The news content was a little different then. One of the biggest events of the year was the ginning of the first bale of cotton. Automobiles running into mules and cows usually received big coverage. Sports received little attention. Typesetting was done by hand, one letter at a time, until 1906, when "The Times and Democrat" purchased a new Ottmar Mergenthaler Linotype machine at a cost of $3,600. J. Izlar Sims, then 16 years old, was sent to New York City to learn how to operate the new machine that was destined to revolutionize the newspaper industry. Five years later, at the age of 21, he succeeded his father as publisher. J. Izlar Sims also founded a radio station and brought the first talking picture (movie theater) to Orangeburg, in the late 1920s. He was a volunteer firefighter and often drove the city's first fire truck. He died in 1957.