Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-10-28
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

city stand in so great a need Of q theatre rs
the Federal Metropolis at the present writing
We have resident population, including
Georgetown, of at least sixty thousand, to pa
tronize one, and for the next seven or eight
months will have among us four or five times
as many play going strangers rs cOngregate in
any other city of the population of Washington,
in the world. There are three or four halls
here each capable of being converted into COM
Portable theatre, with box, parquette and gal
lery, to seat an audience numbering from fifteen
hundred to two thousand souls An expendi-
ture of $4,000 at most will prove sufficient to
ht up either of them with comfort taste, and
even elegance, surprising anything of the kind
! this side Of Philadelphia. That is, except with
scenery, stage machinery and wardrobe We
] ave no doubt that some well-known manager
a sle to command half the entire amount neces-
sni;y (Which will be about SIC, O0O) can easily
sise the other half here by the sale of season
tickets in advance. He must, however, be
KIN own to be man Of experience, substance
an.I character. In the course of the season.
wit b small first class light comedy company
and rapid succession Of musical and ballet
novelties he may clear much nearer twenty
thOusa I'D dollars, than the FIVE thousand he will
probably have to invest from his own pocket
| in the ell terprise. The halls to which we refer
are all extremely well located for the purpose
l. The reason why theatricals have failed to
/ fayin Washington of late years is in in nut
she'll. The late National Theatre would hold.
probably, four thousand persons 1t was very
badly constructed for being lighted and heated.
Thus there was dead outlay of perhaps 500
per night necessary upon it-wE ich, by the by,
failed to make it comfortable, which no expen-
diture could do. The loss of this 500 per
night swallowed what would otherwise have
been its profits; for no manager absolutely los,
money by it.
The Varieties on the other hand, was too
small to permit it to be a profta BILE house any
where. No manager could afford to place a
| first rate company in it, for at most it could
hardly hold over $3.50 per night
| Would it not be we'll for the Washington
| public friend, John I. Ford, to come over
| from Baltimore and essay the enterprise of
starting such a theatre here as we suggest {!
He has the necessary character, and the conf
dence of the Washington public besides.
INFRINGEMENT Our impression is, that
this SO magically effective word before the
dear people" is, after all that has happened,
quite as likely rs ever to be jmpotent next
winter before Congress. The fact that the or
binary sources Of the expenditure of money are
fast drying up under the influence Of the
altered condition of the general business of the
people will serve to induce those interested
in expenditures under direction of Congress to
redouble their efforts to make them, each in
some particular case, as large as possible, and
also greatly to increase the number of persons
SO interested. Government expenditures bid
fair to be the question Of bread for a year or
two with SO many more than heretofore, as that
nearly all who follow the business of tickling
popular fancy will go in with redoubled zeal to
| increase them.
The latter can hardly fail, under such cir.
| cumstances, TO exert even more influence than
ever before, it strikes US, upon the National
Legislature The policy of the protec tionists
is national debt; so they will necessarily ad-
vccate almost any and every proposition to
spend public money likely to generate one.
The strides Of the countrys wants (of facilities)
that may be legitimately provided for by the
General Government, arc quite as large now
as before the panic set in. But We might men,
| ton fifty reasons and circumstances leading us
to believe that the aggregate of the appropria-
tons of Congress, made in the course of the
next session, will not fall dime less than the
| aggregate of the last session.