Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-08
Ehrttittg Gl1at


day at Union station when long
trains OF soldiers pass through on
their way to the front are the same
except for color of uniform and de-
tails of equipment and railroad en-
gines and cars that were being en-
acted here more than half a century
ago And it is stranger still to think
that the very location of Harrisburg
caused 1t to be a point of concen-
/ tration and stopping place for
through movement of soldiers in
| earlier wars when there were no
railroads. Back in the Revolution
Harris Ferry was the place where
half dozen companies of men as
sembled to join Washington; in the
War of 1912 Harrisburg, soon to
! become the capitol of the state, was
| the point of concentration of con-
| siderable forces on two serious oc-
! caslons and several times in the
war for Mexico men were modified
here before setting out for Pitts
burgh, the Ohio and the Mississippi
beyond. We all know the story of
the First Defenders coming here on
the way to Washington, of Camp
curtin, of the Lochiel Grays and the
! movement to stem Lee just before
| Autietam. And that makes it in
teresting to-day when men in khaki
/ are passing through this city on
their way to the front of a greater
war to read in the Harrisburg Tele-
graph of July s, 1863, just fifty
hVe years ago, of the heavy move
ments of soldiers in blue through
Harrisburg. The railroad reporter
of that day, who did not have as
much space as his brother of 1918
and had great many more things
| to look after, was impressed with
| the sight of the men being brought
here and hurriedly sent on and wrote
! something about it. Nowadays a
| troop movement is not news. It is
not the desire of the military au-
thorities that we do more than speed
the men on the way and that is
enough for us. We wave our greet
lnSs, congratulate the patriotic wom-
en- who serve the soldiers with coffee
and give them things they need and
II we chance to pick up the num-
Der of the organization, whence it
came or whittier it is bound we do
not tell it. But Harrisburg was
right close UP to the front fifty-five
years ago and the reporter of that
bySone day probably thought Il
would make some people whose val
uables had not been unpacked even
lafter the retreat of Lee from Gettys-
burg four days before, feel more
comfortable to know that men were
being interposed between the rebel
hordes and their admitted objective,
the Pennsylvania State Capitol. So
he sets down that last evening" the
heaviest troop movement of the re-
Gently humming days had taken
'lpldce and that long trains had been
, Isent through Harrisburg and over
the Cumberland Valley bridge. One
of these trains he says extended from
the Dauphin shore to the Island and
must have contained 1000 men.
He was probably a bit stirred up
over that long train and not ac-
curate in his estimate, but he proud
ly announces that the troop move
ment will be continued until the
! state is cleared of the rebels. The
files of the Harrisburg Telegraph tell
of many incidents of a stirring ma
, ture taking place in the capitol of
Pennsylvania Just fifty-five years
ago, of school and churches filleda
with wounded; fields back of the '
city covered by camps; troops in the
forts across the river and a fire en-
gine being pressed into service to
pump water to the men; colored
refugees gathered in the farms which
later became Springdale; prisoners
marching through and soldiers go
| Happily we have only the troop
movement and have been spared the
l scenes which the reporters of that
year found at every turn.
( There is a very interesting fea-
ture of the July number of Tele-
nhone News. the publication which
the long headed among the Bell
Telephone officials are using to build
DAII ~frtA To-, tJxv,, L.,
land New Jersey, and it is something
which would not attract the atten-
ton of the average man. The News
contains some articles about the
splendid work of the men and wo-
men it has given to the service of
the nation overseas, but there is
double page picture of Telephone
Families" Here in Harrisburg we
are accustomed to Railroad Fam
lilies" in which a couple of genera
tons have worked with the Penn
svlvania or the Reading or the
Cumberland Valley and there are
some isolated instances in other cor
porations, but the telephone is such
, | a young utility, comparatively, that
we have not realized the family tic
that has been built up. A bunch OF
sisters in an exchange like boys in a
gang makes much for efficiency.
|
; 1t is the boast of Frederic A. God
! charles. deputy secretary OF. the
Comm onwealth, that his newspaper.
, the Miltonian. has been published
, every Thursday except once in
century. That "once" was this
, sprine when the April snow took the
,, roof into the printing office. There
came near being a "once" again the
, other day when something went
!, wrong about the mailing. but the ex-
! merit marksman, philatelist histor-
, ian and journalist, went out and at
! tended to that work himself
'I don't mind things, but I don't
want to stand around and watch
that human spider do stunts again.
If that man had fallen I'd have
t fallen dead" remarked Mayor Daniel
l.. Keister after the performance OF
{ the Spider" on the Penn Harris.
) "Tt was bad enough when he went
: up the side, but when he got to the
top and then proceeded to the tip
of the Flagstaff, we'll, 1t was some
show :"