Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-31
Ehrittt1p Ul1at

SS u SuIihS lS DelIlB QOn0 aL tno
bars of Harrisburg hotels and sa-
ICONS and, If one may write it with
out breaking condolences, in the
clubs of this city now than ever. It
is one result of the war prohibition,
Inc amount of foodstuffs used for
lnIoeXlcants, the economic loss re-
sulting from continued used of stim-
ulants and the effect upon produce
tlon, business and life of the abnor-
maj indulgence which comes from
Joysome gatherings, added to the
Lnllltary and industrial policy against
llquor have caused many people who
USED 10 call 'em up" to buy for
themselves. 1t is becoming incPsas-
ingly noticeable in Harrisburg. Tnis
city being transportation, CONNER
clal, governmental and more or less
military center has been noted for
conviviality for many years. Like
washington, which becomes dry
tonight at midnight, Harrisburg has
neen ;ts asa a capital long time and has
lts festive landmarks. There are
many places where hilarity has
reigned amid music and song apd
libatfons poured from tin mugs and
champagne glasses and which are re-
called by people all over PennsyIva-
mia. Indeed, it is often the Harris
burger at a national convention or
1
pie from around the state hears
about the jovial time that marked
| the last visit to the capital of the
| commonwealth. 1t is nice to hail
from city of cheer, but when the
recollection is of bibulous times like
everything with which liquor is con-
| nected 1t has kick" Hence. if
what the white-aproned men behind
the bars, very few of whom ever take
drink themselves, have observed i'm
regard to treating it is the beginning
| or q realiz3t ion of what every stu
| dent of Am;Nican life, even in indus
| trial Pennsylvania, well knows that
1t is only a question of time until
alcohol will be medicinal or mechani-
cal in its use. 1t was not so many
years ago that the man at the lunch
counter who did not drink had to
| fight with the waiter because he
refused to partake of liquor when
some one was burning money and
wanted to buy drinks for the whole
house and the man who declined to
accept a Jovial hail to "hit one" was
| counted "a gutter" Wholesale
| treating is now a rarity and the man
| who drinks alone" anything but
| popular not so long ago, is more or
less the rule even among wassailing
! groups.
| h'iiilllilS' IL lllSiy Dt Sdlu, upon
| the authority of q couple of former
bartenders, who have been watching
the trend of things in their former
| business, that there is a marked
| change in the treatment accorded
people who go into saloons to sell
! tracts or even to talk temperance
| These two former bar experts, one
| of whom won a great reputation in
his day for tossing the fancy mix
lures which still have the call in
| some places and whose skill with the
| gin fizz would be recalled with feel
| ing by many Harrisburgers if his
name were mentioned, both agree
that there is less treating. They say
that the man who buys his own" is
tno longer an object of sneers and epl-
thets. If there is such n thing as a
moral atmosphere about a place
| where drinks are sold, it has adVanc-
| ed of very recent years, according
| to these men. One man recalled how
Salvation Army lassies used to be in
suited when they went into beer sn-
looms to sell "the War Cry" and how
a man who formerly ran a gin mill
in the central part of this city woke
up after he had hustled "a temper
| ance talker" into the street when he
| endeaVored to disturb trade" in his
| bar. Now the "army worker" can
sell to her hearts content and dis
| tribution of prohibition tracts, and
| cards beside stems is no longer IL
signal for the bouncer. The whole
| point of these observations is that
rum is on the sliding board in Har-
| risburg and the fact that beverages
| low in alcoholic content are being
| pushed and that some of the alert
wholesalers carry big stocks of GIN
] ger ale and the like and even grape
juice as we'll as more mineral wa
| far I,a haFnra ybA
]. Herman Knisely, Chief of the
bureau of municipalities in the De-
partment of Labor and Industry, is
home from st. Louis where he at
| tended the convention of the Ameri-
can Civic Association. Mr.. Knisely
| was the sole representative of his
kind at the important gathering. No
other state in the Union has recog-
nized the importance of the munich
| pality as a factor in the Common
wealth. Pennsylvania alone, of all
the Union, stands out as the one
state in which town planning has
reached the dignity of state institu-
| ton. Not only that, but Pennsyl-
vania alone has town planning en-
| gineer who is at the disposal of
towns and cities who desire to plan
| intelligently for their future or to
| outline public improvements.
| 'The representatives of Texas at
| the convention were so well pleased
with what we are doing in Pcnnsyl-
vania," said Mr.. Knisely, that they
! procured from me copies of our
! laws, an outline of our working
| plans and started back home to be-
gin q campaign for such bureau in
| Texas"
| Mr.. Knisely met at the convention
many of the leaders of civic thought
! in America and said that il is the
consensus of opinion registered there
| that one of the important duties of
| those in authority is to see to 1T that
the spirit of municipal development
| is not allowed to be eclipsed entirely
by war activities.
| BY the time Weather Observer De-
main adds up the various brands of
weather that have come upon Har-
| risburg in October he will have n
! list that will be remarkable indeed.
Thunderstorms in the last half dozen
days of the month, some on the same
| day as snow squalls. Rains and
sunshine of intensity within an hour.
White frosts and high temperature
on the same morning are only a few
of the varieties.
III NYJCII KNOWIM DEOpI =