Imperial Valley press., 1908-02-08
Train-Ioad of Men of Affairs Brought By HoIton Power
 Company
OPERA HOUSE, DEDICATED
Guests Inspect Public Utility Plants, Size Up EI centro As Hub of the Valley and Wind Up Good Time With a Banquet.

Last Thursday afternoon long train of Pullmans stopped at El Cen tro and unloaded cargo of Holton Power Company stockholders, capita lists having investments and looking for chances to invest in Imperial Val ley, railroad officials, bankers from Los Angeles, Redlands and Riverside, and miscellaneous millionaires and men of big affairs. The Fl Centro band announced the invasion with tumultuous wind-music of surprising ly good quality, and the population turned out to the last man, woman and child and excited dog to welcome the visiting guestsIof the public utility corporation that has made the desert habitable, built up the valley towns right end first, helped everybody and everything needing and deserving of help, and hasn't got itself listed in the octopus class as an aggregation or predatory wealth.
 The visitors spent what was left of the afternoon in looking Fl Centro over, asking questions, driving about the district and absorbing some Of the oxygen that makes pioneers on the desert cheery, confident and pro- gressive. They saw brick buildings going up, court house in course of construction, something doing all along the line and everybody doing something to help create prosperous community. Being persons in the habit. of saying what they think, or keeping still, the visitors said they were agreeably surprised by the evi- dence of activity and substantial pro- gross in El Centro, and they agreed that the county seat is the centre in fact as well as in name of the develop ment of Imperial Valley.
 In the evening they all attended the formal opening of the Holt Opera House, and as many of the valley residents as could secure seats ac- companied the visitors. Every seat was sold long before the night of the show, and there were large delega- tions from every town in the valley When the house was filled, and after the El Centro orchestra had played the overture, MT. w. F. Holt stepped before the curtain and said a few words of greeting to his neighbors and friends. Among other things, he said he had been asked, when he built the house, if he thought it would pay "If this theatre helps the people who are reclaiming the desert to forget now and then the strain and anxiety of their work" said Mir. Holt. "it has paid"
 Then J. Stanley ,RroWn president of the El Centro Chamber of Com morce, nude brief speech, express. ing the appreciation in which Mir, Holts services to the community are held by his fellow-citizens and intro ducing Harold Bell Wright, author of "A Shepherd of the Hills" and now a resident of the valley.
 Mir. Wright spoke for few min utes on the expression of the spirit of people in it's amusements and the influence of amusements in shap- ing the lives of the people.
 Visitors are surprised" he said, ito see in a pioneer community a theatre that would be credit to a large city instead of a shack of a dance hall. The spirit of the people of the valley was reflected by MT. Holt when he built this house It is the spirit of a pioneer people who are not like the rude conquerors of wild ernesses in other times They needed. to reclaim this desert, railroads, cleo tric lights, ice factories, theatres-the comforts and conveniences of life