Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-20
Eurntt1g Ul1at

Harrisburg seems to be getting
| READY Tor to-morrow's big patriotic
demonstration as far as flags go and
IL the purchases being made and the
hags now being shown are anything
TO go by there will be a display of the
star Spangled Banner tomorrow
which viii be worth while travelling to
the states Capital to see. The beauty
ol II Is that the placing of the nation
ai eolors on the outer walls is not con-
hneu TO any particular section or
even the line of march of the parade
tomorrow. but it is general all over
the city. Flags are flying from small
MONIES in the side streets and no mat
'er no" narrow the thoroughfare
there Is flag to block at the very
least. In residential and business Sec
tons there are very handsoma fags
flown and it is to be noted that FAM.
ines or foreign origin. including many
| whose heads are not naturalized are
showing the American flag and often
times displaying the colors of their
natiTe land. This is especially true of
the Italian families The colors of the
| united States and the Italian king
dom are to be seen in quite q few
windows. Every mill or factory of
any size is flying the flag. In some of
the plants every separate building has
nag and there is u rivalry to see
which one has the best and the larg-
est. A trip up through the Pennsyl-
vanla railroad yards shows the flag
nying from every building from the
lower end OF the city to Linglestown
road and Enola and Rutherford have
nags galore. The showing of the colors
Is far more general than during the
Spanish war.
Old residents are recalling that it
was this week fifty-six years ago that
the First Defenders came to this citv
on their way to Washington. The
| Lewlstown, Reading, PottsVille and
other companies of militia left their
homes on April Is and reached here
Wlthin few hours. Most of them
spent the night of their arrival here
on the floors of the State Capitol and
were hurried off to Washington next
morning with many fine lunches given
TO them by the Harrisburg people.
A visitor from another planet drop
ping into harrisburg first glance
would see little to indicate that the
United States is really at war. An
. parentiy 1t Is the same carefree crowd
that usually throngs the streets but
every now and then something hap
pens that shows how alert is the un-
| X
whistles of the nearby industrial plants
were blowing to denote the raising of
, nags excitement was everywhere evil
dent. Men and women came rushing
from stores and offices to discover the
cause of the noise. Everywhere men
were asking: What is it for? What
does 1t mean? Especially is the public
Interested in the Harrisburg Pine and
Pipe Bending Works. When the alarm
: Tor poX oil struck recently. one anxious
citizen reports that he was unable to
get a line not busy to the plant for
several minutes. When he finally got
in touch with clerk and inquired if
the plant was on fire. the clerk re-
piled that he had been so busy answer
ing the same question since the alarm
struck that he had not, as yet, had
time to look outside to see where the
fire was.
The coming of war has not only
brought out many "reminiscences of
.stirring times in the days. of other
national struggles. but has revived
interest in many places intimately
associated with military affairs. Nam
of these spots are we'll known but
there are many which have played
quite part in local history and State
history, for that matter. which are
ing to get the locations of the various
armories or drilling places in Harris
burg in years gone by, especially at
the time of outbreak of war. For the
last forty years or so the City GrsST
Armory, at Second and Forster
streets, has been military center.
Years before that the hall which oc-
cupied the site of the present HAIR
RISBURG TELEGRAPH building
J was the military place and at one
time or another the building which
stood on the rear of the property now
filled by the Harrisburg Public Lii
. brary was a military headquarters.
There must have been other places
The gardening work being done
about the city rather indicates
that the fine beds of flowers which
have been so much admired in many
parts of Harrisburg will give way
to the lowly but vital potato plant
this summer and that there will be
corn stalks instead of golden glow
and tomatoes instead of zinnias and
ladyslippers The seedsmen say that
they have been asked for more Vari-
eties of vegetables than they knew ex-
listed and that the number of folkswho
have been after cabbage stalks has
been remarkable. The cabbage sets
could be sold over a dozen or more
times.
The fine weather has brought out
the first flowers of the Capitol Park
display and very appropriately tlrey
are, red, white and blue The bright
red of the tulips along the front of the
plaza is offset by the blue and white
hyacinths in the beds near the Hart
ranft statue. There will be thousands
of plants in bloom in Capitol park in
the next few weeks.
| .kNV~uHAV RE>Fl