Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-23
Enrtttttg Gf1at

reer of the Tress family in Harris
burg. For so years at least this
family has held continuously the
supervisorship in the lower end of
the city. The late Lewis Tress,
Familiarity known as "Lewey," and
later his son, Charles Tress. held
the place. Now the office lapses be-
cause the city declines to recognize
1T, and council holds that there is
State law to sustain it in its stand.
Originally the supervisor was
man of political importance in Har-
risburg. All of the street repair
work, and there was a lot of it in
the old time dirt street days, was
superintended by him. He owned
the carts and the tools and rented
them to the city. Likewise he hired
| the laborers and saw to it that they
were paid, the city meeting his pay
roll every week. His duties cor
responded somewhat with those of
J the highway commissioner of to-
day, but through some misunder-
standing not precisely clear the
duties of highway head and those
of the supervisors were allowed to
overlap for a long time, although
the powers and influence of the
supervisorship had long since been
| taken from him. In the upper end
| of the city George Kautz has held
the office for u quarter-century or
| more.
Lewis Tress had many noted
| fights to maintain his supremacy
but he never for a moment lost
heart and usually swept the lower
district by majorities that were
convincing enough to leave the field
undisputed for the next few years.
He was good politician and a good
highway repairman, too, and so
kept everybody in his district pretty
we'll satisfied. One of his most
noted contests was with the late
Andrew Knobl, when the whole city
was stirred up over the claims and
counter-claims of the two candi-
dates and their friends. Tress won,
of course, and after that had very
little opposition until the time of
his death, when his son stepped in
to the office and has had no diff
Guilty in being elected and re-elect-
ed ever since. A peculiar feature
of the supervisorship in Harrisburg
has been that in the lower end of
town, a Republican has always held
the office while in the West End, a
Democrat has been supervisor for
at least 25 years.
The big pole in front of the Cum
ningham restaurant, corner Walnut
and Court streets, which was cut
down by the Western Union Tele-
graph Company this week accord
ing to the records of that corpora
ton had stood there for the past
35 years and was in as good condi-
tion when removed as when it was
chestnut nf
unusual length and thickness, there
being very few left like it in the
country to-day. Its surface was
marred by thousands of small holes
where lineman had gone up and
down but at it's base it was sound,
no trace of rot being apparent. The
life of a pole is ordinarily not near
ly that long in such an exposed
place as the heart of a business
district.
"Good-by old friend" said a
wayfarer as the lineman attacked
the pole. Fully many a time and
oft thou hast reared thine mighty
form like a rock in the weary land
in those good old days when a man
needed support If he tried to go
home after 1 A. M. Go lay thyself
beside John Barleycorn and take
your rest with him. have need of
. | IilSS ilo iiolC'
Those fellows at Augusta, Georg-
ia who failed to get in on the
announcement that the Coca-Co
business few years ago when the
chap who owned the formula of
fered a half interest for $1,000
which proposition they turned down
must feel unhappy over this weeks
announcement that the Cocoa-Cola
Company has just completed a deal
. whereby the business had been
transferred to a new concern for
cash and stock amounting to ap-
proximately $25,O0O,000. Sounds
like Henry Ford romance or that
other story about the Harrisburg
man who had an opportunity once
to purchase controlling interest in
the Bell Telephone Company for
$4,000.
A splendid opportunity for an ex-
soldier is offered by a minister in
Western Pennsylvania on a postal
card to the Bureau of Employment
of the Department of Labor and
. Industry. The only qualifications
the soldier must have it to know
how to run a Happy Farmer Trac-
tor, Buckeye Traction Ditcher, to
; prune a 60-acre orchard and to do
. plumbing work, viz, install a sys-
tenn of water works in my dwelling
house."
ITO such man discharged
soldier preferred)" the minister
continues, proper wages will be
paid, according as the man and I
shall agree"
At the beginning of the letter the
minister says he has no faith in en-
ployment bureaus, but nevertheless
is willing to try the State Bureau.
People who have returned from
the seashore say that Pennsylvania
food is making hit nowadays in
the big hotels and restaurants.
/, Everything that has Pennsylvania
attached to it has been selling and
a good bit is now tagged with the
State name that does not come from
this State" said one man. For
; years some hotels have been maxi
ing a speciality of food from Lam
caster, York and other counties in
Eastern Pennsylvania which are
noted for farming and the public
! l,ae Inc Ire 60