The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-01-02
UNCLE TOM
Made No Money for the Portland
Sufferers.

wha, MIR. slower and Mr. sawyer
Say About lie.
"Uucie Toms Cabin" performed for
tho benefit of the Portland Relief Fund,
was not a decided success. MIR. A. X.
S,oyer, who brought his company down
here TO swell this relief fund. Is out OF
pocket by the deal, the Bosworth Post,
q. A. R., which owns the scenery In
City hall, is said to be out of pocket about
$4s, and as far as could he learned Sat
urday nisht the only people who are any
thing to the good are those who did not
40 TO the evening performance OF this
show.
Ii all came about through Mr.. A. r.
Stover's desire to do something for the
help of the widows aud orphans Of the
steamer Portland. He told PRESS
reporter his story Saturday night at
SWEETS hotel, and 1t was In substance ms
follows:
81 had a date to play in Fall River for
this night, but l wanted to do something
for this relief fund. / cancelled my all
River date and came to Portland. The
over and above my expenses was to go
to tie relief fund. ] tried to make my
expenses rs small as possible and II
everything had gone as / was informed
things were to go, my expenses wouln
only have bern Sl40 ut the most FOR the
two performances, and would have
turned over to this relief fund over 81 o
at the lowest calculation. MIR. OLE. Dyer
IL my agent here in Portland. 20 him l
sent, according to arrangement, all the
bills to advertise the play. l understood
from him that the MAYOR had given me
the use of City hall fee of chsrge, and
l supposed that this included everything.
l even believed that the orchestra was
TO be provided free of expense SO that the |
relief fund should get the benefit OF all
the money possible.
AT the afternoon performance / am told
we took In about $50. 1he advance sale
had been fairly good and we were calcu.
lating to do a good business in the eve
ming. At y O'Clock our box office had not
been opened ~ MIR. Dyer and l inquired
what was the matter. Then l was told
that MIR. A NJ. sawyer, agent for the q.
A X. scenery, had forbidden the box
office to be opened until Ell was forth
coming from the company. Well, we tried
to arrange the matter. tried to argue with
MIR. Sawyer that the hall and scenery
should be given to us free according to
the understanding had of the matter.
Mr.. Sawyer then said that ne would let
us use the scenery for $780, 1t was by this
time nearly half past eight O'Clock and
we had about three or four n Indred peo-
pie waiting to buy seats for the show.
though many OF them finding that the
box office had not been opened began to
go home. Finally told the crowd what
the trouble was told them that had
come down here with the express under
standing that all the proceeds above my
expenses were to go to the relief fund.
Mr.. Williams, agent for the Portland
Steamship company in Boston, had done
all that he could to help me get down
here at as little expense as possible. The
company gave us our passage down ON
the boat and state rooms as well. We
came this way SO that the relief fund
would receive as much money as posi-
BILE.
Well, then Mr. Sawyer came down to
s25 in is price, and finally after oil the
people had gone home and we had lost
enough money to pay all our expenses
and turn over at least Sl0G to the relief
fund, Mr.. Sawyer told us we could have
the scenery for nothing. Then we went
ahead and opened the box office and sold
as many seats as we could. BY the
trouble over this scenery matter am out
over 800 myself and the relief fund loses
AS much more Yes. have lost more
than this amount for l have lost my
business at Fall River, which gave up
to come here.
1.-THE orchestra refused to play in the
evening unless we paid them for the af-
te.noon, and SO paid them. / was led
TO believe before l came here that the ex-
penses here were only to be those occa.
stoned by the hotel bills AID travelling
expenses of the company
MIR. Slower and his company left on
the Pullman train for Brockton where
they play Monday night.
Mr.. y. L. Dyer. who acted as Mr.
Storer's manager here. told the PRESS
reporter his story, which was in sub
stance that of Mr.. Srover's. MIR. Dyer
said that he had no knowledge of the ex-
pense of the scenery He said Mr. Sawyer |
wanted S7I for its use at first. then asked
So and finally asked k25, and at last told |
Mr. Slower that he could have 1T for |
nothing. Three or folr hundred people |
had come to sec the show in the evening, |
but MIR. Sawyer's refusal to allow the |
scenery to be used until the amount he |
asked for was paid had driven all of |
these people away.
MIR SAwYER's SIDE OF IT.
MIR. A. NJ. Sawyer, agent for the G A.
K. scenery, was seen by PRESS re-
porter at his home on Free street. He
told his story as follows; long time
ago Mr. Dyer had met him on the street |
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