8 HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH A XZWSPJIPER FOR THE ROUE Founded 1831 Published evenings except Sunday by rag TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO. Tdegnipk Building, Federal Square EL J. BTACKPOLE President and Editor-in-Chief y. R. OYSTER, Business Manager QCB- M. STEINMETZ, Managing Editor A. R. MICHENER, Circulation Manager Executive Beard J. P. McCULLOUOH, BOYD M. OGLESBY, F. R. OYSTER. GUa M. STEINMETZ. Members of the Associated Press—The Associated Press is exclusively en titled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news pub lished herein. All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. J Member American pj Newspaper Pub- A ,iirrriT lishers' Assoc ia- If&Uition, the Audit Dt Bureau of Circu fcil.fadSFNaa lation and Penn- BSA™ sylvanla Assoc la lilßßßß M a ted Dailies. IsSS fiflß H Eastern office u, W lii dy Story, Brooks & RSSgSaBW Finley, Fifth 808 O* shut K? Avenue Building. jpfiiaaJMa-HT New York City; Western office. Qa. b' Building, ■— Chicago, 111. Entered at the Post Office In Harris burg, Pa., as second class matter. By carrier, ten cents a srtatT week; by mail. $3.00 a year in advance. MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1919 Not by might, nor by power, but by ■my spirit, saith the Lord. — Zech. 4 :6. OUR LIBERTIES SAFE (( tttE HAVE won the war, but Vy we have lost our liberties," Samuel Gompers is quoted as having said in Philadelphia on Saturday. With all due respect to Mr. Goni fpers, we have done nothing of the tsort. Public thought is a greater fforce in the United States at this anoment than ever before, and no- Zbody knows that better than he. Mr. Gompers spoke bewailing the (adoption of prohibition and the pass age of an anti-sedition law in Penn sylvania. Mr. Gompers won the respect of Oie American people during the war ,and has shown himself to be a force ful leader of men, but he will lose "what he has attained in public topinion if he continues to defend Oie bar-room and to oppose such tfneasures as the sedition act. We are to have national prohibi rßon because the people voted to {have it. Rum never was an agent liberty. Always it has been an {instrument of corruption and op pression. Anybody familiar with tflie course of legislation in the past ►quarter century knows that, and as .for its effect on the working man, i"how can a man of Mr. Gompers' defend the curse it has Raid upon millions of homes, the train it has wrought in industry and atlxe prosperity it has blighted? No, -wa have not lost our liberties, we ►are just beginning to exercise them. The sedition act is directed {against nobody but the revolution list. No Pennsylvania jury would ►convict under it on any other ground. IMr. Gompers evidently has been misinformed as to it, or he is play ing party politics with labor sympa thies, a thing which is unbelievable .of a labor leader of such vast re sponsibilities and so widely trusted. "Sign th,e Peace Treaty to-day as (President leaves Paris," newspaper (headline. And there are some who be- Jleve it would have been signed long la go if he had never gone. Everybody agrees that prize fights pre brutal and should be suppressed, (bat everybody reads what Wlllard pays and Dempsey is doing. FORKS IN THE ROADS ERMANT having signed the M -r peace treaty, as all thinking j men realized from the first was >cmly a matter of time, two courses Site open to her —the opportunity to (meet her obligations as rapidly and las faithfully as France did when lb eaten by Germany, and thus win 9>ack her standing of equality among Jthe nations, or to continue to be fcthe criminal of the world with an in fternational policeman at her door •to enforce the laws of humanity zand compel the fulfillment of her [own signed pledges. The former "h would lead in time to a rehabili on of the country and its moral Jtand physical redemption; the other [in deeper sinks of shame and the disruption of the German empire— |or republic, as it is now pleased to iterm itself. The German people fhave been rushing recklessly along the broad highway that leads to de itruction. They have come to a I fork in the road. The choice must [he their own. The victorious allies 'have been able to force them to |sdgn terms of peace; they cannot 1 force them to become decent, law -abiding, God-fearing citizens of the EWorld. But whatever the deoision, 'the result will not be at once ap parent. The process of change for jtbe better, if that is the trend, will the as slow as was the process of •duration that led the German peo <p*e from ways of gentleness and peace to the worship of brute force *n&<thrdegradation of their crimes da Trance and Belgium. A gene ra tten. must pass. New teachers must net up new ideals. Babies must be come men, and these men show •their true worth and sincerity of pwpoM4o pat behind them the ways MONDAY EVENING, and doctrines of their fathers be fore Germany can again become a trusted member of the society of civilized peoples. So 'much for Germany and the future of world peace insofar as her statns and relations are con cerned. It is now for the American people to seriously consider how the treaty which President Wilson proposes the Senate shall ratify af fects them. The President hails it as "a new charter of freedom" for the world. His opponents hold it to be "an instrument for the enslave ment of the people of the United States." Somewhere between these two extremes, probably, lies the truth. The Senate proposes to in quire into its effects upon the Mon roe doctrine, our domestic relations and as to the extent of the possible use of American troops in Europe. These are three vital points upon which not only the Senate but the people of the country are entitled to more light than they have as yet received. We should not plunge ignorantly upon a policy of such grave import simply at Mr. Wilson's say so; he has made too many blunders, has reversed himself too often to accept his judgment at face value upon a step beyond revocation once taken. On the other hand, we must not permit personal dislike or partisan prejudice to interefere with the formation of a calm, unbiased national opinion that will so impress itself upon the Senate as to insure a proper recording of concrete thought when the final vote is taken there. The war is over, but the effects j of the war, the changes it has wrought, the wrongs it has exposed, the revolution of thought it has developed are just beginning to make themselves felt. If Germany has come to a fork in the road. so. too, has the United States. Before we can continue our journey we must make sure whither the two highways that now lie ahead of us lead. The lettering on the sign posts is in a strange language. We shall need wise and accurate inter preters if we are to choose the right way. THE SEASON OPENS MB. DEMAIN, weather man for Central Pennsylvania, kindly took the curse off the Open ing day of the bass season for those who couldn't get away to enjoy the occasion along their favorite streams by handing out so much rain that it would be an insult to the intelli gence of any bass to offer him a bait in the muddy waters of the nearby creeks. So it isn't so bad for the stay-at-homes as it might have been. But what a disappoint ment to the chap who has been sav ing up a day's vacation for the open ing day. who has oiled up his reels, varnished his rods and debated long and earnestly with himself as to whether it should be "catties," hel gramite, shiners or artificial lure; whether it should be waders .anil a casting rod, or the long, limber af fair that some of the live-bait > anglers know so well how to handle. All doubts are resolved in his mind. To-day he is going grumblingly to the backyard for earthworms and instead of bass he has a lingering suspicion that if he gets anything to-morrow It will be catfish. But cheer up, fellows, the fewer caught to-morrow the more there will be to be taken in the dewey early mornings of July or the long, sunlit evenings of early August. The trees will be just as green then, the waters will be clear or just cloudy enough to make the bait attractive, the bugs will be on the water and you may try out that new-fangled fly, if you have a mind. We have many fine fishing places in the vicinity of Harrisburg, but one there is that could be transformed into the best and most popular of all—Wildwood Bake. The proposal has been made that the water be drawn oft and the German carp that infest the lake all killed. These fish eat all the others and keep the lake constantly stirred up and always muddy. The plan as outlined would be to take out the carp and have the State restock the lake with sun fish, perch, catfish and big-mouth bass. This would provide ample food for the bass which would find a perfect habitat in the lake and the other fish would give good sport for boys and men who find the gamey bass too swift for them. It is a good idea and ought to be taken up seriously with the city authorities. The carp are worth nothing to anybody, not even as food, but the catfish, sunftsh and bass would provide food and sport alike. JUSTICE TO TEACHERS PENNSYLVANIA teachers de serve every cent the new sal ary bill will give them. They made a gallant fight for what every body recognized as their right, the only point of controversy being the exact ratio of distribution and how the money should be raised. The bill as drawn will not give some of the instructors as much as they think they deserve, but in the long run it will work out equitably, giv ing most to those who most need it. Pennsylvania's school system has been lagging for a number of years, despite the progressive program of the State Board of Education and other agencies, but with the new salary law in effect and the reor ganization of the Department of Public Instruction completed along lines that promise the utmost of ef ficiency, our schools should enter upon a new era of growth and de velopment, and it Is important that they shoulld, for never in the his tory of the Nation has a greater responsibility been placed upon our educational system than rests there at present as a result of the war and the problems arising from 1L "Politic* 1% "Puuioiftccuua By the lEx-Gommltteeman Newspaper comment upon the Legislature which has just ad journed is generally favorable, al though a few Democratic news papers take shots at it for political reason. The Pittsburgh Post, for instance, gives it a good old fash ioned Democratic scolding while the Philadelphia Record makes some comments on extravagance which have a familiar ring but are not tinged with the mean spirit which permeates the remarks of a certain inland Democratic daily on the sub ject. In the main the thought of Gov ernor Sproul in his praise of the record of the General Assembly in the precedent making good-by ad dress seems to have been also in the minds of the editors. The Leg islature of 1919 is regarded in spite of the lengthy session as having a respectable list of achievements and most of them of solid political value. Barring men who slipped in regard to liquor and some other legislation the average man who sat in the session will not have so much to explain and most of the men can go to bat for re-election on their records. —The Philadelphia Public Ledger, one of the most independent news papers in the State, voices objec tion to the length of the session, but says: "There can be no doubt, that while credit is due to the Leg islature of 1919 for many important acts, that credit must be shared with the tactful and experienced politician in the gubernatorial chair. The ratification of the two Federal amendments to the constitution, the Philadelphia reform legislation, the strengthening of the workmen's compensation system, the further ance of the road-building program and provision of the increase of teachers' salaries were all signal achievements. Less conspicuous in the news, but none the less import ant, were the measures reorganizing and simplifying the machinery of the State Government, and these owed their inspiration chiefly to Governor Sproul." —The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, at the other end of the State, praises the legislative record but says edi torially: "A lot of fuss at the end might have been avoided had the Legislature worked earlier. The teachers' salary raiser has been passed. All's well that ends well." —An interior view is presented by the Altoona Tribune, which says: "During the session the relations between all the servants of the peo ple have been remarkably pleasant, the chief disturbing feature being the factional outbreak by Senator Vare and his adherents. It is be lieved that the ultimate result of the session will be for the welfare of the Commonwealth and the more effective administration of the Gov ernment." —WilliamsporL Erie, Wilkes- Barre and other up Stale papers also see much good accomplished but Scranton newspapers' com ments are tinged with regret at the failure to solve the "mine cave" problem. —The Pittsburgh Chronicle-Tele graph, one of the conservatives in the matter of editorials, says Gov ernor Sproul "emerges from the session with conspicuous credit for wise, progressive leadership." —The political side of the session is summed up by Odell Houser in the Philadelphia Press in the course of which he records that there were several developments, saying "The first is a recording of the phenom enon of the complete collapse of real Democratic leadership. There are not a great many Democrats in either branch of the Assembly, and the few there, are divided into two camps, the Penrose Democrats and | the real Democrats. The former work hand in glove with the Re publicans and the latter do not seem able to work against them. That makes it nice for the Repub licans. It is a real evil, however, so far as the Independent voters of the State are concerned, for it means the obliteration and an active and effective minority party." —Governor Sprout's selection of Judge Joseph P. McCullen for the vacancy on the Philadelphia bench seems to have been acceptable to everyone except a certain censor ious Democratic newspaper which need not be named. The Philadel phia Press says the new judge has "all the proper qualifications," the Inquirer calls it "an admirable se lection," the Bulletin says it "should give general satisfaction" and the Public Ledger says it was an "ex- j cellent appointment." —Northeastern Pennsylvania newspapers have received with en thusiam the announcement of the appointment of Former Congress man Thomas W. Templeton as Sup erintendent of Public Grounds and Buildings. Luzerne and Lacka wanna journals irrespective of party affiliation hail the Governor's choice as an exceptionally good selection. —"The Governor's choice will be an especially acceptable one to the thousands of Mr. Templeton's friends, who recognize in him an able man for the post," says the Wilkes-Barre Record. "The good natured, whole-souled Plymouthite will undoubtedly make a success of the position and will have the hearty co-operation of his subordinates simply because it is Impossible not to be inspired by his genial pres ence." The Wilkes-Barre Evening News says, '"Templeton will make good, of course, for he doesn't fall in anything he undertakes. He is to be congratulated as is Governor Sproul, who up to the present has picked fine timber for his cabinet." The Scranton Republican comments on Templeton's acquaintance .nd popularity in Lackawanna county, saying among .other things: "He has an extensive acquaintance in Lacka wanna particularly among men politically active. Templeton is one of the leading followers of United States Senator Penrose in the northeastern section of the State." —The Scranton Times also com ments on Templeton's popularity in Lackawanna county and says the Republicans in that county are al most as well pleased as if a Scran ton man had been named. It also says that the appointment is a di rect recognition of W. P. Gallagher, chief clerk of the Senate. Another Kind of Anarchist [Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser] "Love should be intellectual," says a Boston highbrow, which moves The Houston Post to make the fol lowing venomous comment, we heartily approve: "Iconoclast, wrecker of Joy, vandal and anarch ist. When love ceases to raise blis ters on the lips or fracture ribs, or to be gloriously silly, it is almost as savory as a cold Irish potato or a slewed carrot," BABJRJBBURG TKt.FIORJOPg WHEN A FELLER NEEDS A FRIEND TO FINISH THE JOB By Biiggs Home Loan Banks Opposed [New York Evening Cun] An extension of the use of the credit and banking resources of the Federal Government was—and will | be—a necessary outcome of the changed conditions and of our new place in the world's business. To some extent such expansion is in evitable even as to purely domes tic matters. But a line should be drawn somewhere. There is dan ger of overdoing it, to the detriment of sound financing. A timely warn ing is given in the protest made by Mr. John J. Pulleyn, president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings, Bank, in criticism of the scheme for a Federal "home loan" bank. Said he: "A serious and dangerous matter threatens the business of the mu tual savings institutions in the cre ation of the proposed Federal home loan banks to be formed and used | by building and loan associations. The seriousness of this departure is that in many States these associa tions have sidetracked their home building function and are in fact veritable savings banks. The legis lative proposals entirely disregard existing private agencies and would replace them by the Government, many of them vitally affecting sav ings banks." The gist of the objection is that the newfangled scheme is unneces sary as well as potentially danger-I ous. The savings banks have re sources of about $5,000,000,000 — owned by over nine million depos itors. They are amply able to meet legitimate normal demands. From another angle the thing looks like the creation of a new — and quite superfluous—bureaucracy in Washington; an extension of the Federal paw in a new direction, with the consequent creation of a new horde of office holders, expen sive administration, and all the evils of too much governmental meddling—and probably muddling. As Mr. Pulleyn asks: "It we are going to organize a permanent bu reau in Washington whenever tem porary need arises, what kind of a topheavy political structure will ex ist there?" Nor is there any sound reason to think it would help to solve the housing problem. The only real so lution of that is the return to nor mal action of the laws of supply and demand. We already have far too many Washington monkey wrenches thrown into the machin ery of business to "regulate" It. It will be well to stop and think be fore creating more Government bu reaus. SUPPLICATION [Bonis TTntermeyer in Yale Review] Take away your soft hair and your softer lips. Boose me from your twining fingers, turn awy your eyes. For I loved this earth, and row a greater passion slips All its earthly ties. I can wait for heaven, if that Is to be; Bet me have these common days and know their simple worth. Do not make the quiet colored mo ments dull to me —• Bet me keep the earth. There is much I long to look at, much I long to taste. You have mocked a thousand raptures with contemptuous power. Do not let your beauty lay all oth er beauty waste; Spare a casual hour. Bet old music thrill me to my finger tips; Bring me back the glamour of the things I used to prize; Bift this cloudy radiance where I , only see your Hps— Turn away your eyes! Running Expenses [From the Boston Transcript] "The home stretch," once a racing term, now applies to making a mod erate salary meet all domestic, re quirements. PERIL IN FRENCH BIRTH RATE Nino Per Thousand Not Knougli to Xcop Nation Front Down ward Path [Mark Sullivan in Collier's Weekly.] IT is the exact truth, as a distin guished French economist said, that "the dead are but the smaller part of our loss." The worst effect that the war has had on the human race does not appear in the figures of the killed or in the figures of the dead and wounded. The worst effect of the war, the greatest loss it has inflicted, is- its effect on the birth rate. Before the war, in normal times, France had a birth rate of -about eighteen per thousand. Eighteen babies born per year in each thou sand of the population is a low birth rate. It was just barely enough to match the number of deaths per year, to keep France's population stationary. To keep a population stationary is not enough. A na tion, like an individual, must grow or go backward. As a matter of fact, the one larg est element in the recent war had nothing to do with the glorious part that France played on the battle field after the war started. It was this fact: that before the war France had a stationary population, while Germany had n growing one. Any discriminating historian of the Great War will dwell long on this most sig nificant of facts: in >IB7O-71 France and Germany fought a war; each na tion had about 40 millibn people; forty-two years later they fought again; this time Germany had 70 million people—France still had 40! There is both truth and pathos in Hot Weather Manners [From the Detroit News] When the mercury climbs the steep incline above the 80s is the time we shed our coats and drop such other encumbrances as a lib eral minded and sympathetic society approves. It is just as well, never theless, that wt; do not permit the heat to make us doff our manners. To those whose duty carries them to and fro on the streaming streets there comes the tendency to sullen snappishness, born of wilted nerves andand the trickle of perspiration which sears the skin. The traffic officer, for example, frayed by his duties, is inclined to regard all passing motorists as po tential law breakers; his voice grows harsh, and he edges past the strict letter of his duty into the region of the Bawl Out, where are found the bloomless meadows of sarcasm and the arid wastes of abuse. This is not as it should be. Similarly, the motorist, fretted by suspicion, lets the heat toast his replies, and goes on his way resentful, and, of course, hotter. There is much difficulty with slow moving persons at congested cross ings; here again impatience with the tired mother piloting a baby across the street leads more frequently than it should to a snarl from the guard ian of the roadway; and the tired mother, nervous and affronted, seethes helplessly as she stumbles on her way through the panting crowd. "Manners maketh man."' is a very good old proverb. But manners, implying restraint, also make for coolness. There is something close ly akin between temper and tem perature. The heated street and the busy crossing are good places to ex experimentwith mental refrigeration. Keep the tongue cool, and the mouth won't get hot. Not in Vain [Fort Wayne (Ind.) News Sentinel] Railroad Administrator Hlnes has placed an order for eteel at the price he dcelared impossible and ab surd. However, his stand caused the resignation of the Industrial Board, so It can't be said to have been in vain. Indeed, lfs in the same class with that of the chap who I struck oil while boring for water. the lament of a French statesman: "Our birth rate was miserably in sufficient." The figures which show the effect of the war on France's birth rate are only available for seventy-seven out of France's eighty-seven "depart ments" what might be called France's counties. The other ten departments are the ones which the Germans invaded; in those the fig ures, if ever they are available, will undoubtedly be worse. But the fig ures for the seventy-seven districts show a present birth rate of nine per thousand. With the very beginning of the war, France's birth rate began to fall. During the years 19X5 and 1916 it fell to barely more than half of normal, to ten per thousand. By 1918 the full effect of war made itself felt, and the birth rate had fallen to less than half, to nine per thousand. I do not know how vivid this figure may be to those who have not looked closely into such matters; it can, perhaps, be made more vivid by putting it this way: where only nine babies are born in each thou sand of the population, it would be necessary for each of those nine babies to live 112 years in order to keep the population stationary. At the present moment France is on the downward path toward the second class of nations, nations like Spain. Whether the trend will ever change, or how soon, is too large a subject to be treated adequately here. The Place to Advertise [From the Philadelphia Record] An advertisemept of a technical journal in a recent issue of Printer's Ink begins with the interesting in quiry: "Would you reach Green land and Patagonia with the same medium?" This naturally suggests the question: "Why reach Green land and Patagonia at all? Why pay for circulation in places where you have no facilities for delivering the goods?" Advertising through the daily newspaper can be concentrated where it will do the most good. Newspaper advertising makes pos sible the selection of the most profit able markets, and the elimination of fields that are so poor that they are not worth cultivating. It does away with unprofitable and misdi rected effort. RETROSPECTION When we all lived together In the farm among the hills. And the early summer weather Had flushed the little rills; And Jacb and Tom were playing Beside the open door, And little Jane was maying On the slanting meadow floor; And mother clipped the trellis, And father read his book By the little attic window— So close above the brook; How little did we reckon Of ghosts that flit and pass, Of fates (hat nod and beckon In the shadows on the grass; Of beauty soon deflowered, Engulfed, and borne away And youth that sinks devoured In the chasm, of a day! Courageous and nndaunted. As in a golden haze. We lived a life enchanted. Nor stopped to count the days. We that were in the story Saw not the magic light. The pathos, and the glory That shines on me to-night. —John Jay Chapman; "Sonjc* and Poems" (Scribner's), JUNE 30. 1919.- No Wonder Germany Quit NUMBER EIGHTEEN "One of the queerest looking things we saw in France," said Major Frank C. Mahin, of the Army Re cruiting station, 325 Market street, Harrisburg, "were the 'elephants.' Every few miles along the front were big kite observation ballons with funny looking bulges at the tail, end. When one of these balloons was pointed at you it was an exact reproduction of an elephant's head. As the wind would vary in speed, Mr. Elephant would nod his head, j wiggle his ears and then perhaps turn his head a little to one side! or the other as though he were! trying to see something off to one; Bide and then decided it was of no I real interest,any way so he looked! I back to the front. Under.neath the big bag was the observer's basket, 1 ! equipped with telephones, powerful] j telescopes, and a couple of para- ■ chutes. What a change from the j i Mont goltier brothers balloon of 1782, filled with hot air, made of I paper, and lifting a sheep, a rooster, |and a duck, three hundred feet into j the air. The 'elephant' made of the ! finest, most carefully woven cotton j cloth with a hundred and forty j threads to the inch both ways, care ! fully rubberized and filled with hy | drogen gas, lifts 2600 pounds instead of a sheep und two fowls, and lifts ! that weight a mile in the air. Com- I fortably seated in his basket the bal loon observer was run up to a height of three or four thousand feet above the ground and there he sat watching the Boche. Perhaps one of ! our batteries wanted to do some flr- I ing; they notified the man in the ; 'elephant' and he watched the burst of their shells, told them how much I to correct their range so that event ually the shells were bursting on the exact spot that was desired. How different this ease and comfort from the aviator in an aeroplane. But there is where you are wrong. If the aviator didn't want to fight he could run; if the Boche got to shell ing him he could duck off to one side and beat it, but the poor bal loon observer wps hung on the end of asteel cable and had to sit there watching the flash of Boche guns that were shooting at him, waiting twenty or thirty seconds after each flash to see if he was going to be hit or missed. "If they didn't get the 'elephant' with shell fire an aeroplane would come over to shoot him down with incendiary bullets. If the observer, busy with other things, failed to see the plane he was a goner. The In cendiary bullets would ignite the hydrogen in the gas bag, the bal loon would explode, and even if the observer got clear and his parachute opened all right he wasn't through yet, for the Boche, 'Kultured Sports man (?)' that he is, would circle around that poor helpless devil slow ly floating down in his parachute, and would shoot belt after belt of cartridges at him in a last effort to kill him. You don't mind seeing a man killed who has a fair chance for his white alley, but that kind of fighting was the thing that made the Doughboy determined to crush such a race." SAILOR TOWN [C. Fox Smith, Doran,] Along the wharves in sailor town a singing whisper goes Of the wind among the anchored ships, the wind that blows Off a broad brimming water, where the summer day has died Like a wounded whale a-sounding in the sunset tide. There's a big China liner gleaming like a gull, And her lit ports flashing; there's the long gaunt hull Of a Blue Funnel freighter with her derricks dark and still; And a tall barque loading at the lumber mill. And in the shops of sailor town is every kind of thing That the sailormcn buy there, or the ship's crews bring; Shackles for a sea-chest and pink cockatoos, Fifty-cent alarum clocks and dead men's shoes. You can hear the gulls crying, and the cheerful noise ] Of a concertina going, and a sing er's voice— And the wind's song and the tide's song, crooning soft and low 1 Rum old tunes in sailor town that seamen know. ; I dreamed a dream in sailor town, a foolish dream and vain, Of Bhips and men departed, of old < days come again— And an old song in sailor town, an old song to sing When shipmate meets with ship mate in the evening. The D. S: H. Mine Horror [From the Springfield Republican] The Engineering and Mining Journal sees no excuse for the re cent coal mine horror in Pennsyl vania, which the American public, with characteristic Indifference to accidents, has probably nlready for gotten. The loss of life was due to the sending of a large number of men Into the mines in the same train of mine cars which was car rying powder. In fact, there were two cars of powder in the middle of a train of fourteen cars. This care lessness is said to persist throughout the metal-mining industry. The Engineering and Mining Journal says: "The transportation of work ers and explosives in the same train should be absolutely prohibited." It is strange that mine managers and engineers should not establish such a rule of their own volition without waiting for the law to do it for them. Doughboy Speedsters [From the Los Angeles Times] A company of American engineers threw a pontoon bridge across the Rhine in forty-one minutes. It was 1,500 feet ln length and staunch enough for the passage of a fleet of motor trucks. This was In less than one-quarter of the best time the Germans were ever able to ac complish the same task. The more airholes they let in Prussian effi ciency the more flimsy it becomes. In order to make a complete clean up, the enterprising Americans made all sorts of wagers on them selves and their time and gathered lii about $30,000 ln real money. Perhaps It's Time [Asbeville (N. C.) Times] The Democratic party having made bills on a scale without any precedent in our history, the Demo cratic President proceeds to order a Republican Congress to make the taxes "as little burdensome mm pos sible." Stoning (Et|al | fa——— i ■ i =am Ji The bonfire which the Boy Scouts of Hurrisburg held on the Capitol Park extension area Saturday night in honor of the signing of the peace treaty reminded old-timers of the days of the political bonfires that used to be a yearly occurrence in this city. The night after a State or Na tional election, as soon as the re turns, which came in a little more slowly then than they do now, were all In the adherents of the winning party in many parts of town got together and held a big bonfire. Up-town in those days the section between Sixth and Seventh and Reily and Dauphin streets was large ly open lields. One night a party of boys and young men, celebrating the re-election of Grover Cleveland got together a vast number of store boxes, railroad ties, oiled waste and the like, piled it against a telegraph pole that had been denuded of its wires and left standing unused and after pouring a half-barrel of oil over the accumulation set fire to it- Some excited person sent in a fire alarm and in fifteen minutes nearly all the apparatus in the city was on the scene, and the firemen after cussing" a bit hung around to see the war dance that brought the celebration to a close. Ron?,io lle ' your in lhe sa me locality Republican youths decorated a verv Jf r r ® e ' de V?, cherry tree with hun whi I °f, °, . soakC(l hoops, most of Toll!" rI 1 ~ en wra PPed in oily waste from the railroad yards. This was one of the last bonfires of its ril? u th ®. West End and waa a . cli ™ ax to a 'ong line of similar celebrations. The big tree with its ii£ £ 2 re and ever Y branch out lined in flames formed a wonder ful hi b f au , tlful spectacle against a jet black sky and attracted hundreds fLt BPC wv tOrS- These bonfires were not without their funny incidents. One young man, afterward a mem ber of city council, stopped to view one on his way to see his girl and a spark set tire to his coattail, a lit tle thing he did not discover until the flames were running up his back. Another time a Pennsylvania rail road man contributed a half-dozen of the oil barrels that used to grace every oil-house along the system. The bonfire makers put the barrels in the center of the heap of bo.xes boards and other materials and when the flames got to them one of then went off with a tremendous bang, scattering the embers for a half square around and bringing the celebration to an untimely end. An other time the iate Patrick McNiff lost half the boards from the rear ytrd of his home on Seventh street and when he went to look for them found their ashes on a lot near by, having been taken by boys ambitious to make their fire bigger than an other that was burning down the street some distance. The late Chas. A. Miller, city clerk for years and then mayor, used to tell how when he was young the "gang" of which he was a member, built a big bonfire in a field of the Eighth Ward which caught the long grass that had been dried by the autumn winds and had to get out a hose company to save a number of stables. The rapid growth of the city, the coming of electric lights which dispelled the intense darkness that used to mark the city between the old-time gas make ho B nr eet lampS did much to make bonfires unpopular It r muined for the Boy Scouts to stir burgent' Saturday ™ight. °' d Harris " • • • Sixth Ward Republicans were big fiie there was after Rutherford over J 4mu h el d J b^ ld d e e n Clarad js el -^ d X>° n beYnl BeVeral days in comfng" was elected u°n?i! f h ° Übt " who of electoral vote' 1 ® ° fflcial cou "t The bonfire was atsZt" announc ed. streets. PoY w e t k f the p Re " y gathered boxes nnri x R fP ub licans celebration Xearlv o^ 6 ' 8 for this "re powder Wals thrown" ' 6 ' ° f red red glare in the skies Yt? and the hundred people to ° ted man Y Good Will Fire CnmT scene . The on hand to prevenTSf" had mea Joining buildings but Zt'fx ad " there were not 1131 "me around that localit™ Btr Pctures r>atte , rson| e ™hl, f 'l' 6 John D Mayor of Harrisbmi *l™'°® elect ed his victory with bono ebrated popular in The low™ He , Was city and the First w Q j the 'arge fire on the had a crowd from the Fm.*fx front - A Wards with the aid or x and to the grass nlm ™XI Y oats went that time between Was at dependent islands and ' , an . d In " there, lighting HP 'IHT A celebrated for miles " r the Susquehanna . S. 1... IUIS 4 , and a few davs later u went back to see them, they were almost starved, the mother prabablv having been killed. Mrs. Templar r™ U ,n M rabbits home and is feeding* them. In a few week*? shn intends to turn them loose again in the mountains. e ln • • • Dauphin County attorneys who motored to Bedford Springs last attend the closing sessions of the Pennsylvania Bar Association went to that place on the Lincoln Highway and returned on the Wil liam Penn Highway. Both are in good condition. They report seeing hundreds of tourists. • • • Baseball fans who see the Allison Hill league games every night dur ing the week-days have found quite a collection of peculiar seats. Each night the bleachers are crowded and the late arrivals line up on the curb on the west side of Seven teenth street, climb a large pile of telegraph poles along the left field line, sit on railroaad ties along the Philadelphia and Reading branch or climb to the top of box cars on the siding when an engineer is kind enough to leave one close to the field. Others go out Into deep center field and lounge on the grass. And there were those who told us a year | ago that baseball was losing its hold [ on the American pnblic. Returned I've taken off the uniform Begrimed with war and wear, i And stacked my gun and bayonet, Blood-baptized "over there," I've put away the little cap I wore ln field and trench. And old puttees all spattered up With mud distinctly French. Canteen and heavy cartridge-belt The army brogans, too, that pressed The soil where heroes (>led. And all the signs of army pomp And martial circumstance, But not. you bet!—the Tankee grit That won the day ln France. —Minna Irving, in the N. X, Herald,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers