Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-10-02
EhrtI1tg Chat

The talk of the Harrisburg school
district this week in the efforts made
py the teachers of the Penn building
whereby they were able to report for
the school demonstration of last Fri
oay with 100 per cent. present. The
pupils OF this school building are
mainly OF foreign birth or fon4gn
parentage. There are Russian and
hungarian Jews, Germans, Hungar-
ians, Austrians, Servians, Roumanians,
russians, Italians, Bulgarians and
Sn1y inly more not to mention one little
LeiloW whose nationality is very much
OF mystery, none of the teachers
having been able to find ont from
where he does hail.
A large number of the families are
poor, so poor indeed that the children
are ill-fed, poorly clothed and IA
some cases very dirty. Their cloth
ing is nondescript and corresponds
with their general condition. But for
all mat there are no brighter children
IN the city schools than these little
aliens who are being trained by Miss
Maude Gamble and her corps of de-
voted teachers to be good American
citizens. They are ambitious to get
along in their studies, for the most
part and their parents are quite as
sollcitous in this respect as the little
folks themselves.
So 1t waA that when the order
went forth for the school demonstra-
ton 1t was hailed with delight by the
boys and girls Of the Penn building
and with terror by Miss Gamble and
her. assistants. How to get all of the
girls garbed in white and the boys
logged out in clean white shirtwaists
they did not know. Many of the lit
nave such garments and others who
did have them would not present the
immaculate aspect demanded by the
school regulations So the teachers
made a careful canvas and where the
children had no white clothes of the
kind required the teachers either in
duced the parents to invest therein
or where they were too poor the teach
ers themselves did the buying.
In addition they collected the soiled
little skirts and the spotted little waists
and took them home with them and
many were the washboards that were
busy and the irons that were hot in
the homes of the teachers the night
previous to the great demonstration.
Some of the young women worked un-
til far after midnight playing laund-
ress in order that their pupils might
be spotlessly clad. When the lines
formed next morning the Penn build
was next door to heavenly. Never
had it smelled so sweetly of starch
and soap and so little of perspiration.
1t simply radiated cleanliness. Spot
less Town never had anything on the
Penn school pupils as they looked
that day
But there was one fly in the oint-
ment. One little fellow turned up
with a dirty white sweater covering
very ragged black shirtwaist.
You cannot march that way" ad-
monished q teacher. Run home and
get your white shirt"
"I can't walled the boy" beginning
to sob in his disappointment IT want
so much to go in the parade, so I put
on this white sweater l borrowed,
cause have no white shirt Won't
it do?"
The teacher said it wouldn't, but
among her fellows she raised the
price of a white shirtwaist and the
parade was held up ten minutes while
the purchase was made and the lfstie,
fellow garbed in his new finery. That's
the way it happened that Penn build
ing had 100 per cent. of its pupils in
line and there are those who believe
that had the facts been known to the
judges Penn would have been award
ed a prize.
The cleaning up preparatory to in
spection which has been under way on
the Pennsylvania railroad has nothing
on the States highways throughout the
State. Men connected with the State
Highway Department are working
daily all over the Commonwealth to
get the roads into shape for winter
and some of the busiest are right near
this city. The Riverside has been put
into apple pie order and roads lead
ing to Gettysburg and out the Cum
berland Valley are being taken caro-
of in the same way.
The State will call no more forestry
reserves after its governors. The num-
ber of new reserves does not bid as
fair to hold up as does the list of
governors. Years ago when the State
started out to accumulate it's more
than a million acres of forest re-
serves and to buy back what it had
given away the plan was devised of
honoring governors by naming re-
serves in their honor. In recent years
reserves were named for William A.
Stone in the northern part of the
State, for Samuel w. Pennypacker
in the Juniata Valley and for Edwin
S. Stuart in the Ligonier region. When
John K. Tener came in he saw that
reserves were growing short and as
most of the purchases were for addi-
tions to those existing he suggested
abolishing the plan. No further NAM
inc haan d0na