The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-09-11
ouR pnsLADELpnIA LETTER.

PHILADELPHIA, Sen. :, 1878
EDITOR HERALD.-Thousands O
people here are thanking the star.
thai the weather is getting bsarable
THE nights are cool and the days art
e~ndurable, and people are lockine
back from the see shore and tht
country, and the merchants begin t,
lock smiling and pleasant instead 0
gloomy and sour. 1t was for a Will,
anything but en~livening to hold con
versation with any Of our bushes:
people, for they all stuck their hand.
into empty pockets and talked about
hard times till you couldn't keep frcn
feeling quite blue.
Bat there is q notable increase 0.
activity. Dray loads Of great boxes,
express wagons full of bales Of goods,
car loads of mer chandise of all kind:
are TO be seen in the principal streets,
ljostling each other, and in the stores
all are busy unpacking and rcarrang.
ing for the opening of tie fall trade.
l venture TO say from present in.
dications, that the fail trade in dry
goods and millinery will far exceed
that Of any sesson for FIVE years.
The theaters commence TO open.
The Walnut has been open Two
weeks. They are playing E very COM
zeal and good piece called the o.
Donovans just now, and that viii be
followed by other novelties all the
season through The Arch Street
Theater opens next week with the
Billy Immersion Minstrels of Caliior-
mia fame, and | can say in advance
that they are first class like every
thing else from California. earn
cross Minstrels comm,nce the I'd Of
September, and without doubt will
be crowded, as it always has been
whenever there was anything going
on there. | have been four times to
that place, and never got in yet, for
there was only standing roomn left,
and you are obliged toget your ticket
three or four days ia advance. |
know, however, (rpm reports OF
friends, that there is nore fun to be
gotten out Of an evening there, than
any other like place in the city, and
probably ia the world, and it is al
ways chaste and refined, which ua-
fortunately cannot be said of all
minstrel performances, aud CaEneross'
peculiarly sweet tenor voice charms
all.
The Museum, always a favorite
place Of miae, although not TIE most
aristocratic, will open very soon. 1t
had a very bad season in the summer,
and was forced to close, but will l
hope do better this fell. This theater
KEEP: to popular prices when the
others all changed from one to two
dollars for admission and | think had
much to do With putting down all the
prices.
There was q sort ef combination
performance at the Academy OF Mu-
sic Saturday, wherein many Of U
greatest stars played. 1t was in aid
of the Actors Order Of Friendship,
and the house was jammed.
The Chestnut Theater is not yet
open, but it is expected that their
season will be very brilliant, as they
have one If the best stock companies
extant, and the perfect and admirable
manner in which they mount their
play, and the e%xactness and conscious
ness Of every person connected with
the theater in the performance of
their duties, and the exquisite music
which they always furnish, makes
this theater the best liked by ali
of any in Philadelphia.
There are a number of minor
theaters here, but they are all Of the
variety class, and do net merit special
mention.
Lectures are promised by the score,
and other intellectual entertainments,
SO that the people here will not lack
for amusements.
If all the enterprises in the world
that are gotten up and carried on
and solely for peoples amuse-
ment, were completely suppressed
simultaneously, what an awfully dull
Did world this would seem, and how
many persons would be impoverish-
ed, thrown out of employment and
made criminals through necessity,
and what q stagnation to o long list
IF industries, supported entirely upon
he demands made by these very
that the ultra r~eligionis;s
abuse so. And would the money
hat is invested 10 the amusement
Dusiness. with all its rami6eations, do
my more good if it were put into
churches and religious books than it
does now?
| think as the matter stands in the
10Th century, the theaters do just as
much good as the churches, and seeu-
ar books as much as religious ones.
Comparatively few go to church, and
ell go to the theater ; few
care for religious works, and nearly
every body likes novels. poetry, etc.
a good play, which teach
70 a good, moral lesson, land few
do not) or o book. wherein vice is
wrecked and virtue triumphant,
is largely read. will really do
The most coed according to my ideas.
At any rate, theater going aud book
people are just as good as
hose who don't do either, as far as
my observation goes. II anybody
can make out clearly what l wanted
to say, by reading the above para
they will do better thar l
can.
/ think l mentioned a short time
since that the great dry goods es-
Enlistment of Strswbridge & Cloth
Ter was being enlarged by the addi-
ton Of a Few building, and as l
there the other day / noticed
that i. is almost finished, and / sup
pose will be opened to the public
soon. This immense building now
N axes, l think, the largest store in
the city. There are several floors