Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-17
OUR WONDERFUL STATE
BY Grace G. Rutter.

of Mercersburg, settled in 1880. was
purchased for Il gun and a string OF
beads! Two hundred and twenty
eight acres of certain tract called
Braddocks Field" changed title in
1891 for less than half II dollar an
acre. a farm of four hundred acres
near Gettysburg was sold for palr
of shoes! But we read of other
methods of acquiring possessions.
Selinsgrove. in Snyder County, has
slightly location opposite a number
of islands in the river. one oil
them, the Isle of Que, lured Con-
rad Weiser. according to an old
story of his dealings with the In
dian Chief, Shikellimy. One day
so the story goes-Shikellimy said
to Weiser, Il dreamed that Tara
chawagon had presented me with a
rifle" Weiser had no choice, and
the coveted rifle became the prop
| erty of the willy Indian. But a few
days later, Tara chawagon said to
Shikellimy, 81 dreamed that Shi-
kellimy presented me with Il large
and beautiful island situated in the
Susquehanna River" The island
/ was a favorite possession of the
chiefs; yet he gave it to his friend,
though as he did so, he said: Let
us never dream again"
Pittsburgh's smoke is excused; it
| is the city's badge of honor, her
| proof of q worthy existence. We are
| reminded of her natural beauty. A
| European artist who visited here
! in 1854 selected q view of the city
which impressed him remarkably as
being a duplicate of a scene from
the hills of Pera, opposite Constan-
| tinople. The distances are on a
smaller SCALE" he wrote, "but the
heights are not dissimilar."
! Along the old National Road from
| Philadelphia to Pittsburgh used
to travel the picturesque Conestoga
| wagon--with it's curved bottom that
prevented freight from slipping out
of place on mountain roads. its
bright blue paint and it's four to
eight horses. For the drivers who
liked to smoke, a Washington man
ufacturer rolled q long cigar which
he could sell four for n cent. They
became so popular with the men,
they were named 'Conestogas,
soon shortened to 'stogies."
The railroad from Washington in
Greene County to Waynesburg was
described in 1874 by a wag:
1T wriggles in and it wriggles out,
And leaves the matter still in doubt,
Whether the man who made the
track
Was going out or coming back"
Since then the line has been con-
siderably Strengthened. but is still
picturesque.
There is a bit of Lewistown his
tory which might have been help
full grading suggestion before Amer
ica's dry days. In it's pioneer days
stumps in the streets were so plenti-
full that the fine for drunkenness
was the digging up of stump. and
a ravine near the center of the town
was filled thus.
But the drunkenness was not con-
fined to the whites. In 1850 chief
said to the white traders: You now
bring us scarcely anything but rum
and flour. The rum ruins us. We
beg you would prevent its coming
in such quantities"
Pottsville is the metropolis of the
south anthracite fields. Here, in
l1S12, coal was loaded into nine wa
gons and taken to Philadelphia. The
effort to introduce it was in vain;
the man who made the attempt was
called an impostor because he tried
to sell stone for coal. Most or 1t was
given away. Not until 1924 did an
thracite give Pottsville u name.
Then u boom started, and values in
creased accordingly. The story of
the influx of foreign seekers from
Philadelphia and Reading sounds
like a bit of California description
in the days of the gold excitement.
Great herds of buffalo used TO
roam from Harrisburg to Sunbury
and on up the west branch of the
Susquehanna River. AS late as 1873
there were probably $4,000 bison in
the herds that came to this part OF
the country.
The terminus of Route VIII. is
, Altoona and the historic Logan
. House, built by the Pennsylvania
Railroad in 1855. six years after the
founding of the town in the almost
unbroken wilderness of the noun
, tains.
, AS each route is enjoyed. either by
actual travel or in the seclusion oi
{ ones library following Doctor Faris
, through the book, the reader is i'm.
{ pressed that that must be the finest
: scenery in the State-until the mex
) route is reached. The truth is. the
whole region is so satisfying it IL
| difficult to compare counties and
: sections.