Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-13
El1e1ttttp GElat

Fifty three and a half years ago
Harrisburg must have been in pretty
much the same state of mind as it
is to-day. Then the news of Lees
surrender was the big topic just as
the victory over Germany is upper
most in our thoughts to-day. The
flies of the Harrisburg Telegraph OF
April, 1866. when the most momen-
tous news in American history up TO
that time was coming over the wires,
tell in an entertaining way how it kept
informed the city and its environs
and of the disposition of the people
to celebrate. The mayor then, A. l..
Roumfort, was in the head and front
of the celebration plans, just as is
Mayor Daniel l.. Keister to-day.
There was lots of excitement and
Just as much leaving of work to
gather about bulletin boards and
to buy all the extra editions that
the Harrisburg Telegraph could put
out. Considering population Har-
risburg had more men in the army
then than now. War was almost at
the gates of the Capitol a couple of
times and the battlefelds that de-
cided the contest were day and
night distant. The city was filled
with the soldiers and equipment OF
base camp, Its schools ana
churches and buildings were hospi-
tails; it's warehouses filled with mu-
nitions of war and it's State Capitol
often the place of bivouac of troops,
while the great mobilization camp
of this part of the country was in
the northern end of the town. This
city was the headquarters of a de-
partment of army administration and
its people were engaged in rellef
work under the Christian Sanitary
| Commission and other agencies just
as they are laboring under the Red
| Cross supervision to-day and giving
| Of their funds for the United War
| Work Campaign, while there was
scarcely a house where government
| bonds were not owned. Hence the
spirit of celebration was pretty keen
and it was determined by those in
! authority and those consulted by
| them to have what they called
demonstration. These dusty old
newspaper files tell many an inter
esting story, but when it is stated
| that the orders for the demonstra-
ion took up two columns, or as much
as we gave for the Fourth of July
parade this year. it can be seen that
Harrisburg was spreading itself"
Just by way of stating the con-
trast between ways of getting news
in those half century ago days and
now it may be stated that there
were no cables and very few through
wires and the news of Lees surron-
der coming from Washington and
other big pieces OF news which were
featured in the Harrisburg Tele-
graph under pictures of flags, cam
90 cnn of M pc
as long in getting here as the word
of the signing of the armistice. The
Harrisburg Telegraph was published
in those days where the Security
Trust building now stands and the
office of the Atlantic and Pacific
Telegraph Company was in build
ing which occupied the site of the
barber shop next to the law offices
of Eugene Snyder, the nestor of the
Dauphin county bar. In 1866 it was
the duty of the apprentice boys or
devils to "chase copy" The oper-
ators took the news in long hand"
on yellow sheets of paper and every
. now and then the editor would send
boy down the street for news. The
office was on the third floor of the
publishing house and the chances
are that the people in the street,
who could waylay the boy often had
the real hot stuff before the editor
sitting in his aerie got to see it.
There are stories of devils" of those
days fighting people who tried to get
the sheets away from them. That
was the way the Harrisburg Tele-
graph received the news of surren-
der of the rebel general.
These days when there is any big
news after O'Clock, when the Har-
risburg Telegraph's telegraphic serv-
, ice through the Associated Press
ends for the day, the operator stays
right on the job The wire is right
in the editorial rooms, close to the
des,i of the man who edits it and a
few PAGES from the linotypes. A few
days ago when it seemed as though
the news of the signing of the armis-
tice would come any minute the
operator remained at the key. He
stayed there Saturday night, all day,
Sunday and Sunday night and clear
into Monday evening. The operator
was on a cot beside the key. The
picture of the apprentice boy hust-
. ling q block or so to get a single
, sheet of telegraphic news and then
taking it to a third floor and of an
: operator on a cot beside his key and
: leaping up to take down the flash"
that tells the armistice is signed on
: typewriter and the editor rising
, from another cot to push it into the
/ hands of an operator picking away
at time copy on a linotype tells its
own story.
|
In the service of the Harrisburg
Telegraph to-day is Augustus F.
Blacksmith, who was a printer in the
composing room of the Harrisburg
Telegraph in those stirring days of