Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-26
Ehrntttg U1at

A friend in commenting upon the
article in this column the other night
relative to the courthouses which have
peen built in Harrisburg says thai
when the county offered the State the
use or the first courthouse for the sit
tings OF the Legislature 1t entailed ex.
pense of good many dollars upon
the young county because new offices
had TO be fitted up and in one instance
court building had to be construct.
eu. IL was the first sacrifice made ln
pehalf of the State Capital and was
much commented upon at the time.
Few people know 1t. but Harrisburg
has been a seat of the State Supreme
Court even from the time before the
town was laid out. Long before uar-
risburg became the capital of the stare
the court of appeals recognized the
advantageous location of the city and
had sittings here and for a time sat
mere exclusively, as 1t should to-day.
Chief Justice Mexican stopped here
when the place was Harris Ferry and
Is Said to have made his home in Har-
rlspurg when Congress was sitting at
york and Lancaster. When the SUI
premc court came to town. says George
twasnlngton " Harris in description of
the town, numbers of the citizens
would go out on horseback and escort
tnem to town. Sometimes one of two
nundred people would attend on such
occasions, Each morning while the
thIel th Justice was in town holding court
siie sherl1 and constables escorted him
| from his lodgings to the courthouse.
| Wnen on the bench he sat with his
| cooked hat on and was dressed in a
scarlet gown"
Mckean, general and governor as
well as justice, was a good bit of q.
| ishter. He was very dignified and
the Indians, who used to come to town
from villages near by, were afraid of
| MN. He had discussions with MANY of
tne people about here and is said to
| nave mad row with John Harris
which led to the suggestion that the
name of the new town be called Louis
pourg because. he argued, Harrisburg
pelng called after the dauphin, the
French king, who aided the colonies.
should also be honored. John Harris
however. had the making out of tho
deeds for the lots. and although the
precept for the first court called for
Loulsbourg, Harris ignored that
name, and his town became officially
Harrisburg. There was q good bit Of
state politics mixed up in that episode,
as Harris and his son-in-law, William
Maclay. the first United States SEN
ator were aligned with a different
party than Mckean and his friends.
Herbert Quick. the Iowa member of
the Federal Farm Loan Board. whose
mental alertness impressed everyone at
the state Capitol. has made a state-
ment regarding the second mortgage
proposition calling attention to the fact
that the law does not permit the gov
erDment to make any second mortgage
| loans In statement Mr.. Quick says
that the land banks can not have any,
| thing TO do with them. 1t seems that
there have been many questions along
this line.
| William p. d. Hall. statistician of
the State Highway Department, has
been elected es chairman of the COM
mittee on publications of the Engi-
neers T1e Society; Mr., Hall. who is a
| University of Pennsylvania man, serv-
ed in the First United States Engineer
regiment in the Porto Rican cam
paign and was later news editor of
the Philadelphia Press. He was q.
member of the Philadelphia Telegraph
and Inquirer staffs.
| Refusal of the Board of Public
| Grounds and Buildings to let a con-
tract yesterday for the erection of the
new barn for the Pennsylvania State<
Hospital property to replace that de-
stroycd by lightning illustrates the adj
vance in the price of materials. What
| was considered to be very liberal es-
| Innate, as compared with what prices
were short time ago, was made but
when the bids were opened it was
| found that figures were away up and
that it would be impossible to erect
the building within the estimate made
| by the board. Prices have gone up so
fast that even the estimaters could not
keep in touch with them.
|
Salmon fishermen say that the
weather lately has been just right for
their sport and that people who have
! given up fishing are missing the time
of their lives. The construction of
the sanitary dam has, if anything, inn
proved the fishing and there are some
splendid specimens taken out almost
every night down around Tuscarora
and Dock streets, while up at the dam
there is also fine angling.
Senator Marshall L. Phipps, of Oil
! City, who was here yesterday, used
| 20 be in the National Guard and is
! fond of telling of military experiences.
| He was for years an aid to Major
General John A. Wiley.