Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-23
Ehrntng Ghat

| Sproul becomes the next governor of
| Pennsylvania, and 1t seems very pos
sible that he will, the distinguished
Delaware countian will be the first
governor in third of century or
| more to go in the gubernatorial chair
with legislative experience. 1t is a
very interesting fact that the mem
| chosen to the executive office lately
| have been without the first intimatei
knowledge of legislation only to be
| obtained by service in one of the two
branches of the general assembly
| To be sure there have been COVER.
| nors, like Edwin S. Stuart, for in
stance, who used to get after the,
legislators in quiet way and get
| what he wanted, and others who lik- I
ed to talk back to them like John K.
Tener and still others, like the late
Samuel w. Pennypacker who delight
ed to sit in review of the acts of the,
commouwealth's lawmakers and veto
a goodly part of the product in his
own peculiar way. Except for the
the congressional service of William
| A. Stone and the big man from
Charleroi and the activities of Stuart
in Philadelphia city councils none of
the governors from the early seven
ties has served in either branch of
the Legislature. Pattison came to the
Capitol from a Philadelphia city Of
flee, Beaver from his law office az
did Hastings. Stone was promoted
from Washington and Pennypacker
from the bench, while Edwin S.
Stuart was persuaded to give up his
beloved business. Tener came from
Congress and DR.. Brumbaugh left his
congenial post of head of the Phila-
delphia schools to endure the strenu-
GUS life of Pennsylvania Governor.
Senator Sproul has served continu-
Eously in the State Senate since 1895,
when he was elected in defiance of
Quay, and he is now the Father of
the Senate" His experience as leg
islator has been in the forefront Of
pretty nearly everything and there
are precious few things about leg
islative processes, ways and means
that he is not familiar with.
| 'It is my honest belief that many
\ persons voted for Paul Houck yes
! terday under the impression they
I were voting for the late Uncle Hen
ry' Houck, the candidates distin-
guished father" said an election Of
ficer of a Cumberland county board
to-day. Il base my conclusions on the
! fact that while we were registering
| the votes Tuesday and during the
time they were being counted no less
: than -FOUR persons remarked to me
] or other members of the board that
4 they were surprised to see Mr..
Houck's name on the ticket, as they
thought he had died" No man IN
= political life was so we'll known or
so well beloved as Henry Houck, and
I while Paul Houck is also we'll known
Y. it is not unlikely that the similarity
of names may have added to the
strength of the son at the polls
g Tuesday
= No matter how close a contest at
n an election may be there are always
people who are willing to throw a
vote away on some freak candidate
n or some one who has. not a ghost of
G a show and whose name just cumbers
= up the ballot. This was rather
: strikingly illustrated by the fact that
Butch" McDevitt. a Luzerne count
y ian who has grown in the public
= eye through printing ink, actually
= drew forty-five votes in Harrisburg
% as a candidate for a gubernatoriaI
nomination. And the fact that so
many Democrats threw votes away
- on him when there was a fight on IN
their party is also a curious fact.
=
Another matter connected with the
primary which can not escape notice
from any one who studies returns
is that so many votes are cast for
: known all along as of the ''hot house"
Q variety. For instance, there was a
> man named Aarons put on the ballot
for lieutenant governor and another
named Bateson, neither of whom
stood any chance whatever of being
n nominated and they received almost
IL 900 votes between them and that in
: the face of fight. The size of the
u votes may be explained away by ig-
l. norance or haste or excitement be-
cause some people get all fused UP
when they go to vote and are apt to
I make unpleasant discoveries when
| they come out of the polling place
J and think over what they did. A
good story is to be told of life
long Democrat who always got STIR
red up when he went to exercise his
prerogative as an American freeman.
| There was big presidential election
A on in the eighties and this citizen had
an argument with a friend on the
pavement in front of the polling
] place. And he got so worked up that
he went right in and voted for Blaine.
\ And he did not know it until later in
4 the day when he was going over a
Il simple ballot and found what he had
put into the box.
Port holes for guns to shoot the
kaiser!" That's the answer Harry
Gilbert gives to curious people who
want to know why there are so many
small holes in the brickwork of the
new Penn Harris hotel. Gilbert is in
charge of the brickwork construction
of the hotel. He is intensely patrlo-
tic and says he is preparing for the
worst. "To be serious moment,
he told a Telegraph reporter, the
reason those small holes are seen is
because we had to have some sup
/ port for the scaffolding, and we used
, small spots in the district. OF course
the holes will be filled in sometime
in the near future" In the mean
time, the exterior brickwork on the
huge million dollar structure is al
, most finished.
Another interesting fact in con-
nection with the election is that
both Senators Sproul and BeidlemaH
have tWo years coming to them OF
their terms. When they resign al
legislators special elections will havs
to be held az are to be held in three
districts this wear.