IT Tr To AE ER SEF ESF ESR TR I UAE SIAR A SERA I PU CET MLR RL EERE eR FIERRO WE RTI CRE ROW WR RT a ER TR Re vy SECTION B — PAGE 2 THE DALLAS POST Established 1889 “More Than A Newspaper, A Community Institution Now In Its Tlst Year” <€ED . - - ° & Member Audit Bureau of Circulations « % ~ Member Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association o 2 Member National Editorial Association Cupat’ Member Greater Weeklies Associates, Ine. The Post is sent free to all Back Mountain patients in local hospitals. If you are a patient ask your nurse for it. We will not be responsible for the return of unsolicited manu- ~ scripts, photographs and editorial matter unless self - addressed, - stamped envelope is enclosed, and in no case will this material be © held for more than 30 days. National display advertising rates 84e per column inch. Transient rates 80c. Political advertising $1.10 per inch, Preferred position additional 10¢ per inch. Advertising deadline ~ Monday 5 P.M. Advertising copy received after Monday 5 P.M. will be charged ~ at 85c¢ per column inch. Classified rates 5c per word. Minimum if charged $1.00. Unless paid for at advertising rates, we can give no assurance * that announcements of plays, parties, rummage sales or any affair ; for raising money will appear in a specific issue. : Preference will in all instances be given to editorial matter which has not previously appeared in publication. - Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Dallas, Pa, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates: $4.00 a year; $2.50 six months. No subscriptions accepted for less than six months. months or: less. Out-of-State subscriptions: $4.50 a year; $3.00 six Back issues, more than one week old, 15c. When requesting a chunge of address subscribers are asked to give their old as well as new address, ‘ Allow two weeks for changes of address or new subscription to be placed en mailing list. Single copies at a rate of 10c each, can be obtained every Thursday morning at following newsstands: Dallas—Berts Drug Store, Dixon's Restaurant, Helen's Restaurant, Gosart’s Market; Shavertown—Evans Drug Store, Hall’s Drug Store; Trucksville— Gregory’s Store, Trucksville Drugs; Idetown—Cave’s Store; Har- veys Lake—Marie’s Store; Sweet Valley—Adams Grocery; Lehman—Moore’s Store; Noxen—Scouten’s Store; Shawanese— Puterbaugh’s Store; Fernbrook-—Bogdon’s Store, Bunney’s Store, Orchard Farm Restaurant. - Editor and Publisher—HOWARD W. RISLEY Associate Publisher—ROBERT F. BACHMAN Associate Editors—MYRA ZEISER RISLEY, MRS. T. M. B. HICKS Sports—JAMES LOHMAN Advertising—LOUISE C. MARKS Phetographs—JAMES KOZEMCHAK Circulation—DORIS MALLTN A non.partisar, liberal progressive mewspaper pub- ~ lished every Thursday morning at the Dallas Post plant, Lehman Awenue, Dallas, Pennsylvania. Editorially Speaking:.. BACK MOUNTAIN, OR BACK WOODS? A building program for Lake-Lehman School Dis- trict is mandatory if two buildings are not to be closed because of fire hazards. Pennsylvania Board of Labor and Industry is willing to close its eyes temporarily to grave deficiencies IF a building program which will take care of everything is in the making. Otherwise, the Lake Township building will be slapped shut, and the shop and elementary sections at Lehman will not be able to open. The department will take no chances on fire hazards fox childen. If the program for eectitintion of present fire haz- ards begins to roll in earnest, along with a building pro- gram to relieve pressure of student population, there will be a stay of execution. / Petitions are being circulated to remove Lake Town- ship from the five-way jointure. Residents may as well ! Albert Tonkin Jr. face the unpleasant fact that even if the district were removed from the jointure, this would not cancel out the necessity for a building and improvement program. And such removal would immediately result in drastic reduc- tion of State reimbursement. Cancellation of a necessary building program at this ‘time would not only be disastrous because of closing of school buildings, but would result in greatly increased cost when the inevitable building must be put up. . Interchange of the Education is the solid foundation of any community. It costs money. Is Back Mountain to be a synonym for Back Woods? The New "Miss Universe” It was heartening to find that a beautiful and state- ly German girl had been selected as Miss Universe at the annual Beauty Pageant in Miami. Heartening, because little by little, nations are burst- ing their narrow boundaries, leaving behind them insular prejudices and convictions, realizing that all nations and all people are indeed brothers in a world where comrade- ship and understanding loom ever more important. Those who remember the first World War will recol- lect that people of German extraction, no matter how greatly they had contributed to the American scene, were hounded out of their employment, shunned socially, made to feel that their culture and traditions were an- athema, A gentle professor in a leading woman’s college, was regretfully asked to resign, because his name was clearly Germanic in origin, and parents, inflamed by hate, con- sidered him unworthy to teach their growing daughters. Even the lowly hamburg lost its name and became Salisbury Steak, a tribute to misplaced zeal and distorted patriotism. Those who watched television a few nights ago, knew that no mistake had been made in selection of “The most beautiful girl in the world.”” Marlene Schmidt looked truly regal as she accepted her crown. - Penna. Highway Department Issues ‘61 Road Map The 1961 edition of the Pennsyl- vania road map may be obtained without charge from the State De- partment of Highways in Harris- burg: A principal feature of the map is that it shows the approximately 80 route number changes made this spring throughout the state as part of a ‘program to simplify, rationalize and integrate the numbered route system. A new feature of the map this year is a guide to the names of interchanges along toll-free express highways as well as along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The guide lists the numbers of the intersect- ing highways and a code to find the location on the map. This fea- ‘ture will be of considerable value to motorists who will use the super-highway systems this year. The cover photograph of the map shows a portion of the City Line Schuylkill Ex- Ll cover photograph shows a view in Chapman State Park, Warren County. The Department of High- ways, Department of Forests and Waters and the Game Commission contribute to the cost of producing the map. Among the items on the map are rules of the road, a table of mile- ages between major communities, small maps of routes through larger communities, a [Gettysburg area map, and towns, with sites of county seats; State Police and Department of Highways offices marked, and a listing of public recreation areas and their facilities. The main read map shows all major and most secondary roads, including four-lane divided high- ways, in yellow, red and blue, a large proportion of the vast rural road system, in gray, major water- ways, all airports, all cities, most towns and many villages, Roadside Rest areas and the state forest, park and historical sites. 2 an index of principal cities |- ONLY YESTERDAY Ten and Twenty Years Age In The Dallas Pest rr HAPPENED 3{) YEARS Aco: Arthur Kiefer fell sixteen feet from a scaffold while working on the Whipp farm, and was taken to Nes- bitt Hospital with a broken back, after being seen by Dr. Sherman Schooley. Brickel’s ambulance trans- . | ported Mr. Kiefer. Rose Patton of Noxen was wed to of [Forty Fort. Estimate of cost of construction of "a link in the highway between Wyoming Avenue and Luzerne, part of the Harveys Lake highway, was $60,000. Dallas nine took East Dallas 4 to 0, while Shavertown kept up its winning pace by defeating Beau- mont. A Noxen inventor, Willard Jones, invented a fly screen that would let flies out, but not in. He was also the inventor of - non-skid nut used widely at Payne's (Colliery. Thomas Rowlands’ place in Fern- brook was raided by the loeal cons- tabulary, and moonshine confiscated. Robert Prynn of Carverton took as his bride Mabel Zimmerman of Wilkes-Barre. Mrs. Elizabeth Denmon of Beau- mont was feted on her 70th birth- day by her family. Survey of a bridge at Holcomb’s Grove, gave hope that a new Trucks- ville-Dallas highway might be i in the *| making. Federal agents found Cod liquor in seven places at Harveys Lake and Lake Silkworth. Marie Bond Piatt, 33, of Hunts- ville, died following surgery. Raspberries constituted a bumper crop. Engelman’s Fruit Farm in Nox- en advertised that they were cheap- er than in years. Bread was five cents a loaf, tall cans of evaporated milk, 3 for 22 cents. rr uappENED 2{) YEARS Aco: A memorial scholarship to Amelia Earhart was founded in California. Could it be that long ago that the intrepid flyer was lost somewhere in the wast Pacific ? Aluminum was collected for def- ence, a good haul from the Back Mountain. Vern Lacy was interviewed for a Know-Your-Neighbor column which said, “He’s been an architect so long that the Forty Fort community building and the new wings at College Miséricordia come from his drawing board as a matter of course.” The new State highway posed traffic problems at the Y in Trucks- ville, and Kingston Township was asked to put special police to guard the intersection. This was before there was a blinker light. WPA funds were beginning to be cut back, with returning prosperity and threat of war ever nearer. Bundles for Britain were being sought in Dallas. Draft lottery in ‘Washington loom- ed ahead. Serial numbers were as- signed to forty local candidates. Drawing was to take place as it did in the fall of 1940, from a bowl in ‘Washington D.C. Atty. B. B. Lewis was appointed by Dallas Borough (Council to take the place of the late Arthur Turner. Beaver and otter trapping were forbidden and antlerless deer season was cancelled for the fall. The great deer herd was diminishing. Mrs. Elizabeth S. Brown, descen- dent of the pioneers, was buried from her home on Parrish Street, Rev. Francis Freeman officiating. Elizabeth Ohlman became the bride of Willard Neuls at the Harry Ohlman home. Janet Louise Thomas was wed to William 1S. Lee, Jr. Mrs. Mary E. Kocher, Harveys Lake native, died at Mt. Pleasant. Mrs: Alice Waterstripe, 59, died at her home in Sweet Valley, She was wife of Rev. E. J. Watetstripe, local minister. Clifford T Gay, 65, was buried in Carverton Cemetery. Twenty women went back to work on the WPA Dallas sewing project, after a two-week shutdown. The project had been in operation for five years, with materials supplied by the Borough at a cost of $50 per month. rr nappeneD 1() Years Aco: Plans for the Labor Day Lehman Horse-Show were under way, with Lester B. Squier named as chairman, assisted by 'Lewis Ide. Show chairman was Gilbert Tough, with Herman Thomas, Dave Pugh, H. R. Bittenbender, and Dyke Brown as- sisting. Mrs. L. C. Sutton was chair- man of the Auxiliary, in charge of dinner. [Social [Security announced that household help came under the plan. Rev. Roswell Lyon and his fam- ily expected to sail for Europe for a vacation. Customers = of Dallas-Shavertown Water Co. were asked tq use water sparingly. The dry spell during the spring when the water table is usu- ally replenished, coupled with ex- tremely dry weather early in July, was responsible. Kiwanis and YMCA were complet- ing plans for a circus in the Back Mountain. Pioneer Avenue was resurfaced, and immediately thereafter, motor- ists from town, taking what they considered a short-cut to the Lake, started speeding along it. Sau CTS A THE DALLAS POST, THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1961 Rambling Around Bu The Oldtimer —D. A, Waters ° = enn AI ON With a large volume of ‘poultry products being sold, it would seem that poultry raising would be a very profitable business. However, those with knowledge of the facts state that this is not so, particularly for the small operator. Recently we encountered an ac- quaintance who had kept hens as a main occupation for thirty years. He had a small place, only about five acres. He had some small fruit and planted a garden. His equipment was up to date as of the time he started. A good spring was equipped with a pump to provide an adequate supply of very good water. ‘He built a tworstoried laying house, had sep- arate brooder houses, pullet shelt- ers, ete. He maintained a laying flock of about eight hundred Leghorns at all times. Each year he bought five hundred mixed pullets, as baby chicks in the earlier years, later as started pullets a few weeks old. As the young pullets came into laying season he culled his older hens to keep the size of his flock at about eight hundred. Bggs were sold through two steady outlets in ‘the metropolitan New York area, shipped regularly a few cases at a time to insure ville expected to train. in physio- therapy at the Mayo Clinic in Roch- ester. League of Women Voters compiled a list of candidates, with their qual- ifications, which was published in the Dallas Post as a community serv- ice. Robert Van Horn, of Lake Street and Harveys Lake, was the subject of a Know-Your Neighbor column. Mr. and Mrs. William Cairl, Ceme- tery Street, celebrated their 60th Anniversary with a family gather- ing. Audrey Kleiner of Kingston be- came the bride of Preston Sturde- vant of Huntsville. Reunions included . Sickler and Garnett families. A resuscitator purchased by Lake Lions for use of the Lake Firemen, earned its board and keep when used to restore Red Murphy of Noxen, who developed a cramp while swim- ming at the Lake. Fred Swanson officiated . Dallas Franklin schools expected 447 elementary pupils. freshness. One of the outlets gave him a guaranteed premium price, the other was an auction paying the current market for all eggs sub- mitted, regardless of the number, so he never lost any due to lack of market. All care of the flock. was done by him personally, no help being employed. Leghorns are a nervous breed and he felt this was necessary to maintain the best production. Consequently his full time was re- quired so that any vacation at all was rare, and then was taken with misgiving. Accurate records were kept from the very first of all expenses and receipts. Feed and other costs climbed steadilly over 6 the years. Income dropped so the spread de- creased almost annually. Finally his annual figures showed that for the entire calendar year his receipts less expenses left him for the year of steady and con- fining work the grand total of one dollar and fifteen cents ($1.15). He closed up business as soon as pos- sible. That year he had to sell out his laying hens for fifty cents each, when the year before he paid fifty- five cents each for them as started pullets. In telung another poultryman about his closing out for the reason of the small income, his friend said, “You were lucky. I actually lost $2000 on my broilers last year.” Recently we commented in this column on the professionally unem- ployed and have since encountered a still more stratling case. A husky two-hundred pounder showed up to work for two weeks in the last half of May while a regular employee was on vacation. He said he had not worked a single day since De- cember, his only activity being to report at the established place to sign up for unemployment benefits. By the union rules governing his employment he would have been entitled to work at least part time but he had not bothered. He said he had no car to get around. This did not sit well with me. For over forty years I managed to get around by walking, horse and buggy, trains, street cars, busses, and taxicabs. Seems that such transportation is not good enough for the younger set. 100Years Ago This Week. int THE CIVIL WAR (Events exactly 100 years ago this week in the Civil War— told in the language and style of today.) Confederates Defeat Federals at Bull Run Green Union Forces in Full Rout; Terror-Stricken Troops Clog Streets WASHINGTON —July 21—The nation’s capital was stunned today by the utter defeat of Federal troops by Confederate forces at Bull Run, a sleepy, gentle creek near Manassas Junction, some 25 miles southwest of here. {Dey irs Rivsinek of Lop It was the first major setback for Union troops since the war with the secessionists began. Washington’s usual Sunday evening peace was shattered as panic-stricken units of the routed forces filled the streets. “We have lost the day—and it’s a damned bad loss,” cried one Union cavalry officer to a crowd of curious correspondents. ¥ ® TA EARLY casualty figures were staggering. First reports put Fed- eral losses at 2,900 out of some 30,000 engaged. the neighbor- hood of 1,800 with some 32,000 on the scene, Observers re- port about 500 Union dead and at least 400 Confederate dead were seen on the tiny battlefield. Officials concede that the Un- jon “missing” figure includes hundreds of raw, three-month recruits who simply ran from the conflict, shedding field packs and arms as they bolted. Many of these bedraggled spec- imens were in sorry evidence here tonight. Manassas is a strategic rail junction considered ‘‘the gateway to Richmond” by Union leaders. * PounTR THE DAY began as a pienie for scores of Congressmen and other politicians who went with their giggling ladies by coach to Manas- sas to wateh the action. These well-horsed sightseers, dripping wet with the bad news, were among the first to reach here after the rout. President Lincoln is reported to have told one: f‘‘Congratula- tions; you have beaten the Army back.”” The chief executive, crushed by the stampeding of his troops, reportedly has .ordered a 4 major reorganization of the Army of the Potomac. Leaders of this Army are widely reported to have been reluctant to mount the attack with their un- trained units, but local pressure for a show of strength against Southern forces has been strong. * * ¥ : WHAT HAPPENED? Answers vary widely in this chaotic city tonight, but it appears that Federal troops under Gen. Irvin McDowell fell back Ymdorl, McDOWELL the onslaught of beefed-up Confed- erate units after heavy Rebel re- inforcements ar- rived at mid-day. Some 9,000 Southerners led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston merged with units of Brig. : & ‘Gen. . P. .G. T. JOHNSTON Beauregard, of Fort Sumter fame, a few hours before the victory. McDowell, it was reliably re- ported, took two days te coax his amateur army to the scene. Then he roused them at 2 am., groggy and scared, to launch the ill-fated offensive. * % * BATTLEFIELD reports were strong in praise of one Confed- erate officer, Col. Thomas J. Jacks son, whose troops held firm under a vicious pounding. Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee rode among his men, shouting: ‘There stands Jackson, like a stone wall.” And the Federal froops will have something else to remember —a wild, blood-curdling scream that the Confederate troops loose when in bayonet attack. It was first heard today and has been dubbed ‘the Rebel yell.” Gen. Fremont In New Command ST. LOUIS, Mo.—July 21—Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont today took over command of all Union forces in the West. Fremont, who earned the nick- name “The Pathfinder” in early Army days as an explorer in the Western prairies, was the Repub- lican party’s presidential candi- date in 1856, winning on the first convention ballot at the age of 43. He lost to James Buchanan, 174 electoral votes to 114. He is con- sidered a strong abolitionist. Change Top Job MONTGOMERY, Ala.—July 21 —R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia to- day was appointed secretary of state in the Confederate cabinet, succeeding Robert Toombs of Georgia. Toombs resigned to be- come a general in the Confederate army. DOLE a 3 80, T 1960, HEGEWISCH Hick PICTURES: i L LL ARchivES ARE Sea Safety Valve . GOOD INSURANCE Dear Howard; I wish to take this opportunity be- latedly to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to the Dallas Ambu- lance Crew, who responded so quickly on the night of June 30th at about 11:30 p.m. to take my wife to the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia. In about no time at all a crew was organized by Don Bulferd with the following men responding, Bob Block, John Sheehan and Lance Jarrett. The trip was made by John Sheeman and Lance Jarrett as the drivers. I cannot give enough praise to those people who I am sure gave up their sleep or other activities they might have been engaged in when the call was made. My wife is alive to-day only be- cause of the promptness an willing- ness of men like those mentioned above and a Community with an unselfish motive and a golden heart that helps support and maintain an ambulance on a 24-hour call all year round. lance, I doubt if my wife would have lasted the next 24 hours. I know what a community -ambulance means. I had to call on it three times in a little over two years, twice to Philadelphia and once to Kingston. I wish people would realize how little a $5.00 contribution Is to sup- port an ambulance and “yet how big it is when every one gives: A community ambulance is the best thing that could be part of any community. I am glad that I am part of a community that has one .I hope I never have to use it but it’s good to know that it is there when you need it. Andrew Kozemchak Editor’s nete: Having a community ambulance is like insurance. You hope you won't need it, but if you do, there it is. It's worth the annual donation to have your mind set at rest. And if you don’t nsed | it, SO much the better. MORE ABOUT DOLLS Safety Valve This is a ‘waste not, want not” program, letting the wonderful peop- le behind our doll and material drive know what their co-operation and support has done. $108.00 was raised on dolls novel- ties and clothing sets. One dozen small dolls not sold will be sent to the children’s home or a hospital; this by agreement of all donors for dolls. The ten inch dolls will be sold before Xmas to pay ex- penses for material used in quilts, childrens cloths and doll clothes. All pieces of wool, cotton cord- uroy, pique in pieces one-half yard and over will be used for children’s clothes for the children’s home. All small pieces of velvet, heavy and light weight, will be used for doll’'s. gowns and crazy quilt bed spreads. All small pieces of wool will be used for Vets lap robes and all pieces of sheeting and white percales, will be used for doll quilts. All strips of material will be pink- ed, washed, ironed and packed for cancer bandage workers. We will continue to accept your dolls in good re-conditioning shape and are asking for dolls from the smalest baby doll jinny and dolls of this type for models. We have old dolls of most every size a child will want clothes for. Send your nylon stockings to Mrs. Frank Kuehn, all winter. Let’s keep her busy! T would like all the pieces of mat- erial I can get in plain percale, small flowers and polka dot dotted swiss. Animals and figurines or doll cloth and crepes and oting flan- nel for pajamas. I would like satin pieces for dolls and quilt spread. If you have small amounts of cotton, Mrs. Williams can use it for rag dolls with nylon. Sincerely, Mys. Arthur Newman Bell Telephone Strike Possible The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania is faced with the pos- sibility that 15,400 of its employees may go on strike when their con- tracts terminate August 2. The main area for dispute between ing department workers and 13,000 production and plant employees is automation. Since the start of the year Bell has been using a giant data processing computer at its Con- shohocken plant. Bell expects to use the new computor to bill the entire Eastern Pennsylvania District. I. C. Glendinninfi, chief negotiator for the workers accused Bell of try- ing “to enjoy eating both ends of the cake, that is, introducing automa- tion at an unprecedented rate and paying the remaining employees the lowest wage rates.” A company rep- resentative answered that there is substantial agreement on wage is- sues but there are “unresolved dif- ferences over job slotting of certain work operations.” Easter Lily Bears 23 Blossoms In July An Easter lily, which bloomed vigorously early in the spring as a house plant, and was transplanted outdoors when danger of frost was past, is now again abundantly in bloom, with twenty-three flowers, in the yard of the Ryman home on If it hadn’t been for the ambu- | the company and the 2,400 account- |. ‘heavy traffic. Mt. Airy Road. Ho fhe Sori Fangs it is ® gases, DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA From “Pillar To Post . Twenty years ago in the Dallas Post, Hix had her first column in print. That should call some kind of a celebration, perchance to the sweet music of the popping of champagne corks, but some- thing tells me that it will ooze quietly into history, minus cham pagne, minus anything except the terse comment from head- quarters that Hix should have been turned out to pasture long ago. It was a historic occagion. A son, helping get out an issue of the Dallas Post as a summer project, made a long distance call to Kingston, and got Mom on the phone. “Lookit,” he quoth, “I need something for the front page. Got a big hole here. Write something and bring it out to Dallas, huh?” It sounded intriguing. “What kind of a something? literary ? funny? housewifelyish ?”’ I inquired cautiously. “Aw shucks,” soothed the engaging voice at the other end of the line, ‘it doesn’t make any difference what you write. It’s just to fill up space. Any old thing will do.” And then he added, “Who's going to read it anyhow?” This seemed a reasonable assumption, and cheered by the thought that the subject matter need not be literary, or even readable, I launched happily into ‘a reminiscence of how bathing suits used to look, proof-read it sketchily, and ran it out to Dallag in the little blue Oldsmobile. I've been doing it ever since, month after month, year after year, and sometimes I wonder where 1 got material for it. But something always turns up . . . as'it did today when I opened a bound volume of July 18, 1941, and found the evidence on the front page. {cs And in case you want to know flint that bathing suit looked like, it was bright red with a sailor collar. The chassis was black stockings hitched to a garment unmentionable in those modest times, and white bathing shoes and a bandanna finished off the con- fection. : But in 1910, that outfit was extremely daring, because it ended at the knee, whereas all conventional ladies bobbed up and down at the edge of the water arrayed in blue brilliantine, shin length, with capacious bloomers peeping from beneath as the little waves sported around the shins. How any girl learned to swim is beyond me, but swim we did, weighted down with surplus yardage, but staying afloat doggedly, and having ourselves a time. The stockings had a tendency to bag at the knees, but modesty required that the nether limbs (that’s the way legs used to be termed) be clad in something completely nontransparent .. . Born thirty years soon, that’s my sad conclusion. ¥ Barnyard Notes U.S. Route 11, that great north and south artery stretching from the gateway to Montreal at Rouse’s Point in the Lake Cham- plain country to storied New Orleans on, the Gulf of Mexico, traverses the heartland of American history. On Saturday morning, our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, Myra and I headed the Thunderbird south on ELEVEN along the placid Susquehanna through country where Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia have contributed their share to the glory of one of the nation’s great highways. The tiger lilies now are at their peak, beckoning in endless line at the roadside as it skirted along the old Pennsylvania Canal between the river and the lush emerald beauty of the forested foot- hills of the Blue Ridge on the right. The Pennsylvania Department of Highways has transplanted many of these native wildflowers, among them the dainty pink Bouncing Bet and the rich azure Chick- ory from its nurseries on the West Branch below Lewisburg. Further down from Carlisle on through Maryland, the lilies and Chickory would be augmented by colorful stands of old fashioned hollyhocks in front of every farm home, in ‘the angles made by split’ rail fences, and in profusion along the hedgerows. And in Virginia the blazing orange trumpet vine peeped from beneath the overhanging locusts! Down through the river towns made famous by Indians and pre-revolutionary pioneers, we travelled past old Fort Augusta and crossed the great Shamokin Warrior Path that once led to the Sixth Nation Country and Niagara in = New York State. A nod to Nor- thumberland—home of the’ great English scientist Priestly. There was no time to stop and dream a littlonnd you must dream to make history come alive! Another time would have to do for thse and such Pennsyl- vania places as Carlisle and Chambersburg, famous frontier towns before the Revolution and steeped in the history of the Gettysburg campaign and Jub Early’s raid . . . each worthy of a day themselves. But Saturday we were headed for Harper's Ferry, West Vir- ginia, the U. S. Arsenal town made famous by the John Brown raid in 1859.and by the later exploits of Col. Turner Ashby of the Con- federate cavalry, General Stonewall Jackson and his ‘foot cayairy; General Phil Sheridan and other greats of the War Between The States. This trip was the direct result of a book given us by Joe Mac- Veigh; “Kathy of Catoctin”, first published in 1886 and recently re- published by the. Cambridge, Maryland, Press. It, along with “The Road to Harper's Ferry” by Furnas, and “The Man Who Killed Lincoln” by Philip VanDoran Stern, are sufficient background to make any American want to wander over the hillsides! of Harper's Ferry at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, the gateway to the west and on the mainline of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Harper’s Ferry is reached by leaving Route 11 at Hagerstown, Maryland, and travelling some twenty miles on Route 65 through Sharpsburg and the Battlefield at Antietam. Just off the beaten path thronged by beer can strewing tourists, Sharpsburg and Harp- er's Ferry are two of the least spoiled historic shrines in America. Unlike Gettysburg, which is better marked, but spoiled by a com- mercial and carnival atmosphere, Harper's Ferry and Antietam re- main much the same as they were before the War. The plain brick and white clapboard homes with their surrounding flower gardens were, many of them, there long before the Civil War, and they re- main much the same today. Even the business places have a mini- mum of carra glass fronts and have succumbed little to twentieth- century progress. Harper's Ferry, which never fully recovered after the destruc- tion“of its armory and rifle works during the war, is the least spoiled of the two. Many of its stores and old buildings in the lower town on the site of the John Brown raid are now owned by the Federal government and supervised by the National Park Service. Most of them are vacant—mute guardians of a past when Harper's Ferry was on the lips of every American! Today Harper's Ferry is an artist's colony—and a mecca for the serious student of American history who would worship at a shrine where he might hear a red bird sing without. the distractions of Only a few spots in the East compare with it — per- haps Concord, Mass., and its “rude bridge where the embattled farmers stood”; possibly the Burnside bridge across the Antietam, and maybe, the Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. At the gateway to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper's Ferry was the site of important events from Colonial times through the Civil War. Strategically important, it changed hands many times during the war, and its capture by Stonewall Jackson in 1862 was the dramatic prelude to the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam that ended General Robert E. Lee's first Southern Invasion of the North—an invasion that might have penetrated deep into Pennsyl- vania and disrupted east and west. railway traffic at Harrisburg. It was here in 1859 that Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. JEB Stuart with 90 Marines from Washington captured John Brown after ten of his party of nineteen, among them his sons, Oliver and Watson, had been killed. It was here that John Wilkes Booth and the slinking Atzerodt, conspirators who killed Lincoln, were among the Virginia Militia who conducted Brown to Charles Town for trial. It was here, also, that 11,500 Union soldiers in the Harper's Ferry garrison under the command of General Dixon S. Miles, surrendered to Stonewall Jackson as a prelude to Antietam — the largest force of American troops ever to display the white flag before the sur- render of Corregidor in World War II. Harper's Ferry — a name to conjure with; a place to visit now while it is still unspoiled. Surounded by Maryland, Loudon and Bolivar Heights — Thomas Jefferson extolling its beauty, in his Notes on Virginia, “The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature . . . . the scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.” Much has happened since Jelfrsen's day to wake Harpers bo VAT aE Sa AE a AT a Sq ax asa BN ¢ < 4 Ferry a national monument! pe — a F- hy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers