Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-25
Ehet1ttt9 Gaat

county governments nave passed
up" the question whether it is an
offense against the statutes to work
in a war garden" Most of them
are of the opinion that a "war
! garden" is something that everyone
who has a piece of land in fee, by
lease or on loan should have and
work at. 5'ut when it comes down
| to passing upon the question of
whether one can work in them on
| the Sabbath in a state which is
noted for set of Blue law statutes
| they are inclined to comment upon
the war. This city has scores of
! war gardens" some of them of exA
tensive character. but some are small
backyard ones, w<>ile others are in
vacant plots. They are being in
| dustriously cultivated, especially dur
| ing the extra hours of daylight which
are given in the evening. A short
time ago a Harrisburg citizen who
was doing a little spading one Sun
day afternoon was asked by police
man who was passing whether he
| thought he was offending against
the law. The policeman merely asked
for information. He was not sure
himself. So the two of them referred
it to the police station. The police
station passed 1T on up. The city
authorities ignored the proposition
and the policemen have been passing
by on the other side when rakes or
hoes show the sunlight of Sundays
Some one then plunged the law
| library at the courthouse into dis
| cussion, but the lawyers smiled and
refused to say anything. Finally it
got up to the Capitol unofficially,
but when the learned counselors in
the attorney generals office were
given it, they suggested that possibly
the moral law might be invoked,
but that no one would like to hark
back to Blue Laws" in days of
food conservation and race for pro-
duction.
A good story is told about Fred
eric A. Godcharles, deputy secretary
of the commonwealth, when he went
up for his examination for a COM
mission. 1t happens that he is a
philatelic expert, which means that
he knows more about stamps than
/ 999 out of every 1000 persons and
that colors are easy for him. When
he was given his examination he
was shown about 100 hanks of yarn
of all colors. Then they told him to
pick out red. He picked out one and
called it red. The officer in charge
Hooked puzzled and asked why he
had not picked another which he
indicated
"Oh, that's magenta" said God
charles.
But isn't red?"
mo, not true red. That's magenta,
that's vermillion. that's cerise, that's
scarlet, that's crimson, that's mar
DON, that's carmine, that's said God
charles.
"IIey, stop. You know more than
do about that. Try the green's"
Godcharles suggested that he di-
vide the colors and promptly pro-
ceeded to pick out the primary
colors, violet, indigo blue, green,
yellow, orange and red. Then he
started Green, grass green, sea
green"
"All right; don't do any more"
said the officer.
A contract made for the sale of
the material in the old brick ware
house of the Paxton Flour and Feed
Co., in Capitol Park extension is the
cause of an order being given for
demolition of the big brick struc-
ture. The thought was to maintain
the warehouse for military purposes
in event that it would be needed as
luCn Oh lne equipment OL Illo NA
tional Guard was stored there until
the men modified for war last
summer, Since that time the ware
house has been utilized for storage
of automobile tags and similar ar
ticles and it was thought that it
would be kept indefinitely. How
ever the advance in the price of
building materials and the heavy de-
mand for all kinds of building ac-
cessories caused numerous inquiries
to be made of the wrecking firm
which had bought the building for
the material it contained last year
before the war began and it sent
word to the state authorities that
it desired to carry out the contract
AS the government had not COM
mandeered the building the contract
was good and the wreckers have be-
gun to remove the top floors, the
bricks and other parts being sold be-
fore they reach the ground.
Formation of members of the
Harrisburg Reserves, both of the &C
tive and associate classes, into
general vigilance committee which
is to have charge of running down
complaints of disloyalty and inter-
, ference with Liberty Bond, War saw
ings or any other movements for the
nation is to be undertaken at once
Many of the members not on the
active list have expressed a desire
to serve and the committee will be
divided according to sections Of the
city. AS soon as the Liberty Loan
drive ends active drilling on the big
island playground will be started. A
preliminary drill TO outdoor work
will be held Friday night at the City
Grays Armory with some street work
if the weather permits.
The importance of the prelimina-
ries to the primary campaign is evil
denced by the numerous newspaper
men who have been visiting mere
this week. There have been half
dozen of the keenest on politics.
And they have all been more inter
ested in what Dauphin county
, thinks about Senator Beidleman
than in the heads of the ticket con-
tests.