davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
TRENCH GOSSIP"

Trench gossip is a fearsome and
uncanny thing" says Ian Hay (Ma-
jor Beith) in "All In It," the contin-
uation of THE First Hundred Thou
sand" just published by Houghton
Mifilin Company. 1T usually begins
life at the 'refilling point where the
A. S. C. motorlorries dump down
next days rations, and the regimen
tai transport picks it up.
"An A. S. c. Sergeant mentions
casually to a regimental Quarter
master that he has heard it at the
Supply Depot that heavy firing has
been going on in the Channel. The
Quartermaster., on returning to the
Transport Lines, observes to his
Quartrmaster-S Sergeant that the Ger
man fleet has come out at last. The
Quartermaster-S Sergeant, when he
meets the ration parties behind the
lines that night, announces to a pla-
toon Sergeant that we have won a
great naval victory. The platoon
Sergeant who is suffering from
trench feet and is a constant reader
of a certain pessimistic half-penny
journal, replies gloomily:
Well have heavy losses our
selves, too, l doot! This observation
is overheard by various members of
the ration party. BY midnight sever
al hundred yards of the firingline
know for a fact there has been a
naval disaster of the first magnitude
off the coast of a place which every
one calls Gally Polly, and that the
whole of our division is to be trans
ferred forthwith to the Near East,
to stem the tide of calamity.
Still, we must have something to
chat about"
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
WHY NOT REGISTER MEN? /?

The food administration has taken
great pains to register the wives and
mothers of the country for national
service in conserving the food sup
ply. OF it's good effects there is no
need to speak; they are our daily
experience. But disquieting reports
from various sources, some of them
authoritative, about carloads of po-
tatoes and other food being with
held from the market to sustain
prices justify the question of wheth-
er the time has not come to register
the men also for honest and patri-
otic service. Nobody doubts that the
Government will eventually cope
with the situation. The machinery
is just beginning to work. But win
ter is upon us and little actual re-
lief has been given. Domestic con-
sumers are becoming suspicious, not
without cause. Something ought to
be done.
If the already. qualified authorities
would institute systems of pledging
every dealer in food to fairness and
honesty they would know very soon
who was cheating and who wasn't.
AS matters stand, the women are
carrying more than their share of
the burden.-Pittsburgh Gazette
Times.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
THE TEST QUESTION

ESimeon Strunsky in Yale Reviewl
The question which the Allies will
ask themselves is this. Will the
junkers, if we should make some
kind of a compromise peace, be able
to say to the German people: I'VE
have not quite brought you the VIC
tory we promised but see how near
we came to it, and see, at the worst,
what we accomplished against a
world of enemies" If the German
people believe that it is the Prus-
sian system which saved 1t, then the
Allies dare not make peace. The
world will, indeed, be unsafe for de-
mocracy. But if the German people
should turn upon the junkers and
quote their own words against them
namely, that the country has been
saved by the devotion and suffering
of the common man, then the Allies
can afford to make peace. They will
have brought about that fail of the
Prussian system which they set out
to encompass. And events at the mo-
ment of writing show that the pro-
cess within Germany is full under
WaV.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
HISTORIC STUFF

I'VE couldn't think of any historic,
words to pull. so 1 just said Ready
to fire.
The young lieutenant in charge of
the gun firing the first American
shell at the German lines wanted to
say something fine and resounding.
but one finds difficulty in reviewing.
his classics out there in the rain and
there seemed nothing to say except
the formal command. And that, at
this distance, sounds historic"
enough. Ready to fire" speaks VOL
umes: Woodrow Wilson himself
could not have said anything more
appropriate. Ready to fire. is a.
proper admonition for either a bat
terry or a nation.
Couldn't think of any historic stun
to pulll Bless him! but soldiersl
make history, not orations. Besides.
historic stuff enough has been pulled
at home. The pulling of lanyards is
the order of the day now.
"s so I just said Ready to
fire."
Thus is historic stuff made.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
PRODuCE MORE

With the second bond issue fresh
in our minds, with the first quota of
drafted men in the camps, with the
first loss of our sailors and soldiers
in the sinking of the Antilles last
week, every American must be fully
aroused to the seriousness and i'm
mediate needs of the war. There
are duties for all classes to perform
and the farmers have one of the
greatest in the production of foods.
There have been differences OF opin-
ion on the matter of labor exemp-
ton, of price fixing, of percentage
OF profit allowed in the different in
dustries. 1t is we'll to hold for
equality of rights and equality of
representation, but above all of these
is the urgent necessity and the un-
questioned duty to meet the first re-
quirements of our country in war
and for the farmers that means more
and more food products. The Fed
eral Food Administrator said last
week that the farmers of the United
States can defeat the U-boats. They
can by the exercise of the most in
telligent and most energetic farming
that they have ever done; and what
is more, they will.-Pennsylvania
Farmer.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
GENTLENTANLY SPORT

= T is a pleasure to note the friendly
relations that exist between the
Technical High School of this
city and the High School of Steelton,
and the Telegraph regrets exceed
ingly that these should have been
put in false light by the circulation
of unfounded newspaper reports
Years ago the athletic rivalry be-
tween the two towns reached n
point of bitterness that was not good
for sport. But with DR.. Eager in
authority at Tech and Prof. Davis at
the head of affairs in Steelton, con-
ditions have changed to the extent
where the competition is on such
friendly basis that Steelton OCCASION
ally loans Harrisburg a coach for
critical nd-of-the-season battles.
This is as it should be. Harris
burg and Steelton are neighbors The
boys who attend Steelton High
School are of precisely the same
type as those which attend 3he
Technical school. They come from
the same kind of homes, they study
practically the same courses and
they go into the same activities in
after life. There is every reason why
they should be good friends and
friendly contestants. 1t is tribute
to the good sense of the boys and
the excellence of the two principals
4
brought about. Steelton and Har-
risburg should be neighbors in every
sense of the word.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14

cient interest in the feline remains
to dispose of them as fertilizer at s15
per ton.
perhaps the next nation to be-
come interested in the newly DO
mesticated animal was Phenicia. The
hardy seafarers must have been
greatly troubled with rats aboard
their ships, and found the cats q
help in protecting the pantry. In
their travels the Phenicians evil
IDENTIFY took the Egyptian cats to all
parts of the then known world. so
that many species of wildcats now
existing along the Phenician trade
route are believed to be the feral de-
scendants, either direct or crossed
with Indigenous cats of the locality,
of the Phenician ratkillers.
THE Greeks probably had no cats.
The ailuros which they kept on
seems to have been the white breast
ed martin (mustela), although the
word cat is frequently though ar-
roneously used in translating the
Greek term. But the Romans evil
IDENTIFY possessed them, and it is prob
able that from Rome they were car
ried northward. AS soon as the do
mestic breed became established in
Europe it began to cross and still
does cross freely with the European
wildcat (fe.is catus). 1t is probable
that the cat was brought by the
Romans to Britain some time before
the fifth century although the first
mention of it's existence occurs in
the laws of the Welsh prince Howell
Dhu, which were enacted about the
middle of the tenth century. II
seems possible that the European
wildcat and Egyptian cat were OF
much closer relationship than has
been supposed, since fossil feline re-
mains found in Britain bear just as
much resemblance to the Egyptian
cat as they do to the native wildcat
of the present day.
From the crossing of the import
'tabby.' But the angora comes from
another source. Just what This
source was is not positively known
but it seems probable that a cat OF
Central Asia Of. manuD, popularly
known as Pallas's cat, is the ances-
ed Roman cats and the British wild
cat evidently resulted the modern
tor"
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
HALF WAY WORK

We are. none of us, so good archi-
tects as to be able to work habit
ually beneath our strength; and yet
there is not building that know
of, lately raised. wherein it is not
sufficiently evident that neither
architect nor builder has done his
best. 1t is the especial character
istic of modern work. All old work
nearly has, been hard work. 1t may
be the hard work of children, of
barbarians, of rustics; but it is al
ways their utmost. Let ais have
done with this kind of work at once:
cast off every temptation to it; do
not let us degrade ourselves volun-
tarily, and then mutter and mourn
over our shortcomings; let us con-
fess our poverty or our parsimony,
but not belle our human intellect.
1t is not a question of doing more,
but of doing better. Do not let us
boss our roofs with wretched, half
worked, blunt-edged rosettes: do not
let us flank our gates with rigid imi-
tations of medieval statuary. Such
things are mere insults to common
sense, and only unfit us for feeling
the nobility of their prototypes
RuSkin.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
AN UNBIDDEN GUEST

The Kaiser was holding birthday,
with feasting and revel and wine,
And the roar of his cannon re-
echoed from Riga across to the
Rhine,
Blaspheming the name of his maker,
mouthing a braggart boast.
He stood at his birthday table, and
called for another toast.
Here's to my gallant Allies, and
here's to them every one,
Since their God has been good and
allowed them to share in my place
in the sun!
Then spite of the burst of cheering,
and spite of the drunken din,
There came q voice from the door
way-'Pardon, may I come in?
"'Who is it that seeketh to enter?'
the wondering Kaiser cried,
And Only another Ally the same
sleek voice replied:
Only another Ally, bringing his
homage to you,
And rendering every. honor where
honor is surely due
Then the Kaiser looked down the
table. to the guests who had come
at his call
Turko and arrogant Austrian, bar
gaining Bulgar and all.
An Ally that have forgotten? Then
open my portals wide!'
So did they leap to his bidding
AND THE DEVIL STEPPED
INSIDE.
There did he stand in the doorway,
looking around with a grin,
AS he numbered his newly found
comrades in their brotherhood of
sin.
sir, am proud to toast you, for
ever since hell had birth
1 had hoped to find the colleague
who would open a branch on
earth!'
Then he snapped his wavering wine
glass, as he swung on his heel to
60,
And the wine ran down DER the
damask cloth like blood on the
Belgian snow.
Brothers. he cried, I leave you
but not with final toast:
Tonight / stand your Unbidden
Guest-tomorrow I'll he your
Host'-Trumbell Cheer,
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
SOME SYSTEM NECESSARY

TF reports coming to this city are
correct the attempt to take the
- soldiers vote at the various en-
canpments was a fair example or
the hit and miss manner a Common
wealth unused to war and commo-
ton has to adopt to meet situation
growing out of modern military con-
ditions. 1t was the duty of the State
to furnish it's citizens with means to
vote, but after the experience of 1916
in Texas some better system might
have been devised. The Legislature,
which adjourned last summer. stood
ready to enact such laws as were
needed and provided funds. but the
subject did not get the attention
which some people think that 1t
should have received.
Chances are that the war will be
going on when the time comes to
vote for Governor next November.
and it may be still going in Novem-
Der, 1919. If the soldiers are 70 be
given what is termed "the inalien-
able right of franchise" there should
be some more efficient system than
that used last week. The plan was
well thought out and the instructions
issued to the commissioners definite
and complete-as far as the State
Capitol was concerned. But from
what the commissioners say, when
they reached the camps they had TO
work out their own salvation. 1t
seems that all of the thinking about
the voting was done at this end. No
one appears to have taken into ac-
count the conditions at the camps,
unfamiliar with camp life trying to
adapt themselves to an existence to-
tally different from that from which
they had gone within few days, the
lack of interest on the part of large
portion of the men who had made
great sacrifices for the nation in
the election at all and tho absence
of records showing where men lived.
Even the candidates and their work.
ers, presumed to represent the last
Woiu III pOiIiSaA enterprise were OH
their jobs and did not realize what
things were like at the camps until
too late. Then, too, there is criticism
of some of the commissioners, but
that is apt to be voiced about any
men no matter by whom named.
AS we live and learn. maybe we
will be in better shape to take SOL
dier votes next year. when the diff
culties will not be so great because
it will be purely State election.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
INFORMATION WANTEn

MO loyal citizen begrudges one
IN cent of the taxes he pays to
help make this war a success.
Few people will complain at a rea-
sonable degree of waste, but there
must be more or less waste in a large
undertaking like this. But there are
numerous governmental activities
only incidental to the war and which
are costing the government large
sums of money. We should know
what these are costing and whether
the expenditures are necessary and
wisely made. We are entitled to know
how much it costs to float the loans
and how the money was spent. We
are entitled to know who are hold
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
TRADE BRIEFS

One hundred thousand dollars
has been appropriated by the Mex
ican government for the purchase of
benzine tractors. An American firm
will supply the machines.
Two new cottonseed oil mills
have been built in Russia, and pre-
viously established plants enlarged.
A-1narket for American machinery
might be established.
Japanese merchandise is finding
favor in the Singora district, Malay
Peninsula. American exporters
wishing to develop markets in this
province for nickel, enameled wares,
toilet supplies, matches and photo
graphic materials should establish
agencies in Bangkok, Siam.
Alden, Arabia, may become a CEN
ter for the expectation of dates be-
cause of its central position and di-
rect connections with foreign cities.
Direct steamship service between
this country and Alden would open a
larger field for American supplies
and dates could be shipped to the
United States at small cost.
Varnish, filters and paint brushes
of American make are needed in the
Malaga consular district, Spain.
Competition with local paint manu-
facturers is impossible.
Mechanical lighters to be used in
stead of matches are in demand in
Peru.
There is an immediate need for
steel wire ropes and cables for use in
the coal mines of Russia.
Catalogs and samples of mechan-
ical toys are asked for by an Italian
firm.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
a SIGNIFICANT DECISION

" HE Supreme Court of the United
States has invalidated the ordi-
nance of the city of Louisville,
Kentucky, which compelled whites
and negroes to live apart in segre-
gated portions of the city. The deci-
sion will affect similar ordinances in
other Southern cities, and it appar-
entity opens the door for a successful
attempt to secure for the colored
people of the South other and more
important rights which the Constitu-
tion provides for them, but which in
genious Southern legislation of Bour-
bon Democratic origin has taken
away.
The opinion of the Court, rendered
by Justice Day, recognizes chat
there exists a serious and difficult
problem arising from a feeling of
race hostility which the law is pow
erless to control and to which it must
give measure of consideration.
But its solution cannot be promoted
by depriving citizens of their con-
stitutional rights and privileges"
The feeling of race hostility" 10
which the Court alludes is at the bot
tom of all the grandfather causes"
and other statutes enacted by South
ern DEMOCRATIC legislatures to deprive
colored voters of their constitution
al rights and privileges" at the polls.
If this feeling can have no standing
in the Supreme Court in a matter in
volving civil right no more impor-
tant than that contained in a sale of
property by white man to a colored
man, or vice versa, much less can
1t stand in a controversy wherein are
pending the highest of a citizens
privileges in a republic-the right to
participate in the choice of those by
whom his laws shall be made and
executed.
This right has been esplicitly
denied to colored men in the South
ern States; and thus far no issue has
ever been framed in a manner to
reach the Supreme Court upon the
naked question which is at stake.
The present decision indicates the
trend of the Courts mind: and it is
the duty of the colored man and his
friends now to proceed to test the
greater question.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14

olIGSI railway bUlplOyeS lnLeTud-
tional increased wages by $40, 100000
last year.
Congress has passed the Johnson
Gard bill, which corrects an injustice
to dock workers as the result of a
decision by the United States Su-
preme Court which placed longshore-
men under maritime liability juris-
diction and not under the operation
of state compensation laws.
A nonunion. barber shop proprietor
at Little Rock, Ark, has failed to Sc
cure an injunction restraining pick
cts from carrying q banner reading:
This shop is unfair to union la
bor." The court held that unionists
have the right to state facts.
The military authorities of the
United States are determined to get
men for all branches of the service
either at home or abroad and have
sent out circulars to the trade unions
of Canada asking for men. The lat
est appeal has been made to struc-
tural iron workers with an offer of
union wages and free passage over
seas.
T. TT. Johnston, Manitoba minister
of public works, deferred to the
wish of the Winnipeg, Can, Painters
and Decorators Union and fixed their
hours at so week instead of 54. The
plasterers get raise from 65 cents
an hour to 70 cents. The wages OF
tile settlers was left at last years fig
ure, 62h cents, as recommended by
the Fair Wage Board. Electrical
workers set 55 cents an hour, instead
of so cents.
Russian radicals demand the ap-
pointment of sufficient number OF
factory inspectors in every branch OF
natural industry and the extension OF
factory inspection to every enterprise
employing hired labor, not excluding
public and domestic labor; the ap-
.pointment of women inspectors in
branches where women are employ
ed; the participation of elected work
men and paid state representatives in
the inspection of factories and also
in matters involving wage lists, the
receipt and the rejection of mater
ial and the valuation of the output OF
labor.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
Puss' Pedigree

|" AME cats are the descendants
of wildcats, but apparently not
of any one variety. Tabby is
an animal of mixed blood, and not
simply a common European wildcat,
domesticated in prehistoric ties, as
used to be supposed. A writer in
The Journal of Heredity (Washing-
ton) tells us that the probable ances-
tor of most domestic cats is IL yell
lowish cat with tiger stripes, felis
lybica, which still roams about
northeastern Africa, hunting mostly
at night and living in holes dug by
other animals. 1t is but slightly
larger than the domestic cat, and
often marked similarly, although the
coloring is usually lighter and more
tger-like than that of the "tabby."
There is no more differentiation,
however, than often appears between
house cats living in the same block
of city street. He goes on:
Some thousands of years before
the advent of the Christian era
Egypt was a land of storehouses
oVerflowing with the rich produce OF
the fertile Nile valley. Rats and
other rodents found no food so avail
able and no shelter so safe as that
furnished by the Egyptian granaries
1t is probable that the first attempts
at domestication of the cat occurred
when, specimens of fehs lybica
which abounded in the region, were
caught and locked up in the grain
houses to catch Vermin.
"Appreciating the Importance OF
such protection to the produce oi
the land, the willy priests soon estab.
.lished the cat as a sacred animal
which was to receive every attention
from the totemistic inhabitants
Temples sprang up in honor of the
cat-goddess Pasht, from whose name
some think the word 'puss' is de-
rived, and cats were mummifie6
with as much ceremony as were mer
and women. The members of a fam
lily which lost a cat by death shaved
their eyebrows and went into deeI
mourning. A cemetery was recently
discovered at Bubastic which yield.
ed several hundred thousand cal
mummies, many of them preserved
with elaborate care. The present in
habitants of the country took suffi.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-14
WELL. KNOWN PEOPLE

Major. Charles T. Griffith, the
new military instructor at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, served in the
Vera Cruz campaign.
DIR. r. ]. Black, one of the COM
missioners to take the soldier vote,
is q former mayor of McKeesport.
James II. Maurer, one of the
to study the subject
of old age pensions, has already
started his investigations.
w. /. Schaffer, the Delaware
county lawyer who was here yester-
day on a case, is former newspa-
perman.
Judge Clinton NJ. Groman, of
Lehigh, in a statement from the
bench declared that there were too
many divorce applications.