Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-22
Enentttg Gl1at

In view of the call by the Cover
nor and many men prominent in the
affairs OF Pennsylvania that the
people of every county arrange a
celebration on Thursday, November
Z. in honor of the anniversary of
the landing of William Penn on the
Delaware, 1t would be interesting IL
the observance in Dauphin county
could be at the point where the
Founder of Pennsylvania spent sew
eral days and which is generally be-
lieved to have been, the farthest
West he travelled in his domain.
This place was the confluence of
the Susquehanna and the Swatara:s
presumably Middletown. While the
claims of Middletown to be the oldest
place in Dauphin county have al
ways been admitted it has not been
generally known that Penn Wis
tied that point with the idea of
selecting the site for his proposed
town or city on the. Susquehanna.
His proposals for that city building
project have come down to us and
are intensely interesting because
they show that he intended to push
civilization westward and to dupl-
cate Philadelphia in various sec
tons of the province. Several towns
dispute the honor of Penn's tenta-
serted here that Penn was i'm
pressed with the surveys which
showed the valleys converging at
what was later to be John Harris
ferry and then Harrisburg. That the
Swatara impressed him is a histori-
cal fact and then again because of
joining of the Susquehanna and
the shallowness of the stream and
probably because of the general ac-
ranfaH ira 6itinn that (tnnfoi,1 Jnhn
Smith sailed up the Susquehanna as
far as the great falls" Penn is said
to have thought of the vicinity of
Columbia or Wrightsville. In any
event the fact that William Penn
visited Middletown and stood at the
meeting of the waters of the river
and the creek in 1901 is we'll estab-
lished. Penn landed on October
"a, 1852, Gold style) at Upland, now
makes this November z. He was
busy, according to records getting
| his affairs in order and after some
troubles at home, made his eXcur-
! sion into the province. He was at
Lancaster and other places and
Middletown has the honor of being
the point where he rested and then
! turned back to Philadelphia. The
visit of Penn to Middletown was
John Harris came here and probably
Peter Brezelion and his French and
half-breed Indians were then occu-
pying the meadow about the mouth
of Paxton creek and trading with
the crews of Charter, who held the
hills about the mouth of the Yel-
low Breeches before Harris built his
warehouse in Harris Park.
An interesting story about Edwin
A. Abbey and William NJ. Chase, two
world famous artists, has been going
the rounds of the newspapers. Mr.
Chase, as is well known. has always
been great on red. He is said to have
found that red paint helped land
scape in vicinity of Pittsburgh and
| to have used it extensively. The
story as told by Katharine NJ. Rouf
says that when Mr.. Chase was. in
England some years ago Mr.. Abbey
sent him an earnest request to come
and see his Harrisburg decorations.
At first Chase though it impossible
but at the last minute he took a fly
ing trip to Abbey's country house by
motor. When he saw the decora-
tions his admonition sounded pro-
verbal, but it was, as Abbey realized
afterward, quite right. What your
canvas needs is a spot of red A =
bey- took his advce.
The scarlet sage which is always
such a feature of Harrisburg gar
tdens is commencing to disappear
and when the brilliant red flowers
begin TO droop it is the traditional
| time for Harrisburgers to start their
furnaces. The scarlet sage is one OF
the most popular of the late flowers
! in this city and it has long been re-
garded as a good thing to steer by
in preparing for winter. The time
for cutting down the roses and TAX
! ing in the geraniums and the dahlias
will soon be upon us.
The influenza outbreak has been
| hitting where people least expect
it. Many of the stalls at the mar
kets have been vacant, not so much
because farmers and their families
! have, influenza, but because they
are afraid of getting it, it is sus-
! pected. Then again.. one master
plumber reported five of six men
off their jobs because of illness.
One store had thirty per cent. of
Its clerks at work yesterday and
dubious about to-day. One milk
route has had three different driv-