned, unsold mid damaged copies de <l ueted. SATURDAY EVENING, .TAN. 1 God answers prayer; sometimes, when hearts arc weak. He gives the very gifts believers seek.i But often faith must learn a deeper rest. And trust God's silence when He does not speak; For He whose name is Love will send the best. —Myra G. Plantz. t » MUNICIPAL CHANGES MANIFESTLY City Commissioners Bowman and Lynch arc pre pared to wish the employes of their departments a happy new year with no string to the greeting. They have announced that no changes will be made in their present forces and this means a much happier day for the men who are serving In the Im portant departments of Public Works and Public Safety. As for City Commissioner Gor gas, who was also re-elected, he Is likewise in the same happy situation, but with City Com missioner-elect Gross and Mayor elect Meals the case is somewhat dif ferent. They are going through the worries and frets which accompany the reorganization of any public de partment. With Mr. Gross It Is a se lection of heads of the fire depart ments and his assistants In the De partment of Parks. With the Mayor elect it is the changing somewhat of the personnel of the police depart ment. Both these officials are having the assistance of a considerable part of the population in the way of sug gestion and advice—some of It invited, most of it volunteered. Fortunately for Mr. Gross, his predecessor, Mr. Taylor, has made his pathway comparatively easy by stand ing like a stone wall in favor of a budget appropriation which will give the new head of the Department of Parks the same funds as were granted Mr. Taylor. It is to the credit of the retiring Superintendent of Parks that his interest in this important de partment did not cease with his defeat for re-election.- He has shown a most commendable public spirit and his at titude is one which merits emulation by all members of the City Council hereafter. Mayor-elect Meals lias been fussing more or less over some changes In the police department, but the situation is about as much mixed now as was the case immediately following the election. Some fear has been ex pressed that unless care Is exercised the police department will look like the milk-white flag regiment which, it will be recalled, consisted of a num ber of officers and one private. There is such a thing as too many generals and with a small force at best It would seem to be the part of wisdom to hesitate in reducing the active patrol men in the creation of detectives and oolor bearers. It doesn't follow because there Is to be a change In the mayoralty that there should also be a change In the police department every four years. By the same token It does not follow that once a policeman always a police man. If there are good reasons for changes in the force, they should be made and made promptly; but If the changes proposed are simply to pro vide Jobs for those not now on the force it would be well to remember that a police force is first of all or ganized for the conservation of the public peace and the protection of life and property. There has also fieen a Rood deal said -within the last few weeks about the choice of an assessor. It ought to bo apparent that no more Impor tant place In the entire city govern ment is now under consideration by the City Council. It is true that a treasurer of municipal funds should bo chosen with discretion and good judgment, but tt is equally true that the mail who shall have charge of the assessment of the real estate of Har risburg must be qualified for that Im portant work. It may be too late for the coming year to consider a change In the organization of the offiro of as sessor, but we believe the time is at linnd to give serious thought to this .uiibjeot to the end that there may be equitable and reasonable valuation of ull property. With all the difficulties which con front the five will su- 'SATURDAY EVENING/ pervise and manage the municipality on and after next Monday we still wish them a happy new year and a clear vision of the future Harrlsburg whose destinies will be largely in their keeping. WILLIAM I'EXN HIGHWAY THERE can be no doubt of the success of the William Penn Highway. It Is as certain to come as the flowers of Spring. There are back of this proposition most of the llvewlres of the commercial and motor organizations between Philadel phia 'and Pittsburgh. Harrisburg Is radiating east and west a strong in fluence on the side of this proposed route. It appeals so strongly to the populous towns and districts through out the central part of the State that there can be no doubt of its success. With the Chamber of Commerce of this city pulling a strong oar It is certain that the new year will not be very old when definite steps shall have been .taken. DELEGATED LEGISLATION A PRESS announcement Informs the public that Albert Lee Tlmrsman, solicitor of the De partment of Commerce, and brother in-law to Senator Underwood, of tariff notoriety, has drawn up the shipping bill, which meets with the approval of a number of Democratic legislators, and which will be Introduced in Con gress. This announcement, of the drafting of the legislative measure by an administrative officeholder brings to mind the fact that nearly, if not quite, all the important legislative program of the last Democratic Con gress was initiated outside of that body. When that provision of the Federal Constitution was framed which de clared against the delegation of legis lation by Congress, It was the Idea of the fathers that while legislation should reflect the popular will, it should originate in Congress, and be threshed out In that body. But the supineness of the majority of the Democratic members of the National legislative body has resulted in the delivery of Its legis lative functions largely to out side interests. A bill is drafted by some one, ambitious of pocketbook or popularity; it is referred to the ap propriate committee where It Is scan ned carefully to see what Its political effect will be. if it passes the political censorship of the committee, it is re ported to the House, where it passes through a stuffed club gauntlet of de bate, gees to the Senate, and if politi cally advisable it is ultimately pitch forked on to the public. Many familiar with the present leg islative mazes in Washington believe that the Underwood tariff law was framed by a number of Importers of foreign products. The free wool pro vision was Mr. Bryan's handiwork, and the free sugar Idea, on which the Democrats are now backing down, was attributable in the main, to the President. When the currency bill came up, Dr. 11. PaTkcr Willis, college professor and financial theorist, was called on to frame the measure. Dr. Willis played a double salary roll, drawing salary from the Ways and Means Committee, for his free trade advice, and from the Banking and Currency Committee at the same time. Republican amend ments to the bill, which made it work able were forced into it In the Senate. Willis was rewarded for his efforts by being appointed secretary to the Federal Reserve Board. The Clayton antitrust law is laid at the door of Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor. A lawyer, George Rublee, Is said to have been responsible for many of the fea tures of the Federal Trade Commission law. His industry was rewarded by his appointment as member of that commission. The coal and oil leasing law was written, in full, by Secretary of Interior Lane after consultation with California oil men. Not a line was changed in the House. Criticisms of the bill were referred to an em ploye of the Interior Department, as signed by Lane to act in an advisory capacity to the Committee on Public Lands, which reported the bill. What he said, went. The authorship of the Ship Purchase bill, which went on the ■rocks last year, but which has been salvaged and repaired for the consid eration of this Congress, has been credited to Bernard Baker, of Balti more, President of the Atlantic and Pacific Transport Company. Recently Mr. Baker made public an announce ment that the Intention of the sponsors of that bill had been to purchase the ships of the International Mercantile Marine Company, in case the bill be came a law. Credit for the features of these bills (and that credit is of a decidedly shady character) should go to the special In terests which the Democrats have de nounced on the stump. It Is apparent that the Democratic Congress has wholly abrogated the legislative func tions of that "body. It is a confession of legislative ineptitude. GOOD RESOLUTIONS OUR most popular indoor sport to day, aside from wishing our friends "the same to you, and many more of 'em," Is the making of good resolutions for the New Year. We can think of no more harmless amusement nor one more calculated to give us a good opinion of ourselves or a brighter outlook upon the world In general than this method of cele brating the advent of another twelve month period. Take smoking, for instance. Wp arise early, look about for some new resolution to adopt. Ah, a glance at the pipe we left regretfully half finished on the dresser when sleep overcame our desire to smoke last night, and the resolve springs full grown into being. We'll kill two birds with one stone; make a resolu tion and abolish a bad habit at one fell swoop. To think is to act. No more smoke—nope, not for us; and wo start down town refusing cigars and cigarets right and left, observing Incidentally the fact that everybody on the way appears to have filled his Dockets full to overflowing wit,ft the best smelling Havanas it has been our pleasure to whiff for many a day. At noon comes the first real test, and if it were not that we had figured out along about 10 o'clock that in three years we could save the price of an automobile by giving up the weed for good and all. we might have yielded to the temptation to take just a draw or two—break off gradually, as it were. But no, we are firm in our resolve, and go back to the of fice, smelling perfectly delicious cigar smoke at every step. Confound it, why does everybody persist in blowing it in our face? Around about 3 o'clock we remem ber having read that to break away from the nicotine habit suddenly is to do violence to the system, with dire results to heart and nerves. We grow shaky in our resolution. Per haps, after all, it might be better to smoke moderately for a while, cut ting down slowly, so as not to injure the health. But the grinning face of a friend whose cigar we refused a few hours earlier bobs up before the mind's eye, and we set our face sternly toward duty, resolved to do or die. We go home to dinner in the even ing grouchy and ready to fight the world. The good wife looks at us in hurt_ surprise, for the New Year's dinner has taken hours of her time and labor and It is worth a good word and a smile at least. Finally she learns that we have resolved to stop smoking, and. Intuitive soul that she Is, she knows our need before we do ourselves. "You're going to do noth ing of the kind," says she, "and Johnny is dispatched for his father's pipe. "You don't dissipate in any other way," she continues, "and as a man must have one bad habit, I prefer smoking." Oh, joyful words, how sweet to the soul of us! We protest, mildly, the while searching- our pockets for a match, and soon the home is the dear old, sweet place it used to be before we quit smoking. And so 'with most good resolutions. But don't let that deter you from a day of the exciting sport of temporary martyrdom. TELEGRAPH'S PERISCOPE""] —The Reading Coal and Iron Com pany announces a 10 per cent, raise In prices of coal wind the abolition of the amount added per ton at the mines for State tax. In other words, the tax law having been declared unconsti tutional, the company is preparing to put the tax into its own pockets. —After making all other New Year's resolutions, make a resolution not to break the others. You might as well go the limit while you are about it. —The weather man might have con tributed a clear day to the Mummers' Association. —Over in Austria, when you sink a ship and drown a lot of citizens of a friendly country, the emperor punishes you severely with three light slaps on the left wrist. —A man at the poorliouse died as the result of excitement over a game of checkers. We wonder how he ever managed to get through an old fashioned Fourth of July. - —Same to you and many of 'em. EDITORIAL COMMENT Let us hop© t'hat when they settle the war and return to New York they will be able to pass the mental tests usually required at Kills Island. Bos ton Transcript. The San Francisco Fair closed with a surplus, which is more than some of those who visited it had when they got back home. Philadelphia Kven ing Ledger. Well, maybe there isn't anything suspicious about a powder factory blowing up. but how about that as bestos factory that burned down the other day? Boston Transcript. WALKING STICK OF MARBLES AND AGATES [London Chronicle.] Many of the French walking sticks introduced into Kngland in the early years of the eighteenth century were made of fine marbles and agates. From their semiopaque appearance they were known as "clouded" canes, and are referred to by Pope in his "Rape of the Lock": Sir Plume of amber snuffbox justly vain. And the nice conduct of a clouded cane. The "nice conduct" is graphically described in No. 103 of the "Tatler," where a beau declares that his cane has "become as indispensable as any other of his limbs, and the knocking of it upon his shoe, leaning one leg upon it, o,r whistling upon it with his mouth, are such great relief to him in conversation that he does not know how he should be good com pany without it." DANIELS AGAIN [From the New York Sun.] Secretary Daniels erecting himself in to a final judge of what the country shall know and shnll not know dis closes in himself the guile of the job hunter and the arrogance of the bureau crat. He can achieve onky one welcome suppression, and the object of that is too dear to his heart to encourage the hope that he will be called upon to sub mit to it. PLAYING IT SAFE [New York Sun.] Certain sociologists at Washington declared that Colonel Roosevelt's argument in behalf of preparedness was fallacious, but none of them as serted that the Colonel was soft and slothful, or a poltroon. RESOLUTIONS Hy WIDK Dinger I made some resolutions, good. With which to start the year. I vowed that I would early rise On mornings cold and drear, And put the bedroom windows down, Then to the cellar go To start the furnace going And warm up the house, you know. The clock this morning by my bed With loud alarm did rouse Me from my sleep, reminding me Of all my solemn vows. Game to the core, I leaped from bed, My chores, without delay, I did—but what else could I do? The family" is away, HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH "~;potcttc4 Lk t KKC t| Ic&wla, By the Ex-Committee man Commissioners have been sent from the State Capitol to. all Judicial and other officers who receive their au thority from the Governor under the great seal and who will assume office on Monday, January 3, with exception of probably half a dozen county offi cers of various grades who have not yet filed their bonds as required by law. The commissions of Supreme Court Justice Emory A. Walling and of Judge Uriah P. Rossiter, who will suc ceed him as president Judge of Erie county, were the last to be sent. The commission for Judge Walllng's suc cessor on the bench of Erie will be sent Monday. On Monday three Superior court judges will begin ten-year terms, two having been re-elected, and there will also be twenty-eight common pleas judges sworn in throughout the State, two orphans court judges, one munici pal court judge in Philadelphia and six associate judges. Enormous county officers, including sheriffs of most of the counties, over twenty mayors and many other local officials will also take office on Mon day. In addition Ooatesville, Bethlehem and South Bethlehem will become third-class cities, having received char ters from the State following elections on the question whether to enter that l'orm of government. —Ceremonies attending induction of new judges into office will be more or less elaborate in a number of the counties of the State on Monday. In some counties retiring judges will be presented with addresses and the new judges will be given receptions. At Carlisle there will be more or less ceremony when Judge Sadler retires and Judges Wanner and Gillan will be congratulated by the bars of their counties when they assume their duties for the new term. In Phila delphia there will be quite elaborate ceremonies for the inauguration cere monies. —The attitude of Judge-elect Cor bet, of Jefferson; Judge-elect Emery, of Lawrence; Judge-elect Bailey, of Huntingdon-Mifflin-Bedford, and of Judge-elect Quigley, of Center, in re gard to licenses is attracting consider able attention and it is likely that the license fights will start very promptly next month. —Judge-elect J. N. Langliam, of Indiana, who will assume office on Monday, is a former corporation clerk at the Auditor General's Department and his friends here will send con gratulations. —Mayor-elect Thomas B. Smith yesterday announced his candidacy lor national delegate at large and said that he expected Governor Brum baugh to be a candidate, too. The new mayor said that he had Invited Senator Penrose to visit him. —The county controller situation in Allegheny has assumed the fight ing stage. Controller Cribbs has noti fied all county officials that he con siders Controller-elect Moore ineligible and that they should not recognize him. It. is probable that the matter will get into the courts very promptly. The contest against Moore is on the ground that lie is a senator. —George F. Holmes, county com missipner-elect was sworn in yester day at Philadelphia. He is a news paper correspondent and well known here. —Daniel Stout is the new clerk to the Montgomery commissioners. He succeeds Robert Miller, former mem ber and new register of wills. —Perry county's officials will make their transfer of offices on Monday. James M. McKee succeeds his old rival, W. M. Rice, as district at torney. —The Delaware county courts yes terday refused to grant an injunction restraining Mayor-elect McDowell from taking office, one of the judges calling attention to the lateness of the proceedings and to the conditions which would result from the hold up of the inauguration. —Coatesville's mayoralty contest will go on, although the men elected on the face of the returns plan to take their oaths of office to-day. —Milton Weller, retiring Demo cratic county commissioner of North ampton, was elected mercantile ap praiser much to the surprise of Eas ton politicians. Representative R. H. Trach was appointed deputy county treasurer. —Director W. H. Wilson is said to be planning a general shake-up of all police lieutenants in Philadelphia when he takes hoid next week. It is said that numerous changes will be made in Vare wards. —Judge-elect' Rogers, of Phila delphia, has resigned from his Re publican ward committee. —Lieutenant Colonel M. L. Case has declined the proffer of appoint ment as chief of police of Lebanon, but the new mayor says he will send in his name anyway. , —G. J. Parker was appointed the' first sealer of weights and measures for Juniata county. —Beatty, Martin and Magee havo been appointed county solicitors of Allegheny. They succeed Hay and Vaill. —Frank Malloy of Freeland, promi nent in police work in Luzerne coun ty, has been appointed county detec tive at SI6OO. —According to dispatches from the western part of the State Representa tive H. R. Myers, of Washington, who was mixed up in the Thompson af fairs, has become insane through his troubles. He served his first term as a legislator last session. —Mayor-elect Rhoads, of Altoona, will retain the members of the police force according to an announcement yesterday. OUR DAILY LAUGH I mi< -...AN ADVAN- Jlj TAGE OF AGE. They do the Nt modern dances very well, don't [ j||Bw 1 tfi They ought. They've got four vflnrn daughters at ■Tf| / home to teach ' 'em. AN IMPORTANT Dobbs (shop ping for his wife) germs to me these stockings are rather flimsy. they stand muc.h_^^^3Fi Clerk (dubious ly): Well, I don't know; will • —er —be eitra <"«JH well fllledT 1 — THE CARTOON OF THE DAY WINTER SPORT ( If ANYTfiH<i HAPPENS TO —From tli* Chli-nito Trlliunv. > VISITING THE WAR BRIDES The Chemical Industry ■* By Frederic J. Haskin L. J IS America going to have a dye in dustry after the European War? This is a question which has been the subject of a great deal of speculation, both verbal and financial. The men with capital are beginning to see the results of their enterprise, and the man of words is able to get a pretty good idea as to the prob ability of an American dye industry surviving the European peace. In the first place, the American market for the dyes does not afford a great opportunity, for our total annual consumption of them is only worth about $15,000,000 and includes an almost infinite variety of shades and chemical compositions. An ex pert estimates that to develop an Am erican dye industry capable of sup plying all American needs would cost $80,000,000, and he does not believe the United States, despite its present abundance of capital, lias eighty mil lions to invest in a flfteen-million dollar business. The opinion of this man, and prob ably of a good many other profes sional chemists, is that the industry of making dyes in this country will be strengthened rather than expand ed. The United States will produce more of the dyes used by American manufacturers and will produce a somewhat greater variety. But of the numerous factories that have sprung up since the breaking out of the war, only a few can survive the matured and experienced competition of the German, Swiss and English factories. The chemical industry In the United States is certainly flourishing root and branch at present. Much of its prosperity, however, Is based upon the European demand for acids to be used in making high explosives, and that is a demand which, of course, cannot last. Some factories, which were organized and equipped to take advantage of the so-called dye op portunity. have turned instead to the manufacture of these materials of war. Thus one concern, recently organized and having an apparently precarious hold on existence as a dye factory, was reported to have obtained an order for $6,000,000 worth of picric acid. There are, roughly, three stages in the chemical industry between the raw material and the finished dye. In the first place, from coal tar and other by-products are made what are called the "primaries" the crude chemicals which are the basis of all dyes. The conversion of these primaries Into the intermediates, which com prise some 1200 chemicals, is a separ THE STATE FROM DAY TO DAY "The automobile may eventually dis place the horse, but it will never figure prominently on a New York restaurant menu," says the Erie Evening Herald, commenting editorially upon the re cent introduction of horse meat as a palatable disli. Even this light method of jesting does not take a Way our instinctive dislike at the thought of driving our own food through the park. In the great wave of prosperity that is sweeping over Parkesburg a new newspaper, the Parkesburg Journal, rears its head and sweeps in upon the crest. We extend to it our best wishes for the New Year, with the added hope and confidence that the wave be strong enough to carry it to safety be fore breaking. "Skeleton is Seller's Cellar" was the alliterative way in which the news of the discovery of a number of human bones in the cellar of J. P. Seller's store in Reading a day or so ago was made. Rumors of a murder, thoughts of Edgar Allan Poe and other theories were advanced when it was learned that the bones, pieced together, made an almost perfect skeleton. It now comes out that a doctor had left it there some years ago and the janitor had thrown it away as debris. Pneumonia-grip, that delightful com panion that has called upon so many in the last few weeks, has claimed twenty-three lives in Pittsburgh in three days. The mortality out there last week totaled fifty-three persons. The Berks County Conservation As sociation has applied to the State For estry Department for 778,000 trees, which will be given to schools, or phans' homes, associations and indi viduals, to be planted throughout Reading and the county during the next year. It costs a million dollars to run the city of Reading for one year, but a recent report states that one million a day is required to keep Now York city, the largest in the world, going. DINING HALL OF FAME [From the Boston Transcript.] The Gary dinner where the Colonel and Biff Business feasted tog-ether Is fiolnk to put all previous meals Into tne shade. It will stand by itself In JANUARY 1, 1916. x ate industry, and tlie making of the finished colors from the intermediates is yet a third. The Pittsburgh fac tories, described in a recent article of this series, are devoted almost en tirely to the making of primaries, or crude chemicals, and especially to the high explosive acids at present. Along the Atlantic seaboard and ad jacent towns, the intermediate and final stages in the Conversion of by products Into dyes have undergone an almost equal expansion. The intermediate business has grown from one of $3,000,000 to about $15,000,000 In a single year. There are about ten factories," of which eight are new. Likewise, in the making of finished dyes, there were live factories before the war broke out, and there are now fifteen. It is upon these, of course, rather than the less specialized factories that the heaviest strain of European competition will fall. The popular idea that the superior skill of the German chemists has en abled them' to successfully build up a by-products industry which the United States in its young wasteful ness has overlooked, does not find much favor with American chemists. True, there may be just a touch of professional bias In this point of view, but it seems to be true that Americans have manufactured the chemicals which they were able to produce with profit, and have neglected the dye industry chiefly be cause It. did not seem to .come Into that class. The Germans have al ways found a ready market for their primaries and internieCHaTes In Eng land and Switzerland wTiere a large proportion or the finished dyes have always been mide. The Americans, however, had no similar market close at hand and could not manufacture the dyes cheaply enough to compete with the English and Swiss trade. Benzol Is an example of a chemteal of which manufacturers in this country have manufactured !10 per cent, of the American supply. Henzol is the basis of nitro-benzol, which Is the material of aniline oil used in several dyes. The American manu facturers found that they could make benzol In large quantities, but that the dye industry did not offer a suffi ciently wide market for the product. Accordingly, they develop the use of benzol as a solvent in paints and varnishes, and also It is used in the rubber trade for making rubber ce ment. It is notable that the Germans, with all their boasted ingenuity' never thought of either of these uses for benzol until the Americans had taken it up. The Searchlight A NKW VAMI.I.A PLANT The Philippine Islands promise to supply a new source of vanilla In a plant which has lately been found avail able for that purpose, named vanilla planlfolia. It grows most plentifully upon the Island of Mindaro in deep forests and open ravines. The Board of Education of the Phil ippine Islands, which is responsible tor discovering Its value, is now consider ing plans for nropagatlng It and Is ex perimenting with it in a number of school gardens. The roots of the plant have alreadv been utilized in making the fancy bas kets which are a recognized native product. These roots are white and flexible and have been combined with other dark-colored fibers with good ef fect. Its utilization as a source of vanilla extract is regarded as of greater com mercial value than Jhe basket makinjr If the supply Is Increased by cultivation both uses can he continued. WE NEED PURPOSE TFrom the New Republic.] Nothing is so bad for the soul as feeling that is dispensed on nothinir We recognize this well enough In the esthete who takes In impressions and gives forth estlietlcism, In the school girl who weeps over impossible ro mances. in the old gentleman nfdieted with chronic moral indignation. To feel and feel and feel and never to use that feeling Is to grow distracted and wor , risome, and to no end. We Americans i have been witnessing supreme drama' [clenching our fists, talking, vet unable to fasten any reaction to realities. Fer ment without issue, gestation without birth. Is making us sullen and self-con scious and ashamed. The source of our trouble may be traced directly to the President's first message to the American people, when we wore asked to be neutral In reeling We were not told to feel about anvthln* positive, we were merely told not to feel too deeply. That negative injunc tion was bound to fail, and the vacllia tlon of America has ever since grown ' more serious. What Prosldent Wilson i seems not to understand Is that the enunciation of a great purpose which enlists emotion Is the onlv way to 1 avoid that clashing of emotions from ! which we suffer. MATTER OF PRONOUNS [From the Louisville Courier-Journal.] i Elsie Ferguson, actress, objects to the 1 expression "Isn't It lovely." Of course 1 Any actress might, but how'<l "Isn't she I lovely" ring across the footlights?. | Brottttg (Eljat mt , day has alwa y« been more or less formally observed In HarrUburg, although as a matter of act until the last few years there ha* t'aken n Dla<. U ( . b i 1 i? celebra «. io n such as has Mummm' trough the agency of the, tions h™« association. The celebra t"" I®, b . e f n more or loss confined lore anrt = / services the night be night!!,i tremendous racket at mid- Back in ti events the next day. thp IJUiI early f]avs of Harrisburg house for of , the town kept open truth hi tti neighbors and, if the Were n ♦ d ; PUnch bovv,s an< l toddies Sn e "° , unknown. Governor Simon urated in " 8 Governor to be inaug tlie cSti arr lsb u rg, always received fitv thlfr K ? residence In this ow'nori k g no executive mansion davs n &tate until the Civil war Snvrfftr governors following General I'n'lfi 2 up the <'ustom and in the thl>, and Hartranft administrations hnmt receptions at the otticial sm.a S Governors, much on the ldn«» . nes of those of the last, half ■uifMH yea J' a Ol d newspapers tell in em i?" ° rece Ptions given by pr6mi nt cit'zens i.nd note that the friends Ins or that resident were his guests i,n, ' Yoar ' B Party, while it was r.r, .' nco mm°n for delegations to wait (.ffini i Governor or some prominent n , llen General Simon Canier i,«., ? s . . anc * the legislators hap in fv. n ? llere for an opening day iinn| i rst of the year they used to M a formal call on him. The late ;,i a £?s Eby used to greet his friends his oflico on tlio morning: of New l.f^ 1 ® and 't was a custom of a nulli ng. . me , n who have since passed r «'m t° w elcome their intimate friends on the first day of the year. The States new stock transfer tax, 2„. h is ? l stamp tax like that Undo • am requires to l»e paid on notes and other things, is making: the usual amount of trouble for (he State au thorities. About 100 letters a day are being answered on the subject, but the pme went to a man who complained mat stamp taxes were becoming too numerous and that he could appre ciate the feelings of the fathers over the stamp tax. Then he wanted to Know, inasmuch ass Uncle Sam and Wither Penn are both engaged in stamp taxes, whether he could not use retleral tax stamps for business and thus avoid having to get two sets of stamps. The officials in charge used a postage stamp to tell him not to be so thrifty. The Slate wants its two cents and the government wants its two rents, and the inquirer must go to separate places and buy stamps. • • » Commission Clerk Gilbert H. Hass ler was given a new form of inquirv the other day. He gets asked all kinds of questions about the service of this or that official in days gone by and it is a common saying that when any de partment gets an inquiry it cannot handle it sends it to the Secretary of the Commonwealth and then it hinds on Hassler. The other day someone in Kansas wrote for information about an ancestor who had served in one of the early wars and helped organize a county. The writer stated that he had been a. justice of the peace and asked for his military record, his marriage, the name of his wife and where he had lived prior to becoming famous. Mr. Hassler found his public service anil where he lived, but Father Penn never specialized on genealogy and statistics of marriages before the days of State Librarian Montgomery and Health Commissioner Dixon. Kach change in the theater of war brings a demand for new maps, ac cording to a merchant who handles such matters, and it is declared by hlni that he has no end of trouble with people who get mixed lip on the spell ing of places. Some come around and say that the map sold does not give what they want when it is as plain as day before them only spelled different from what they read in the newspa pers. One man, said the merchant, has been a regular map buyer. He traces the armies on a map at his home and uses up one a week. The proposed State society which it is intended to organize among 1 the heads of departments of the State government will probably take shape about the middle of next week when a conference will be held. It Is likely that the organization will have Its tlrst luncheon in February and the Gov ernor will be the guest of honor. Later on a dinner will be held, possibly in Philadelphia. Prof. Eli XI. Rapp, the Jiew president of the State Educational Association, is well known to many residents of this city as he has frequently spoken here. Sir. Rapp will preside at the sessions liete ir December of next year when in accordance with custom the teachers will have their biennial meet ing in Harrisburg. f WELL KNOWN PEOPLE —H. J. Cornman, retiring head of the Altoona city water department, was presented with a loving cup by employes of his department. —John D. Graham, the new re corder of Allegheny county, took the oath of office before the Judges in open court. —Alderman James Molr, of Scran ton. lias just celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary. —II. May is the new head of mo tive power of the Lehigh Valley. —,\v. R. lvranzley. chief of the Al lentown lire department, is urging that it be motorized. T j. Donnell, postmaster of Jen kintown, is seriously ill. | DO YOU KNOW Thai Harrisburg-made tin Is used in many foreign countries? HISTORIC HAKRIHBURG Residents of this city built a canal over part of the way of the later Pennsylvania canal in 1825. BROWN'S COMPASS [From the Kansas City Journal.] A compass, once the property of John Brown which played a part in early hlstorv has Just been received at the museum of the Kansas State Historical Society In Topena. John Brown used the instrument when he was living in Osawatomie. In the years between IST,., !lr >(l is:,s During the Missouri-Kansas border warfare in those days, the story Soes the abolitionist leader used the fomnass in a pretense of surveying In ml when In reality be was locating and mapping the camps of pro-slavery men. Welcome 1916 RBDeeially welcome for the rainbow or promise you br'ng marking the passing of the In l'U\nc'Bwlth^business getting bet ter "ael. day it Is high time for nil of us to plan ahead. There Is a slang phrase to the effect that "the best time, to go '* Anlfwhen look°bett#r? effort for newspaper advertla- Ing csperla'
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers