Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-20
EVENING Chat

Without taking into consideration
the amounts of money expended by
the hundreds of men who sought
nominations yesterday it is safe to say
that the cost to the public of the pri-
mary elections held yesterday was
close to half million dollars. There
VIII be no way of estimating the cost
FOR months to come, as the bills must
go to the Auditor General after beinS
paid by county commissioners and
generally fare badly at the Capitol,
Some of the bills for 1912 have just
been settled and the 1913 list of bills
Is not finished. Two years ago the
primary cost about 100000 and there
was not nearly as much required as in
the present elections under the general
primary and the nonpartisan primary
acts of 1913. Practically the whole
cost falls. on the State. and as the pay
of election officers has been increased
and more printing required it looks
as though there would be dent made
in the state balance. Under the law
every person who ran as candidate
at yesterdays election must file a
statement of his expenditures by
Wednesday. June 3. The law is very
plain on this subject, requiring a full
statement of all money spent, of con-
tributions to committees and of eX-
penditures by such committees. What
the total of expense accounts Will be
no one can tell. More men are before
the people for statewide offices than
ever known under the old convention
system and there will be interesting
documents filed at the Capitol before
long.
Driving a COW along a city street is
something rather difficult at dawn
when there is not much traffic, but,
given the middle of morning with
good hot sun working. a street with
double track and the usual number of
cars moving, several automobiles and
steam roller working on new asphalt,
and there is combination that would
make an experienced drover sigh for
solitude. Yesterday morning a man
tried to lead a COW in Derry street in
the vicinity of Seventeenth and
Eighteenth. He encountered each of
the above-named objects in a block.
He gave up trying to lead and started
to drive. With the assistance of half
a dozen laborers, who hurrahed and
waved shovels and rakes, and of the
steam roller man, who shrieked his
whistle. the COW was gotten moved two
blocks. And she went on the sidewalk
all the way.
A good many people yesterday
passed up" the nonpartisan ballot
through sheer ignorance. Although il
has been the most written about of all
the election innovations in the last
eighteen months or so, many do not
understand it, and election voting
places were strewn with unused nom
partisan ballots. 1t appears that voters
were afraid to make a blunder and
did not mark to avoid the risk.
Harrisburg people are following
with great deal of interest the de-
velopments in the selection of the
moderator of the general assembly of
the Presbyterian Church of the United
states. as the man who presides over
the highest council of the great de-
nomination in the northern states is
known. 1t happens that one of the
men who is ardently advocated is the
Rev. DR.. George b. Stewart, former
pastor of Market Square Church and
now president of Auburn Theological
Seminary, at Auburn. n. Y. The selec-
ton will be made at the one hundred
and twenty-siXth annual general as
sembly, which begins in Chicago on
May 26. The Rev. DIR. Maitland Alex
ander, of Pittsburgh, is also being
mentioned.
Just now some of the greatest floral
displays to be found in many miles are
to be seen in some of the back yards
VI mar IlSuuIS ana IN some OF the
farmyard gardens in this section.
They are of the real old-fashioned
fowers and the blue iris is the queen
of them ALL The flag" as it is popu-
larry known, is just now in it's glory
and the blue variety, which is famous
the world over, is attracting even more
attention than the white and striped
varieties.
The canoeing season has had a hard
time getting started on the Susuue-
hanna because of the high water which
has prevailed for several weeks and II
is rather surprising that the river has
peen as irregular as it is in the present
month. Half dozen times young men
have started out for trips in canoes
and found that currents are strong
and contrary as we'll as slightly differ
ent from last year. The Susquehanna
currents are largely governed by the
deposits and objects in It's bed and as
the sand and coal is moved around a
good bit every spring the river has to
be observed afresh.