Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-26
Enrsttt1g 0llat

risburg on Christmas eve and the
caroler sang before the homes of
prominent citizens for voluntary
consideration, on Christmas morn,
Ihe tin horn was a formidable
means OF amusement and the boy
that drew boots was envied. The
mechanical toy was a rarity and the
cahoy cane was indispensable. Har-
rlspurg's war time Christmas eve
had all the recent memories OF
snowstorms and there was not ~
hummer to be seen. The grotesuue-
ly garbed boys who used to hold
forth all over the city and crowd
Market and Third streets could NOT
nave round walking space in the
tnrohgs or Monday evenings late
shoppers who slipped and slid over,
the paVements and the weather dis
couraged early morning serenades-
The State Capital had a prosperous
ana matter of fact Christmas with
most of the bar rooms closed The,
contrast between the observance OF
the great holiday of the world YES
terday and twenty-five years ago was,
certainly striking. Many of the tra-i
ditional features of the Induction of
the day from bellsnickles to iagsl
were lacking and while we were for.
tunate in not having the big fire on
Ihird street and the close to zero.
century ago it would have been
pleasant to have had some of the,
old-time funmakers, whether fixed
up as angels or darky minstrels.
some singers or some - .he from,
Donlsts and other bandsmen who
USED TO greet the rising sun or rath-
er T tne hour when the almanac says
| tle ORD or the day should rise. Asi
1t was the church bells and the cIat-,
ter or the trolley cars awoke Harris
burg yesterday morning to a CHRIST
| mas with over q thousand of its sons
| under arms in camps and canton
ments and in foreign service, land
and ahoat; more gifts to pass around
and record of thousands of dol
lars given to the Nation and the
charities which have become our
duty to support.
=. These observations show how
tlmes have changed in Pennsyl-
Vahias capital. twenty-five years
ago we were sort of marking time.
INV nv there Is busy, improved city.
ifo me U customs which were part of the
nle OF the smaller community have
passed and the bellsnickIe cayorts ON
New Years or Halloween while the
Joyous racket that used to mark
Ghfistmas morning breaks out on
the midnight stroke that ushers in
the fourth OF July at Zion church
chimes. Even the church bells do
not ring as much on Christmas
morning as in years gone by and the
postman instead of looking like
santa Claus has his heaps of mail
III wagons or automobiles and there
are a good many folks who are on
such bad terms with their milkmen
because of the advances in price
! that the purveyor of the brea lSfast
., cream grit
the Christmas cakes. The shrewd
. housekeeper holds them back for
the garbage collector and speculates
whether some scheme can not be
devised for burning over the ashes.
Christmas this year is like every
/ other day on the railroads, only
worse, declare the railroad men who
think back over the Yuletide when
Ollie Mcclellan and Frank Ellmaker
used to not only shut down SLOW
on Christmas day, but did not mind
, II the next days movement was less
than usual.
! The folks from Perry and Cum
berland counties, from up the Juni-
alta valley and out toward Lingies
town, Hummelstown and Geyer's
Church and the boroughs and coun-
! trysides of the upper end" who
: have come here to make Greater
9 Harrisburg can get back to the old
home mighty sight easier than
they could in 1892. The railroads
run more trains, there are trolley
gongs changing now where sleigh
bells used to be the only sounds of
transportation and the automobile
monks up to many a farmhouse with
in forty mile radius of Harris
burg where gasoline was considered
a deadly explosive a quarter of a
century since. So there are many
more Harrisburg people able to go to
distant homesteads than there used
to be and those who can not may
go to the telephones and send their
greetings where twenty-five years
ago there were only blue X marks on
Len Kinnards map of proposed ex-
tensions"
Ancestors of some of the crows
which flew into the city's districts
yesterday morning in search of food
denied them by the deep snow which
covers the fields would have been in
clined to resent the numbers of
pigeons that they found in Harris
burg. The Capitol and Courthouse
| pigeons which have become fixtures
are now back numbers. More Har-
risburg boys and girls are keeping
| pigeons tan ever before and the
flocks are to be seen in almost every
part of the city, even in the residen-
tial Fourth and Fifth wards. The
pigeon whose habitat is Harrisburg
appears to be fat, lazy and far more
numerous than twenty-five years
ago. And from all we hear there are
fewer dogs, but more cats. Poll
parrots are fewer residents than
they were twenty-five years ago and
| the squirrel has become visitor
| more predatory than pleasant And
thank fortune the craze for white
mice, which was so virulent twenty
five years ago, has passed as watch
in the night before Christmas to SEE
4. il there is really a Santa Claus.