Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-13
Enrntttg Gf1at

ton of the draft have been mustered
out and returned to pursuits of peace
| there Is a continuous stream of let
| ters coming to the Capitol regarding
military service. Many of these let
ters are written with the object of
| Strengthening out military records,
| some men wishing to have additional
| data to support their records, while
others are to overcome ssme diff
| Guilty which arose over failure to re-
| spond at once to q call through alb
| sence from reported place of resi-
dence. A number of the letters are
addressed to the Governors office
and others to the Adjutant General
Major W. G.. Murdoch, who was the
executive officer of the draft in this
State, who has an office here clear
ing up the final details of the draft,
gets many of the letters and the
volume of his correspondence is in
| creasing. This development, which
was unexpected by State officials,
| bids fair to bring much mail to Har-
| risburg. Some of the letters come
from relatives of men in the serv-
| ice who are seeking to locate them
and occasional requests require half
a dozen letters to trace the man in
| question. 1t has been discovered
in some instances that men did not
| return to this country, but remained
abroad, while in other cases there
is no record after muster out. A
number of communities, seeking to
| complete the records of the men
who enlisted or were drafted have
been sending here for information.
State officials say that such inquiries
will probably keep up for years to
come.
Captain Douglas E. Dismukes,
commander of the great transport
U. S. s. Mt. Vernon, will bring his
big ship home on its last voyage as
a transport next week and will then
re1oin his family in Harrisburg on a
merited leave. FIR more than four
years he has been on sea duty and
the record of his service in the great
war constitutes brilliant page in
the history of the United States
navy. This particular ship, which
IS known in naval circles as The
queen of the Transport Fleet"
transported to France $4,000 SOL
clers while steaming $4,000 miles.
AFTER 1t was torpedoed and the
great vessel had been repaired it
nlaue eight additional crossings and
brought home $4,000 soldiers while
steaming $4,000 miles. The Mt Yer
non was the first vessel to establish
the record of 16 days II hours. ON
the twelfth trip the ship arrived at
Brest at o'clock in the morning.
embarked 5000 troops and left for
New York at 4.30 the same after
noon. This record, according to
the Log of the Mt. Vernon, was the
naterlallzation of what appeared to
be dream indulged in by the lead
ing authorities of the Army and
Navy who We're experienced in the
transport game. The American
sailor under such officers as Cap
tain Dismukes made this possible
Harrisourg has sent into the serv-
Ice or the seas many fine officers.
among those whose names will i'm
medlately occur to the average citi-
zen as Captain DsmulsCs, Captain
NED kalbfus, Captain Harry Rrin-
ser. There are many others of les
ser grade who have given their
country devoted and distinguished
service.
Officials of the State Game Com
mission who have been getting re-
ports from game wardens through
out the State estimate that the
change in the game code, permit
ting shooting of blackbirds during
August, enacted by the recent Legis-
lature, was the means of Kidding
farming districts of hundreds of
birds which had been cause of COM
plant by farmers and fruit growers.
According to what observers of wild
life have reported, there has been
an increase in the number of black
birds spending the summer in Penn
sylVanla in recent years and in the
rapidly expanding market garden
ing districts near the cities and in
sections where oats are extensively
grown the birds have been a nuis-
ance. The change was recommended
by the late DR.. Joseph Kalbfus, for
years secretary of the Game Com
mission, after a first hand survey OF
the conditions and results reported
during the month just closed Justify,
the advance of the season, Game
Commission officials say. Many
hunters from cities went out to,
shoot blackbirds as a preliminary to,
the opening of the hunting season
while in rural districts farmers
cleared their fields of swarms of tho,
birds.
The Capitol also has it's funny
side. The other morning a man an
preached the plaza in a f1ivver. The,
fivver had been going long and hard
and 1t was hot in the collar or,
radiator or somewhere else. But.
tiAO AAhoh was ieSOuTCelul. ftG saw
it needed water and he called to,
one of the gardeners who was ma.
nipulating a hose with a languid
air, unscrewed the top and used a
couple of quarts of good Susque-.
hanna from the hose to cool the.
gizzard of his machine.
Governor William C. Sproul will
celebrate his forty-ninth birthday
Tuesday by voting at his home cleo
ton place in Chester and then COM
ing to Harrisburg for a series of
meetings. 1t will be the Governors
first birthday as chief executive of
Pennsylvania and he has already re-
ceived congratulations from friends
at the Capitol who called on him or
wrote before going home for the pri-.
mary election.
The Governor has been getting.
into the walking habit here lately.
and while he is not in the class with
Attorney General William I. Schaf-
fer, who walks couple of miles
along the river front every morning
and Secretary of the Commonwealth
Cyrus e. Woods and Banking Com
missioner John S. Fisher, who @are.
also milers, he has been developing,
into a walker.