The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-01-16


SAYS tina, it is no, the fault Of the lessees of
the Opera House that the theatre was not
heated up last Saturday night Tie Opera
House management have plenty Of coal and
wood, and efforts have been made to heat the
hnilding, but the heater will not work. The
lsseees have suffereaa loss Of patronage, and
their business has suffered great drawback,
as many people would not attend the plays
during the colo snap owing to the uncom-
Portable condition of the theatre, and the
City Council should see to it that the appa-
ra,us which they have recently put in for
heating, should comply with the original in-
tentioo, that is, TO hear the building.
The patrons of the Sumter Opera House
suffered severely from the cold on Saturday
night during the presentation Of Mi chael
Strogof, by the Baldw win-Melville Company,
and the actors and actresses on the stage must
have found it difficult 10 play under such un-
comfortable circumstances, There is a heater
tha, was put in, and ii should be used The
writer heard that the heater does not work
in vain 10 heat the Opera House Something
should be done; the heater. if out of order,
should be overhauled and the defect remedied; /;
or if it is TOO small another should be put in
Immediately. II is not right that the public
should be subjected TO soch imposition parti-
cularly in an Opera House that has cost so
much money. The patronage of the Opera
House is Likely 10 suffer a serious, but just
drawback. The management have to pay
large rental and are uoder other heavy
expenses, and they, as we'll rs the public
should be protected.
The old proverb-;Cast your bread upon
the waters and ii will be returned 10 YOU, is
not the only way in which bread will return
to YOU, as has been discovered bv chart
able lady Of this city. A few nights ago 40
ableb bodied mulatto called at certain house
and solicited something 10 eat, claiming 10 be
very hungry. AS the lady of the house had
just supplied another hungry tramp with al
the cooked victuals she had on hand at the
time, xecept couple of slices OF nice bakers
bread. She directed her servant to give the
poor man the bakers bread. A ne:ghbor
coming in a short while afterwards saw the
bread on the gate posts-one piece on each
gate post. The tramp was very hungry, so
be SAID, but was too tony to eat bread. 1t
wasn't good enough for him, 80 he left the
bread upon the gate posts to show his ipGig-
nation. Perhaps be expected fruit cake, or
plate OF fried oysters, or perhaps his fastdi-
Gus appetite may have been tempted with q
little turkey and Gran nberry sauce. Then
again, few days hard work on the streets or
10 chaia gang may have made him think
that bakers bread with butter on it, was as
high-low to him as pound cake is to pile of
sawdust.
Messrs. J. A. Westbroek and B. E. Barnes,
OF Mount Holly and Dudley, North Carolina,
two large truck growers, were in the city
Saturday. These gentlemen were here with
view to establishing truck farms in this Sec
,ion They say that they have Investigated,
and are positive that the soil, climate and
railroad facilities make this section OF the
State as 6ue place for general truck farming
as any place in the United States except, Of
course, Florida. Our long seasons are par
ticularly adapted to the raising of general
truck, and particularly strawberries. They
have a truck farm 10 Florence now and are
doing we'll. Our seasons are similar TO the
seasons in their section Of North Carolina,
and they predict that al no very distant day
this section will be the chief of general
truck farming sections Of the United States,
owing 70 soil, climate and long seasons.
They hope to get started soon in this county,
large end general truck farming business,
and viii; cooperate with the farmers in
putting this section to the front. They said
much more that was very encouraging
These gentImen will be beard from again
and will tell you something that will be
oh 10 nd ;pto