Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-03-30
HISTORIC PITTSBURGH.
By ]. o. Knott.

Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania, is the ma
tons blacksmith shop. London at its
worst, in point OF smoke and gloom,
is fair 10 this Pennsylvania iron and
coal center. AS sojourner from our
clean, open, and bright WashingtoI
ID. c., walks the filthy, narrow, smoke
begrimed streets of Pittsburgh, where
the sunshine strives in vain to look
gay and the atmosphere is gas-im-
pregnated, he wonders why more people
do not commit suicide here. For
surely the discomforts OF life have
reached the breaking point, and an ex-
change for the underworld OF fire, and
things which accompany fire, would
not greatly disturb PIttsburgher, as
he would be in a measure in his ele-
ment. Of course | do not speak OF
the moral affinity o! the people Of this
great city for the regions convention
ally spoken OF as Oyerhung by ever
ascending smoke.
This reminds me, however, that
Pittsburgh has attempted to put down
the lid tight on SUNDAY movies and
theatres in general. The censors,
good folks, take Sunday 10 have all
moving pictures reels tried out before
them, and thus have the advantage OF
a good show on Sunday and the ad-
ditional advantage of seeing such pro-
auctions as the "Sheik" in its original
form, before it is reduced to the pro-
portions fit for the average Pittsburgh
er to see. Some one told me Just now
in Hotel Fort Pitt, where am stopping,
that he saw the "Sheik" during the
past week. and only about twenty min
utes were consumed in showing it.
In Washington, ID. c., the production
was one of over an hours length.
would be glad, judging from what
see here, and from what any ono
walking in the best business sections
of Pittsburgh is forced TO see, 10 COM
pare the morals Of our nations cap
ital with the morals Of this iron and
coal center. | do not say this in ex-
tenuation of the Objectionable things
that mOviedom often treats us to-
do say, however, that laws that look
| to forcing people to 90 to church, by
closing UP the movies and eXpurgating
the reels that are shown without pro-
| test in other and even more refined
cities, results in reaction against the
church and alienates many who would
gladly attend church on Sunday if tho
choice were given us between a Sunday
photoplay and a church service. But
where no choice is given, human ma
ture rebels. as it does here, and any
| unbiased person diScerns it.
But | started to write of historic
Pittsburgh and not of the city from
the standpoint of morals.
| visited tntoNr the Grct TINA "a
old block house that was to be called
originally after Governor Dinwiddie,
bat was taken in its yet unfinished
state by the French, and christened
Fort DuqueSne, and finally captured by
the English under Colonel Forbes and
named Fort Pitt.
The two rivers, the Monongahela and
the Allegheny, join to form the Ohio
river ut sharp point suggesting tho
junction of our Potomac and Shenan-
doah rivers at Harper'S Ferry. Pitts
burgh lies in the triangle fromcd BY
the two great branches of the Ohio
river.
When Colonel George Washington
visited this wilderness, about the mid
die of the eighteenth century, and in
the interest OF Governor Dinwiddie |
Of Virginia, the young colonel saw
At once that this point Of land at the !
junction Of two navieable rivers would |
be stragetic. He, in his report to |
Governor Diiwinne, suggested that |
a fort ~ erected here. and Didwinnie |
TOOK #lShington'S advice A man |
named Trent was, in connection witt,
4 trusted Indian chief. detailed TO |
nuiid the fort. But the French, hear |
,ng OF this act q aggression (as they !
cot without reason regarded IT.. camo |
down the Allegheny river in force and |,
carturod the uncomp'cted fort, and /,
after masking something more substan- |
tal ont of il, called it Fort Duqucsnc. !
in honor Of the French Governor Of !
what $ now Canada. When William |,
Pitt became prime minister of England |
and took hold OF the American Situa- |
ton III such a mastery way. seniinr F,
Wolfe to attack Canada, the French
stronghold in America, Colonel Forbes
was sent To recapturc what was then
Fort Duquesnc. History records few
more amusing things than Forbes cx-,
petition to this section. When ne
FINAL" reached the neighborhood OF
Fort Duqucsnc, the Indians that had
agreed to help the French hold the
fort, and had teen promised a rca,
tight got weary Of waiting for the
English to arrive and left the French
garrison in disgust. Seeing their
Indian allies gore, the French them
selves, for the most part. left. and
Colonel Forbes, finally reaching his
destination. found 4 fort practically de-
serted He "carturel" it. and called
:; Fort Pitt. The CITY that vas after
w1r9s built uron THIS triangle took
its name, of Course. from the old fort
hence PittShurrb