6 HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH A NEWSPAPER FOR THE HOME Founded iSjt Published evenings except Sunday by THE TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO., Telegraph Bulldlus. Federal Square. E. J. STACK POLE, Pres't & Editor-in-Chief F. R. OYSTER, Business Manager. OUS M. STEINMETZ, Managing Editor. ' 11 ■ ______ Member American Ushers' Assocla- Bureau of Circu lation and Penn sylvania Associ- Baste office, Building, Entered at the l'ost Office In Harrls burg, Pa., as sicond class matter. By carriers, ten cents a mMMWusaasuj week; by mail, $5.00 a year in advance. MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20 If you tell the truth, you have in finite power supporting you; but if not, you have infinite power against you. —CHABX.ES GEORGE GORDON. PROUD AND SAD WE of Harrisburg are proud and sad to.day. Proud because another company of our vol unteers is going away, for how long' and to what peril* we know not; and sad because we shall miss them and our hearts shall hunger for them until they return, which we all pray shall be in triumph and safety. This is not the first time that Har risburg has said farewell to troops marching away to war. Four times within the memory of many still living Harrisburg men have sprung to arms at the nation's call; once when the Union was threatened, once when it became our duty to end Spanish cruelty in Cuba and the Philippines, again when Villa threatened Invasion from Mexico and \ cow. upon a mission that Americans hope will end war for all time. It is a glorious, if dangerous, enter prise upon which these young men set out —to make war on war, to fight that there may be no more fighting, to risk their lives that coming generations may live in peace and tranquility. Theirs is a privilege as well as a sacrifice —a privilege that many who, on account of age or other circumstances are barred from the army envy them, for it must be understood that there are thousands of men in private life who chafe under the bonds which tie them to their workaday tasks while others fight their battles. And so t we are proud and sad to-day, proud of the patriotism of those who go; sad in saying farewell, and, some of us, at least, sad because we too can't go. George F. Watt will be sadly missed in the business and civic and social life of the city. He was a man of forceful personality, devoted to the interests of Harrisburg as the head of one of our greatest Industries, and a citizen of vision and enthusiasm. He carved his own way to a high pl-ce In his day and generation, and the world is poorer for his going. A GREATER HARRISBURG SINCE tho consolidation of the Bethlehem 6 the chief interest of the people has centered In the choice of mayor and it appears that one of the most distinguished citizens of the new city has been induced to stand for the honor. Big things are happening in the Lehigh Valley and big men are demanded for the Im portant work that must be done. While Harrisburg is listless and out of sorts over the decadence of public interest in matters of vital interest here the Bethlehems and Allentown are pushing toward a great munici pality through the annexation of sur rounding towns. City Solicitor John E. Fox has a vision of the still greater Harrisburg and we may look hopefully to him to lead us to the achievement of the things which are easily possible In our development. But there must be an awakening. Even In a war period we must give attention to the selection of public officials who will express in their acts the sentiment of the community. In the Bethlehems the office is seeking the man so far as the mayor, alty is concerned, and Arch Johnston has been drafted for the job. Some euch thing Is going to happen In Harrisburg one of these days. Josephus Daniels is at it again. He has now declared war on the Navy League, which has been doing much for the comfort of our fighters at sea. Secretary Daniels won't allow the or ganisation to send any more knit . goods and comfort kits in its own name, so there! Some sacred persons •t Washington are inviting the guil lotine. A BOOK TOR A SOLDrEK STATE LIBRARIAN THOMAS LTNCH MONTGOMERY, presi dent o* the American Librarians' \ Association, has sent out a call for aid In raising a million dollars for books for soldiers. There ought to be no difficulty In getting the money. Th project Is praiseworthy in the extreme. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" and the idleness is the bane of the soldier's life. Leisure with no wholesome occupation pre senting Itself brings temptation even In civil life, but It is trebly productive Monday evening. n hxrrisburg telegpc&ph: of evil -when Its subject 1b In a far country, without anything to do or •any good thing to read. To provide books for soldiers will keep many of them out of mischief and will give others opportunity to keep up with the times and to fit themselves for various occupations after the war, not to mention the surcease from toil and care that comes from an hour's perusal of a good book. Judge McCarrell is resting at Eaglesmere, and the comforting thought that nobody will oppose his re-election must enhance the pleasure of the summer outing. Dauphin county voters have a habit of rewarding good and faithful servants. THE RED CROSS PLEA —HE Harrisburg Chapter of the I Red Cross has been asked to provide 39,000 pieces of knit goods for the soldiers in France. The Steelton branch has been ask ed to provide 12,000 pieces ad ditional. This is a big order. The articles cannot be made in a day. They in i elude everything from sweaters to wrist warmers and socks. They are needed immediately. Already the cold season is approaching and our men will be in the trenches before snow files. Frost is almost as deadly a foe as the Germans. Trench life is perilous and unpleasant at best. Add to it cold and dampness and it becomes doubly so. While we are sitting beside open fires, or warm radiators or hot stoves the coming winter, thousands of our fellows who stand between us and the horrors of a German invasion will be facing the hardships of life in the open, with bullets and shells overhead and melting snow or ice underfoot. Denied even the consola tion of a campflre that would merely make of them targets for the enemy's guns, their warmth must come from within. Heavy woolen sweaters, wristbands, mittens and socks they must have if they are to weather the winter healthy and efficient. The Red Cross has asked for help. The Red Cross has never asked in vain. Harrisburg and Steelton have responded to previous calls as gener ously as any communities of their size in the country. It will not do to fail now, and if money alone would answer there could be no question as to the outcome. But this call is of another sort. It Is one of personal service rather than of monetary contribution. Only women, who already have done so much for the Red Cross, can do this work. One thousand knitters are needed to make the garments for which the national headquarters has asked. Here is a time when fad fits in very well with utility. There was a periojl when knitting was almost a lost art. Our grandmothers knit the socks, the mittens and the "com forters" for the whole family. But with the coming of machine-made stockings and gloves the knitting needle took Its place beside the can dlestick as an old-time curiosity in a majority of households. Recently, however, it has become "quite the thing" to knit and most women know how to ply their needles as efficiently as did the ladles who lived in the days before department stores and their multitudinous wares came to relieve housekeepers of many of their tedious tasks. From knitting neckties, collars, lace and the like, these women will now turn their attention to making garments for soldiers. We say "will," for there is no doubt about it. Har risburg and Steelton women are quite as patriotic as their brothers who have enlisted as volunteers in such numbers that the draft will not ap ply In Harrisburg on the first call for troops. Under a ruling of the War Depart ment the colored troops called to the colors are to be trained in the same camps as the other troops In the ser< vices to which they belong. And why not. pray? As the esteemed Philadel phia Record suggests, the division* of which the new National Army will consist are distributed on geo graphical and not racial lines. These colored men will form parts of the di visions drawn from the sections of which they are residents, and as In the Spanish-American and other wars in which they have had opportunity to participate, they are certain to main tain a record for bravery and devotion to duty equal to any other troops. We of Harrisburg have not forgot ten the splendid battalion under Major Young at Camp Meade In 1898, and the pages of the country's his tory are emblazoned with the brave deeds of colored soldiers. Mayor Smith is again moving for harmony In tjie Republican party in Philadelphia. He will have the good wishes of all Republicans in this en deavor. Most of the party's troubles started in the metropolis of the State, and peace ought to come from the same quarter. Altoona is about to plok four mem bers of the City Commission who will agree upon the city manager plan for the Mountain City. In this city those who have favored the manager sug gestion are helplessly rolling their eyes and declaring the people have lost all interest in municipal affairs. ot, 'PiivKOtfkrcuua By the Ex-Committeeman Mayor Thomas P. Smith, of Phila delphia, who announced in .a tren chant statement on Saturday that he was going to get harmony in regard to a ticket in Philadelphia this fall If he had to start an In dependent movement within the Re publican party to get It, seems to have won out. It Is announced In Philadelphia newspapers this morn ing that an agreement has been reached and that Senator Penrose and the Mayor have reached an agreement. While there is nothing said about the Vares it Is assumed that the Mayor spoke for them. Judging from what is printed there will be an agreement on a ticket formally reached to-day and from the time being discussion of guber natorial candidates for next year will be deferred. The Philadelphia sit uation took up so much of Sen ator Penrose's trip yesterday that he did not get very far in conversa tion with up-state leaders who were at the seashore. If the Mayor of Philadelphia is successful In avert ing a factional fight this year in his city and county the Republicans of the rest of the State will give thanks. The Philadelphia Inquirer of to day in an Atlantic City dispatch, sums up the developmentsyes terday, which are of interest to all of Pennsylvania because of effect on the general State political situation, as follows: "Mayor Thomas B. Smith let it be known to-night that he had won out in his fight for har mony among the Republican factions in Philadelphia. It is believed that he can confidently count upon a united party organization to support the following ticket: For District Attorney, Samuel P. Rotan, affiliated with the Penrose- McNlchol interests. For Receiver of Taxes, W. Free land Kendrick, a personal friend of the Mayor, allied with the Vare lea dership. For Register of Wills, James B. Sheehan, a Penrose-McNichol ad herent. For City Treasurer, Frederick J. Slioyer, who was named at the in stance of the Vares by Governor Brumbaugh to be chairman of the Board of Registration Commission ers. "While these selections must be confirmed by a conference, which will be held in Philadelphia to-mor row, there is no doubt that they will be approved. Before leaving for Philadelphia this evening the Mayor said he expected to issue a state ment to-morrow reviewing the whole situation." The Mayor's fighting statement is sued late Saturday night was: "I do not like this political game. I am, however, drawn into it and I will go the limit to bring about the result, which every Republican in Pennsylvania should seek to accom plish. I long for the day when my term as Mayor shall end and when I can give all of my time to my family and my business. I have not the slightest ambition to be a poli tical boss. I do not yearn or seek for political power. Yet I realize that if the full power of the office of Mayor were exerted to accom plish any end no faction leader could block it. I maintain that no United States Senator or State Sen ator or any political leader, no mat ter how potential he has been In the past, should have the right to injure the party. I do not propose that the party shall be injured, and, if needs be, I will fight to insure har mony," the Mayor declared. I want real harmony, not an agree ment for the primaries, to be fol lowed up by the knifing of one or more of the candidates at the gen eral election," he continued. "Nei ther will I stand for trickery of any kind. Everything in connection with the naming of the ticket must be on the level and above board. I have no sympathy with subtle or un derhand work. As the representa tive of the people, I win demand that there shall be fair play. It is not impossible that I will suggest a ticket to the people, if the leaders fail to come to an agreement upon candidates. If we are to have a liousecleaning I will take a hand in the cleaning." —Archibald Johnston, called the steel business' best salesman, who has consented to run for the first mayor of Greater Bethlehem city, was urged to do so by a petition signed by 5,000 men. He is vice president of Bethlehem Steel. —An Allentown dispatch discus sing ttte creation of the city of Bethlehem, contains this interesting paragraph: "A suggestion several months ago that the consolidation of Allentown and Greater Bethlehem was among the possibilities brought storms of criticism and ridicule, but stranger things have happened. So far as wiping out the identity of Al lentown is concerned it has been brought out that Philadelphia in cludes Germantown and Frankford, Nicetown and Tioga, and the estab lishment of Greater New York has not killed the Identity of Manhattan, the Bronx, Richmond or Brooklyn. The Joining of Allentown and Beth lehem would make a municipality of upward of 200,000 persons, which would supersede Scranton as the third city of Pennsylvania." —The campaign for the city man ager form of Bovernment was launched on Saturday at Altoona. Four candidates for City Commis sioner who will inp yturate the sys. tem if elected, , /re announced. They are N. A. Stevens, undertaker; Charles H. Cassidy, contractor; W. C. Westfall, merchant, and Frank Hastings, banker. A committee of fifty-eight citizens selected the can didates and their choice will be rati fied at a public mass meeting. AIN'T IT A GRAND AND GLORIOUS FEELIN'? By Brig WHEN You HAVEN'T YOU D CAN^ICTURE FOR" TWO R DA% - nor A C *VWORK° ' £jg\) S ?eu°OW ß heard from help. and"* W C° URTUS,G BECAUSE, OF A QUARREL WORRYING -■'-AND YOU FINALLY -IF SHE THE QU- H -H 3>EOT>E lo CALL HER "PHONG VJITH A Allsl'T IT A The R " Ve * I eTC amo r\ EDITORIAL COMMENT j Why not call Uncle Sam's stalwart soldier sons "Samsons?" —Kansas City Star. The Kaiser is enthusiastically in favor of home rule—for Ireland. — Boston Transcript. The Chicago I-lerald boils it down to this: "I. W. W. means, 'I work for Wilhelm.' " —Springfield Repub lican. We see by Upton Sinclair's seces sion from the Socialist party that he is about to publish a new book. — Boston Transcript. B. L. T., of the Chicago Tribune, has an argument that the liquor in terests refuse to use. It is that pro hibition would mean a scarcity of washer women.—Toledo Blade. Continuity After eternal things, Eternity! After enduring days, unending ones. With only spells of rest between the suns Which dim, at last, and fall us ut terly! What matter so the cycle rounded be. So seconds blend with centuries, and all Our vislonlnga become perpetual, Palaced between the zenith and the sea! And if our lives, outlasting, can re solve Into this good or that surpassing 111, Wherefore may not Eternity distil A kind of wine alchemic and evolve A something which Perfection shall excel— Or on a ruined Heaven erect a Hell! —By Mahlon Leonard Fisher. War Service Census By direction of the railroad's war board tho railways of the country are taking a census of-the men em ployed, with a view to assisting the government in determining which employes should and which should not be exompted from military serv ice. Under the regulations of the War Department, "there can be no exemption by classes, but each in dividual case must lie taken up and determined upon its own merits, having, of course, consideration for the maintenance of the national in terest, as provided by law." The pro vost marshal general has advised the railroads' war board, however, that "It is the policy of the administra tion to so execute the 'selective serv ice act' as not to unnecessarily crip ple any industry." The census being taking of all rßilway men will show who are unmarried and who are not, with details as far as practicable as to those dependent upon the married men. Another classification will show those who may be relieved from the service without embarrass ment because they can h e replaced either by men Inexperienced in rail way operation or by women. The railway lists of those whom It is be lieved should be relieved from mili tary duty are to be prepared In de tail for each district. With the lists will be affidavits setting out the facts in detail, subscribed to by the immediate superior officer and certi fied to by the superintendent or head of the department in which each in dividual is employed. The roads will make direct application to the ex emption boards for the exemption from military service of all.employes whom the lists and affidavits show should be relieved from military duty under the terms of the selective service law. An Old Portrait There is a portrait pearled with age, encircled by a carven band Of gold acanthus richly wrought. that hangs upon a western wall; A little boy and elder girl upon a poplar terrace stand Before a portal, dimly seen, of fluted columns twined and tall. The lady sister lifts her head from out a lucent India lawn. Low-cut above the slender, small, unheaving breast of virgin youth; And sweetly placid are her eyes, like cool, bluo lilies In the dawn, And placid is the limpid smile that bow.'- her sweet and ten der mouth. But oh. my little father, limned unto the very breath of life! From ltly-llnen pantaloons and purple-velvet coat you rise, With black, Hibernian locks that toss and crowd abo/e tlie vlsloned strife. The shadowy-burning, darkly bright young Revolution In your eyes! —By Sarah N. Cleghorn. WITHIN THE GATES OF BESSA RA BIA One of the Richest Provinces of Russia and a Great Wine- Making Region—lts People WITH the fall of Czernowitz and the capture of Chotin the Central Powers hi&ve en tered the gates of Bessarabia, one of Russia's richest provinces, which lies between the Pruth and the Dniester rivers, and which was taken from Rumania in exchange for the Do brudja district, after one of Russia's wars with Turkey. The following bulletin by the National Geographic Society, from its headquarters here, gives an interesting picture of this province, its history, its normal ac tivities, and its physical features. Bessarabia, the Russia province lying between tho Pruth and the Dniester rivers and bounded on the south by the Danube and tho Black Sea, might be likened to a tall, slim pitcher without a handle. It is com pletely bounded by water except at a very narrow point at the mouth of the pitcher. The Dniester river forms the eastern boundary of the province. Flowing out of the crown lands of Galicia, the river runs east in general direction for approximate ly fifty miles. Then it turns south east for ninety miles as the crow flies, and finally runs south of east for a hundred miles to Dniester Bav, an arm of the Black Sea, some fif teen miles from Odessa, Russia's principal port, on .that inland body of water. The Pruth river, flowing out of Galicia runs cast for about twen ty miles, then turns southeast for a hundred and ten miles, and then sligli"v west of south to Its conflu ence with the Danube. Bessarabia Is a little smaller than Vermont and New Hampshire to gether. Its greatest length is 275 miles, while its greatest width Is 175. It Is mostly flat, except for some well-wooded offshoots of the Car pathian mountains in the northwest. It might be said to be the vineyard or Russia, being a gieat producer of wine. The population of 2,500,000 is made up of Moldavians, Little Russians, Poles. Rumanians, Bul garians, .Tews, Armenians. Greeks and Tartars. More than 2,000,000 of the inhabitants live on the soil. The capital is Kishinef, which is located "Testing" the Draft Act Several attempts to "test the con stitutionality of the selective draft act have been made In different parts of the country with tho invariable result of judicial indorsement of the law. Nov/ somo objectors at Cleve land have carried a case to the Unit ed States Supreme Court, where It will probably be decided in the fall. No sensible person, however, sup posses that those making the "test" have any hopes of the law being de clared unconstitutional. Their pur pose, apparently. Is much more prac tical, namely, to assist them In the dissemination of their opinions and to promote, if possible, the antina tional campaign being conducted by a few disloyalists. If they could have their way they would reduce the United States to the chaotic con dition of Russia, brought about by the agitation of just the same sort of Impractical visionaries there. The most extreme pacifists cannot be more sincerely dosirous of peace than all other Americans are, but the rest of us see that peace is to be obtained only by fighting for it, and to be maintained only by being able to tight for it. How would these objectors wh) want the selective draft upset protect the country? Would they skulk behind the brave men who have volunteered or who have responded to the draft? Or would they seek an Injunction from the nearest court enjoining the enemy from invading our shores.— Pittsburgh Dispatch. Job Got Off Lightly As a usual thing we accept life as It comes, taking the good or evil the gods send as matters of course, but it riles us a little to see Uie wife's relatives who Tiave come out from the city to spend the week-end or so with us go back home with divers suitcases and packages and bundles that they never brought with them at all, the same being used as vehicles for the transporta tion of vaHous foods and commodi ties from our home to theirs. All Job had was bolls.—Liberty Press. American cities bitterly protesting against overestimates of their size and rate of growth offer a refreshing novelty.—Springfield Republican. almost at the center of the province. To the west of Bessarabia lies Ru manian Moldavia, and to the east the Russian provinces of Podolia and Kherson. A successful Invasion by the enemy down the Dniester river would not only penetrate one of the richest agricultural sections of Rus sia, but would take the armies fight ing and the Rumanian front in the rear and isolate them or force them to retreat. On the other hand, an invading army would be more than 350 miles from its base at Lemberg with very limited transportation facilities for its rationing and munitioning. The original Inhabitants of Bessa rabia are believed to have been Cim merians, after whom came the Scythians. Because It was the key to one of the approaches toward tho Empire of Byzantium, the province was invaded by many successive races during the early centuries of the Christian era. Trajan incorpo rated it with the Province of Dacia, and in the next ce*itury the Goths poured into it, to be followed in turn by the Huns, the Avars and the Bulgarians. In the seventh century a Thracian tribe, known as the Bessi, settled there au<l gave to the land its name. Between 1711 and 1812 it was the great bone of contention between the Ottoman Turks and the Russians. The Russians lost and recaptured it live times in that cen tury. After the Napoleonic wars it was definitely annexed to Russia, and its frontier pushed southward so as to include the delta of the Danube. As a result of the Crimean war, Moldavia was given Dobrudja and other territory, but under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, following Russia's mastery of Turkey and the Congress of Berlin, Russia secured all of the territory east of the River Pruth. Bessarabia's boundary has remained unchanged from that time to this, hut It was reported upon the en trance of Rumania into the war that the latter nation was to have parts of Bessarabia, Transylvania and oth er regions, so as to include within her domains ail terrttory after the war that contained a predominance of Rumanian blood. Fancy in Nubibus O, it is pleasant, with a heart at ease. Just after the sunset, or by moon light skies. To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Or let the easily persuaded eyes Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould Of a friend's fancy; or, with head bent low, And check aslant, see rivers flow of gold, 'Twixt crimson banks; and then a traveler go Prom mount to mount, through Cloudland, gorgeous land! Or, listening to the tide with closed sight, Be that blind Bard, who on Chian strand. By those deep sounds possessed with inward light. Beheld the Iliad and the -Odyssey. Rise to the swelling of the voiceless sea. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Ancient Sacrifice Ye dead and gone great armies of the world, Sweet gleam the fields where ye were used to pass, With Death for leader, legioned like the grass. Day after day by dews of morning pearled. Yo dead and gone great armies, ye were hurled 'Gainst other armies, great and dead and gone. In awful dark: ye died before the dawn, Ne'er knowing how your flags in peace are furled! Ye are the tall forests that were felled To build a pyre for strife that It might cease; Ye are the white lambs slaughter ed to make peace; Ye are the sweet ships sunk that storm be quelled; And ye are lilies plucked and set like stars About the blood-stained shrine of bygone wars! —By Mahluti Leonard Fisher. WELL KNOWN PEOPLE —T. Henry Walnut, special United States attorney investigating draft matters in Philadelphia, was for years one of the independents in the House of Representatives and civil service reform advocate. —General W. P. Duvall, placed in command of one of the departments, was an officer detailed to Camp Meade and to inspect Pennsylvania Guardsmen. —Dr. C. J. Marshall, State Veter inarian has been assigned by tho United States government to attend the national veterinary convention at Louisville this week. —A. W. Guager, chemist of the mine bureau at Pittsburgh, has re signed to become an officer in the sanitary engineering corps of the United States Army. —Paul H. Gaither, of Greensburg, has been made chairman of the ap peal board for his district of the State. He is a widely known Demo cratic attorney. —Frank A. Knapp, Pittsburgh res taurant manager, has been sum moned to Washington in food con trol matters. | DO YOU KNOW That Harrisburg's two island parks arc unique among Amsri can cities? HISTORIC HARRISBURG When the State Capital was re moved to this place there were thirty taverns, which grew up because of the numerous roads centering here. [OUR DAILY LAUGH] THE HALCYON DAYS. When we go anywhere now ws Aave to tako tho street car. Before our marriage you always called a taxi. Yes; that's tho reason we have to go in the street car now. A WAISTED HINT. Bashful lover—l think I'll Join the army. The Girl (significantly)— You cer tainly need instruction in tho ww et arqaa, George. FIERCE. "Isn't the high cost of living dread ful ?" "Awful. After my husband has paid his bills at the golf club there'a hardly anything left for us." Bmttng fflljal Dr. Lewis R. Harley, professor of history in Central high school of Philadelphia, who has been writing of men and affairs of the Keystone State in a series of unusual Interest i?.,, e Y e fy Pennsylvanlan for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin's edi torial page, devotes over a column in a recent issue to one of the three men who made Harrisburg. He writes of William Maclay, one of Pennsylvania's senators in the first Senate of the United States, one of the most misunderstood men of the early history of the republic and one of its strong characters. Professor Harley, unlike many Philadelphians who hate written of the men who molded the nation, sees some good iru the man from Harrisburg and makeAf an effort to get his point of view. It is refreshing to read something from a student of history in the city which adulates Mr. Maclay's colleague, Rob ert Morris, which refers to tho sturdy Susquehanna valley statesman in a s-ympathetlc way. For the first time, it seems from the viewpoint of a Dauphin countian, it is admitted that Air. Maclay was something more than a censorious backwoods politician. His criticism of the state maintained by George Washington and his open declaration to the Father of his Country that the presidency did not give him right to participate in de liberations of the Senate are now re garded as something more than the outgivings of a bilious temperament. Maclay was a representative of people who built forts and cleared fields side by side in Central Penn sylvania and who were never under- SjPfV'ky Quaker element of early Philadelphia any better than the average Londoner understood the Canadian and Australian prior to the present war. Someone has called him the first Democrat. He was as radical as Jefferson, whose close friend he was, and he stood for that straightforward method of govern ment without ceremonies that has always been the desire of the people . In the Susquehanna valley. The interesting part of Professor Harley's article to us Harrisburgers of the day when we are striving to advance our city as an attractive place wherein to live, and die, is the glimpse he gives of Senator Macla> strolling along the banks of the river which he loved and which is our greatest natural pride. The Susque hanna river is the unsurpassed set ting which nature gave to the tract which is now Harrisburg Just as the State Capitol is the crown Jewel con ferred upon It as the official seat of government of the commonwealth. Professor Harley quotes from some unnamed contemporary of Maclay: "I used to watch Mr. Maclay wear ing a suit of white flannel, with lace ruffles, walking up and down the river bank at Harrisburg, and I thought I had never seen such a dig nified and majestic old gentleman." It is a picture which Harrisburgers ought to cherish and for which we arc thankfuj to Professor Harley for reproducing. William Maclay often walked along the river front of Har risburg, the Riverside on which wo have lavished thousands of dollars and upon which visitors have lav ished compliments for the manner in which we have added engineering skill to natural beauty. He was prob ably tho first after the Indians who frequented this spot, as shown by the many remains found here, to realize the setting. Probably the man who had the imagination to covet for Harrisburg not only the state, but the national capital, saw the day when tho river he cherished would be appreciated and become Harris burß's promenade, pleasure place and prime as3et. * * * The story of William Maclay, the man who laid the plana that out the dreams of the first John Harris, painfully poling his frrry flat across the Susquehanna at Vine street two hundred years ago, is all too little known to the Harrisburgers who pass the stone mansion which he built In 1790 at Front and South streets. This house, added to by Its present owner, William Elder Bai ley, a descendant, by the way, of Colonel John Elder, the "fighting parson" of Paxton and early friend of Maclay, is in many features as the senator built it. Maclay was of Scotch descent and his grandfather i came from the north of Ireland 200 1 years ago. He was born in Chester county, carefully educated, fought in the French and Indian War as an ensign and in the Revolution, was Penn family representative, officer I under the British crown, had a price put on his head for his independ ence, laid out Sunbury, filled many I offices and lived a life of bewildering activity, which would take a page of the HARRTSBURG TELEGRAPH to tell and which throbs with the life of our river valley. William Maclav was woven into the history of Cen tral Pennsylvania and with the two Harrises gave service to this com munity of which the busy folks of to-day and tbo contemplative stroller on the banks of the Susquehanna do not know and which those who do have never taken the trouble to acknowledge in enduring manner. This senator of "the old school," as the Philadelphia historian styles him, came hack to Harrisburg after his retirement from the first session of "the original lawgivers who as sembled in the federal capital at New York" and in the sunset of his life saw the country turn toward the pure democracy enunciated by his friend Jefferson and for which half the world fights to-day. He had mar ried the daughter of John Harris, who founded Harrisburg, and of all his wide possessions he loved best the farm on the outskirts of the town that grew up around Harris' Ferry, by which the tide of immi gration that settled Western Penn sylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee had flowed. This farm, he wanted to make tho site of the Capitol of Pennsylvania. How well he planned it is shown by the fact that the farm ran at right angles to the river be tween North and South streets and State street is the middle of It. They accused him of selfishness because he wanted to locate the national eaptlal on' the banks of the Susquehanna just as at the same time they were charging his father-in-law, John Har ris. with ulterior motives In trying tc have the State capital located here, something for which every person having business at the centrally lo cated seat of Pennsylvania govern ment now gives thanks. William, Maclay had a wonderful gift of vision and wn can imagine him walklnt: nlonft the river front in the evonliiK life of 1R0 and 180* confident that some day the people who would come after him would appreciate the scenic beauties 6f the valley which those folks to whom he talked derlivolv called John Harris' swamp and Maclay's hrlar patch Professor Harley's article Is an In teresting and timely contribution to the sketches of the fathers which are now appearing In the newspapers of the country and his extracts from the writing of Oeorire Washington Harris and TCdpar Stanton Maclav show that wmp day the senator of the old school will he *iven his place in Pennsylvania history as the time will come when John Harris, father and son, will receive recomltion at home.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers