Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-21
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Few men in Harrisburg aro'
blessed with more evenness Of tenn
per than Ross A. Hckok, the fud
boss of Dauphin county, and it is
very fortunate thing that he was
selected, because there are many
angles to the coal problem in this
community which, bluntly speaking,
would tend to make a man mad.
mt, Mri Hlckok has been running the
Iuel situation here for several weeks
and observation of him under the
stress of the acute condition of the
last four or five days shows the
same old disposition to get results
without hurting feelings or using a
brass band, but to get the results,
nevertheless. Mr.. Hickok has a
does not run him, which circum-
stance comes in handy when he gets
the 312th telephone call for a rul-
ing on the fuel order. Considering
the fact that his services are vol
untary and that Uncle Sam does not
even give him q telephone, his cheer
full assumption of the job is worth
something to the general public. Mr.
! Hickok's administration Of the coal
situation and his enforcement of the
Garfield order have been almost
along military lines, so to speak.
He has made his friends stand
around and the dodgers come across.
From what has been learned he has
punctured more hard luck empty
bin stories than a novelist could
think up in week and the irate,
the cranky, the liars and the needy
will probably be able to get the same
| result when they compare notes
when. it is all over. Mr.. Hickok
served in the Army and in City
Council, but what he is going through
just now must make those previous
experiences seem rather tame.
There were a lot of people in
clined to constder the first of the
Monday holidays a real blue Mon
day to-day as they rubbed shaveless
chins. The average man goes clean
faced these days and those who
can't shave themselves make a late
Saturday shave last over Sunday.
Hence they are ready for the minis
trations of the barber Monday morn
ings. The advent of the smooth face
has increased business. say the bar
bers, who add that far fewer peo-
pie shave themselves than is gen.
] orally known. Judging from to-
| days sights and scenes, the bar
bers are correct. It's a safe bet
that barber shops will be on the ex-
empted list before the fuel order
runs many weeks. A man can shine
his own shoes, but when it comes
down to shaving faces with trenches
| cut in them or hirsute entangle-
ments forty eight hours old are elo-
quent of general inability to use
razor.
All the same, the talk that one
| hears in the trolley cars and in
| rNla xxyh nnorn1n 10 fer1,f
creditable to Harrisburg. There
have been disturbances of life, in
dustry, business and affairs which
we can not enumerate as the result
of the drastic fuel order, but the dis
position is to first get out of the
affected class and then, If it is not
possible, to make the best of it.
The average Harrisburg man seems
to like to beef" as we say in this
country, but he is always ready to
laugh at the other fellow when he
starts to growl. One of the staunch-
! est examples of going along that one
could ask was given last night in a
Steelton car when a man with a
good old Pennsylvania German ac-
cent rolled out a young fellow who
was basting everyone because of the
way the fuel order had hit him. He
said that he was getting colder ev-
cry day. We'll, save de hot air you
be wasting here" was the Pennsyl-
vania Germans recipe. In another
instance q businessman tore the at
mosphere with protests and .denunci-
ations and a wearied friend asked,
What are you going to do about it,
anyway" The answer he got was
typical: 'The only damned thins
left-go along"
"You can have one satisfaction in
the weather we are having, tough as
it may seem," says L. H. Dennis,
chief of the agricultural education
work, "and that is that the SHOWS
are protecting the ground. 1t is
something to know that the intense
cold is being warded off by snow,
even if we do suffer-"
Some of the people who have to
celebrate Monday holidays until the
people running the railroads can
move the loaded cars of coal stand
ing on the sidings might put in the
r time profitably by visiting the State
Capitol or the State Museum. There
are between eight and nine people
in every ten in Harrisburg and Steel
ton and the girdle of boroughs round
about who have very little knowl
edge of the beauties or the art works
or the interesting things in the two
buildings on the Hill. And about
three in every ten have never been
in the building. in opinion of an OBJ
server. They are always intending
to go through the buildings. The
Capitol and Museum are open and
there is more to be learned about
Pennsylvania than in any other place
in the whole state except Pht1adel-
nh