Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-15
Enrsttttp Uqs1t

memories among the older men and
women of the city. especially those
who used to live or still live in the
upper end of the city. Time was
when in the grounds surrounding the F
hospital was located a little glade F
known as Deer Park" which at the .
suggestion of DR.. Orth was made r
free for the use of the public. This
was before the city had any parks
of its own and Deer Park" which
contained a number of the finest
springs to be found in this section,
and pretty little brook, was popu-
lar as a Sunday school picnic place.
Many romance was kindled be-
meath the stately old trees that
game of blind mans buff or
Lady Locket" brought young peo-
pie together who later took up life's
long walk together. Fishermen also
used to frequent the hospital
grounds, the creek flowing down by
the dairy farm barn being q great
place in those days for crabs. stone
rollers and club. Thousands of live
bait were taken from these waters
every year. A curiosity that used to
attract the attention of visitors on
the road back OF the asylum grounds,
near what was and may still be, for
all the writer knows, called Aaver-
sticks woods. was the foundations
for a large house all laid without
mortar and constructed, solely of
| pieces of shale quarried from a
| nearby hillside. 1t was the work of
an insane Stonemason and builder
and his only tool was O piece of
| broken spade. He labored on the
foundations for nearly year and
experts who inspected it pronounced
| 1t wonderful piece of work. The
poor fellow died just as he was about
completing the task.
1t is not generally known that Miss
Dorothy L. Dix, one of the fore1
most philanthropic workers of the
last century in Pennsylvania, was the
moving spirit in the founding of the
| State Hospital here. After the first
hospital was established in Philadel-
phia she began work to have one
| placed in the central part of the
State, and in 1845 a committee, com
posed of Jacob NJ. Haldeman. after
wards Minister to Norway and Swe1
| den; DR.. Luther Reilly, one of the
| city's best-known men; Hugh Camp
| bell, Charles .B. Trego and Repre-
sentative Joseph Koenigmacher. who
was chairman of aalegislative COM
mittee, chose the present site, which
was then a farm of 148 acres, bu
did not make the purchase, which
was left to a committee composed o.
| Aaron Bombaugh, John A. Weir and
James Fox. The cornerstone of the
| hospital was laid by Governor John
ston on April Z. 1S4s. The whole
place was practically rebuilt under
| DR.. Orth.
| One of the matters which attract
ed attention to the way DR.. Orth
ran the hospital was just plain pigs
DR.. Orth was one of the pioneers In
the movement to. have the State de
velop farms to feed its wards, and
he established piggeries on a scale
that brought trustees of other hos
pita1S here to see how he disposed
of the garbage and turned 1t int
I pork and bacon. In a short tim
other institutions were doing thd
same thing and fattening not onlI
hogs but the credit sides of thei
ledgers.
| Francis J. Torrance, president o
the State Board of Public Charities
! who was here few days ago. Il
serving Uncle Sam as a chairman o
draft board and giving the kind o
service that is seldom heard of, bu
contributes nightly. Mr.. Torrance
head of big business enterprises an(
is giving his own time. almost ex
| clusively, to the board, has his au
| tomobiles at the service of the boar,
and turned in six clerks and stenog
raphers from his office to help alon
| the work.
Fred A. Godcharles, Deputy Secre
tary of the Commonwealth, has gon
to Atlantic City to take part in tn
Westy Hogn shoot. an annual even
| which draws the best shooters of tn
| eastern part of the United States
Mr.. Godcharles. who has been i |
many matches, is great advocate
| trapshooting as preparedness
measure and has instructed hun
dreds of people in the way to handl
firearms. During the Spanish Wa
he served in the Twelfth Pennsyl
vania and has figured in many or
| ganiZations whose aim was to teac
people how to shoot and shoe
straight.
Tearing down of some of the oil
buildings in the Eighth ward TO
| Capitol Park extension attract
crowds of people every day and ther
are some Yho root about for souve
| Mrs. Numerous nails and bits of iro
| from the old Citizen enginehous
have been taken and 1t is probabl
that when the remaining churche
go there will be the same eagernes
! lOT do was ollOW
when st. Lawrence's Church was de
molished.
Harrisburgers have started out
their annual fair circuit. Every yea
thereSare q number of our people
| including some who come from Cen
trail Pennsylvania counties. VIII
make it their business to visit fair
Quite a few go to the old hom
county fairs and others have a reg
ular round, taking in Carlisle. New
port, Lancaster. Lebanon and Yorl
The Port Royal fair which starte
to-day, always attracts a number
former Juniata countians and ther
were some tickets sold for Poi
Royal to-day. The York fair will in
measure take the place of the gres
Allentown fair this year, the Lehig
gathering being given up because
the use of the grounds for trainin
hospital corps men.
Col. Frank D. ,Beary, who is &C
ing as Adjutant General. has bee
| in the National Guard ever sind
1888 and served through all of til
grades of the Fourth Regiment up
major. He was in the regiment