Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-06
El1rntrg Glrat

80 ~NNiSsSt . So6eSSeANA O~ - o
ing Christmas tree in one of our
parks" said DIR. Thomas s.. Blair.
to a Telegraph man. lis this:
''The evergreens. especially those
forming needless do not survive for
long in the atmosphere of a manu-
featuring city using soft coal. The
leaves of an evergreen must breathe
just like the leaves of deciduous
tree. The SCOT, gases and acids in
our atmosphere choke all leaves
more or less; but there is not time.
in the growing period of a few
months. to kill deciduous leaves,
so they merely drop off earlier in
the season than in places with
cleaner atmosphere, or many Of the
leaves do. Evergreens hold their
leaves for so long that city gases and
smoke quite choke them; they cease
to function. and the tree dies.
incidentally, our impure air is
just as hard on human beings; but
man is a hard animal to kill"
An interesting follow up" on the
article of a week ago in this column
on Conrad Weiser and his Indian
friend, Shikillemy, is that the two
were among the early Prohibition
lists of Pennsylvania. 1t is about
100 years since the famous chief who
used to come down the Susquehanna
from Shamokin creek urged the
colonial authorities to forbid the
furnishing of whisky and rum to
the braves. He had seen the ter
rible effects in the villages of the
Susquehanna and the tragedies in
more than one settlement. predict
ing that liquor would be the ruin of
the Indians of the country. About
, the same time Weiser was writing
| to colonial authority after author
| ity seseeching them to halt the sale
and to forbid the trading or gift
of liquor to the Red Men. Time
and again Weiser was called out to
exert his influence to keep Indians
off the war path and after every call
he renewed his warnings. The result
was very much what one could ex-
pect when traders business was apt
to be affected Is not an ancient argyll
ment by any means. Hence, it IL
appropriate that cold water foun-
tain dedicated to two heroic enough
in that far off time to urge prohl-
bition should be at least taken from
it's resting place in marble yarj
in the year when it looks as though
Pennsylvania may be in the "dryN
column.
In connection with the tavern OF
"Cooney" Knepley, one of the South
Harrisburg hotels of long ago to
which reference was made some
days since, Eugene Snyder, the
lawyer, tells an interesting anecdote.
Back in the days before the Mexi-
| nann1n in Ha rri G ht1 re
especially down town, had flocks of
geese. They were particularly the
affairs of the women folks and not
only furnished an occasional roast,
q source of income from fowls or
eggs, but likewise the feathers for
those early articles of good bedding
of which our day and generation
has only memories. The birds pre-
ferred the sidewalks for promenades
and got to be such nuisance that
the borough fathers enacted an Or
dinance forbidding people to allow
any geese at all at large. This was
an infringement on Harrisburg liber-
ties and the women folks just ig-
nored 1t, while the geese in solemn,
silent contempt continued to stalk
over downtown pavements. The
newspapers contained some official
announcements and fulminations
and the air many words. Then,
said Mr.. Snyder, Knepley, the high
constable, stentorian and vigorous
arm of the law, was called upon to
do his duty. Knepley arrested every
goose. The captures were a noisy
occasion and deaf alike to eXpostu-
lations of housewives and kissing of
geese Knepley herded the fowls into
the big yard of his hotel. There
must have been hundreds of them, -
said Mr.. Snyder. 1.-The arrest of the
geese made a great hubbub but
Knepley remained firm and kept
the geese locked up over night.
Finally he announced that they
would be turned loose next day at
noon. Every woman owning geese
was duly on hand and so were all
the boys, you may be sure. There
was great fear among the women
lest in the liberation the geese would
get mixed. Well, when the time
came "Cooney" opened the gates and
| instead of a stampede of geese the
ganders walked out, each one with
his flock and hit the trail for home.
Not a goose was lost. The ganders
knew the way home and every fowl
followed. All the women and boys
had to do was to watch the parade"
The United States cruiser, Co.
lumbia, which has been engaged in
war work in the vicinity of New
York has been under command of
Captain Harry E. Brinser, of this
ciry.- When the war broke out the
captain, who is son of c. L.
Brinser, of Front and Emerald
streets, was stationed in Washington,
but has been at sea for some time,
the coming of peace discloses.