Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-06
Ehrntttg Grat

Imagine a valley shut in by high
hills, the valley not a thousand feet
wide with a creek and a railroad main
line and a State highway running
through it with big mills and fac
tories and buildings and houses and
churches and all that goes up to make
q string of boroughs and you have
the place where the National Guards
men are serving in Allegheny county"
said man familiar with the Turtle
creek Valley to-day. The valley
starts in near Pitcairn and runs down
toward Pittsburgh, where it branches
Is Braddock and then ii spreads out
and takes in North Braddock, Brad
dock, Rankin and Swissvale on one
side with Munhall and Homestead on
the lower side where it widens out.
Round the corner from Turtle creek,
so to speak, is Duquesne. This Sec
tion is one of the busiest valleys on
earth, one of the most conGested in
dustrial communities and one having
a polyglot population that would defy
man to classify under a day and a
half | have been 'all through it and
know every foot of the way. 1t speaks
well for the levelheadedness of the
soldiers and the workingmen that
trouble has not started because if it
did and the belligerents took to the
hills there would be a rather exciting
time. Many of the foreigners served
in armies abroad and it speaks well
Tor their leaders that they have held
them in hand so we'll"
The City Passenger Railway Com
pany, which held it's annual meeting
Few days ago is probably one of the
Oldest existing street railroad cor
porations in this part of the State.
The company has had an unbroken
existence for forty-two years, which
| is long period in these days of re-
| organizations and other changes. The
city company succeeded a company
known as the Harrisburg City Pass
enger Railway Company, which was
chartered by the Legislature in 1861
with a number of well-known men as
| incorporators. 1t built its first line in
! 1865, but was not a success and in
! 1873 1t was reorganiZed and re-
| chartered. George w. Reilly, jr., who
! was elected president of the COM
pany this week, is a son of one of the
| incorporators of the first company
| and one of the officers and directors
of the present company from its for
| nation. Henry A. kelker, Jr., who
was elected secretary, is a son of the
late Henry A. Kellier who was presi-
dent of the company from 1873 until
his death last Fall Others elected to
the board and to official positions are
men who have been long connected
w
| have been interested in it for two
score years or more. They include IL.
B. Mitchell, the Vice-president; and
| w. i. Gorgas. the treasurer and Ed
ward Bailey, George A. Gorgas, Major
John r. Ensminger, Harris Cohen,
Lesley McCreath, Abner c. Mckee.
David Fleming, whose father was i'm
the original company, and Frank Il.
Musser, president of the Harrisburg
Railways Company.
In connection with the street rail-
way meeting it is interesting to note
that the newspapers of the Spring of
1865, complained of street railway
material blocking the streets while
rails were being laid. on July Is,
1865, the road got into operation ap-
| parently because IL was announced
that: Cars on the City Passenger
| Railway will run tomorrow morning
during market hours to accommodate"
the uptown market goers. Persons
going to market will take the cars at
Ridgeroad and Broad street" The
| original line ran by horse power and
the first tracks were laid in Market
from the Pennsylvania station or
rather from the front of the Steam
boat hotel up Market to the Square
and up Second to Walnut and then
up Third and in Third % what is now
Nerbeke, then Broad, and then up and
down Sixth street, then called Ridge
road.
Should you suggest to eX-Sheriff
Harry c. Wells, county commissioner,
that he is a wee. bit absent-minded at
times he'll vigorously deny it i'm spite
of the little incident in which he
figured the other day. The sheriff
headed for a train hurried out Mar
ket, through Union station, and on
down the steps to the train shed the
other day while the weather man was
handing out some of the Apri-like
type of weather. The eX-sheriff un-
willing to take a chance with the oc-
casional sprinklings of rain, carried
his umbrella. AS he passed through
the station he was entirely un-
conscious of the grins and smokers
that followed him. Finally Just as
he was about to descend to the train
shed, Special officer Gus" Haines
hailed him:
"Hev Sheriff" he called. don't
you know the suns out now?"
And County Commissioner Wells
grinned, albeit a bit sheepishly and
lowered his spreading umbrella.
William II. Schwartz. the veteran
editor of Altoona, who is celebrating
his fiftieth wedding anniversary to-
day, is one of the well-known news
papermen of Central Pennsylvania. He
is seventy, but he is as keen as ever
and as answering in the cause of
local option as the day he penned his
first editorial on that subject