The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-22

I time arrived for the little worms to hatch out and go to work making money for their kind but anxious | stockholders. the promoters declared, l in terms dripping with emotion, that | the climate was too cold for the poor | little things, so they all up and died! The promoters were very Sorry-in French, Spanish and English. Their language was weu-phrased but regret full. But-they moved away and left their poor little silk worms to merge | into the ever-productive soil of the Park City.
 ! Yet there have been compensations ! Do you remember old Franklin hall and the good times that were enjoy ] ed within it's walls? The building were erected by Philip Segee on the old Franklin hotel which stood facing main street.
 The stairway leading up to Frank lin hall is still in use but the space | occupied by the hall is now devoted to the offices of several leading legal In those good old days Franklin hall was the epitone of heaven to folks, both young and old. who loved to dance, tend fairs, minstrel shows, lectures and political meetings. Sig nore Blitz gave annual exhibitions of his feats of 1egerdemain. and his tricks with canary birds, rabbits and tnained white mice delighted the chiI- dren. Blind Tom, the negro musical
 
 Gottschalk, the famous German com poser-pianist, made several visits to Bridgeport and his concerts capti- vated the musical element.
 Greeley, Wendell Phillips Edward Everett and Henry Ward Beecher, during which occurred that never-to- be-forgotten remark that convuIsed ingS of MT. Segee.
 The hall was poorly heated. The benches were rough, wooden affairs, each enc holding five or six persons the seats were as hard as a hickory plank could possibly be. Ladies in silken gowns were obliged to sit on these uncomfortable benches and trousers on them.
 In order to keep the temperature just above the freezing point, Mr. Se- gee made the practice of keeping all the tall windows closed during a per formance, in consequence of which the air was often suffocaGng. In the round registers which MT. Segee of ten referred to as ventilators sufficient to keep the atmosphere pure.
 Mir. Segee was very determined to and fanctes. which aggravated the audiences who continued to bear under protest the whims of the own CT of the hall.
 
 g. packed house tha atmosphere, as usual, became hoppr essive. The 1ever- end speaker stopped in the middle of an unfinished sentence and shouted: "Open the wfndowsi We can't breathe with a few ginn1et holes in the ceiling. for ventilationi'
 The audience cheered and roared and shouted, and ever afterwards those ''gimlet holes were hurled at MT. Segee until he became disgusted It is presumed that the "gimlet hole episode drove him to build Segee's Opera house.
 This splendid structure covered the lot where the Franklin hotel stood on the corner Of Main and State streets. The same stairway, which is still in use, built for Franklin hall, served for both places of amusement. As MT. Segees could mot combat the gtn1let hole black eye, he decided to go short on staircases and save one stairway. The result was that when houses on the same evening and both audiences attempted to pass out to- gether on this single stairway. there was considerable squeezing, growing
 Ticket Collector Murphy had his hands full to preserve order evenings, and dayt1naes he nailed down carpets for D. M. Reads.
 Segee's Opera. house was bought by Richard Stanton after the death of MT. Segee. MT Stanton was a. con- tractor and builder, so he turned it into an office building which it is today. And lawyers occupying offices in both buildings can meet amicabIy up and down the same old stairway