Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-04
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sylvania dedicated its new State Cap
ltoi and the man who would have pre-
dlcted on that very rainy afternoon a
decade ago that in 1916 the great
granite pile would be overcrowded and
thlrteen or fourteen branches of the
state government be scattered in
once buildings about the city would
nave been laughed at except by those
VINO mad been observing the growth
ol the administrative end of the Com
InohWealth. Likewise anyone who
would have predicted that the Capitol
would not have been given an ade-
quate setting by this time would have
9esn the subject OF comment. The
discovery of fraud in the furnishing
OF the place prevented the carrying
out OF the plans to finish the building
Win considerably more statuary than
the Barnard groups and the laying out
OF ornate gardens in the recesses as
,M meiI as the proper treatment of the
Ihlrd street frontage, which is about
the same as 1t was twenty years ago
only worse Undoubtedly. 1t was the
same circumstance which prevented
tne enactment of the legislation to
give lhe Capitol park suitable to its
magnl1cence, and Harrisburg owes
nIuch an TO the courage of John K. Tener
IN approving the bill in 1911. The
ways are now being cleared for the
Eighth ward section so that people
passing In trains can see their official
building and with Governor Martin 9.
srum baugh taking personal interest
IN making 1t place beautiful the
completion of the dream of years ago
can be realized.
incidentally, 1t may be remarked
that In ten years the opinion of many
people regarding the structure which
dominates the city and with circum-
ference greater than that OF St Peters
crown Capitol Hill has materially
changed. This day recalls the times in
1916 when nine out of every ten per-
sons talked wildly and allowed people
with axes to grind to do their think
Ing concerning the Capitol for them.
The wonderful pile designed by Joe
Huston and constructed, as far as the
building end of 1t was concerned,
within the law and as the law re-
quired, was called thing of putty
and sham and one wonders to-day
now some OF the revilers of the struc-
ture survived the failure of the dome
to melt away in the Autumnal rains of
that politically strenuous year. But
the Capitol has stood the storms and
the heat and the SHOWS of ten years
and while there are some cave dwellers
In Harrisburg and vicinity who have
never been in it, men and women
from Philadelphia and Punxsutawney,
Scranton and Sewickley, Doylestown
and Donora who have been here along
with many thousands from other parts
OF Pennsylvania, from all of the States
and Territories and from Australia.
emma, Germany and Peru, it is thing
or beauty, worthy of the Importance of
the second Comm monwealth 1 have
heard a good many comments from
slghtseers in the rotunda, the legisla-
tive halls and in the corridors in the
n c 10 Il L., i
frank enough to say that they had en-
tlrely wrong idea of the building. 1t
is interesting to watch people drive
up in an automobile which may come
from Ohio or Oklahoma, their heads
filled with the stories OF the graft and
fraud and corruption. which formed
the favorite reading of too many folk
for years, and note their surprise that
the walls are ashlar and not ginger
bread. This is no eXaggeration be-
cause to listen to some of the stuff
that I have heard in other States and
IN some OF our own counties one would
think that baker and not an archi-
tect designed the official home of the
Keystone State. But the most enjoy
able part of it is to see the doubters
walk through the wonderful bronze
doorway into the rotunda and look.
They just look. The late Samuel w.
Pennypacker, whose faith in the beau
ties OF the Capitol led to the inaugur-
alton OF the penny mile" tours and
the breaking down of the doubts in
the minds of the people about the
State House, once stood in the en-
trance and watched some tourists walk
chattering about Pennsylvania and its
Capitol scandal into the rotunda with
Its decorations illumined by the shafts
or morning sunlight coming from high
up in the dome. When their chat
tering ended in sudden surprise the
n fttrr
smile and went up to the Public Ser
vice Commission offices chuckling half
the way.
Governors Edwin S. Stuart and John
K. Tener thought so much of some
features of the building that they
would often leave their offices and
take personal friends out to look 1t
over The big man from Charleroi
used to like to take some sceptcal
friend out and walk him around and
then read him lecture on believing
everything he read and heard when
railroad trains still ran to Harrisburg.
One afternoon Governor Tener went
out to greet a squadron of high school
students from up the State and as he
walked behind the groups entering the
hall OF the House of Representatives
from the rear he said he was satisfied
that he had the right idea because
the general exclamation among the
youngsters was Gee. amt it peach"
To-day ten years ago was a very
notable day in Harrisburg for it not
only dedicated the Capitol, but it
heard Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
make notable speech in which Penn
sylvania got the credit for reform
laws. 1t had great parade a splen-
did illumination and one of the great
est crowds in its history, so many peo-
pie being here that the State police,
who were on their first visit to the
city, had to help handle the throngs.