New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-20
TLCKET HPLCELITOHS.

Mr. Hayes has bill in the Assembly 20
regulate the sale Of thcater tickets; OF, in
other words to suppress what is commonly
called the nuisance OF ticket specializing. In
is present form, We cannot see that It would
do any good, and We are not satisfied that
aUv legislative interference with Tie practices
against which il is aimed will BE- Tor the
public interest. The Spectator cOnld not ply
his trade unless the public were satisfied to
deal with him; and if the manager is willing
to sell and the public ere willing to buy, what
excuse has the law for fOrbiddinS the trans
action? The case is very simple one. The
speculatOr offers his patrons cOnvenences in
the purchase of tickets which they cannot
have elsewhere. He sells to strangers at
hotels, to merchants near their place of bust
ness. If there is an unusual demand for seats,
he is at pains to have some of the choicest
For these advantages he charges n premium;
but there is 10 deception in it, and nobody
need buy of him who thinks the charge too
high. A ticket for Wallack's or Booths is not
one of the neccssares of lifc it is a luxury
which can be dispensed with whenever the
price becomes disproportionate with the
value
But, it is objected, the Spectator and
manager are in league together, SO that the
former gets the best places. / go to the box
Office and am told the seats are all sold;
must pay half-a-dollar extra for my ticket at
a hotel, or do without one. We see no injus-
tice in this; every dealer is at liberty to give
preference to his best customers, and
to hold back his wares if he foresees rise in
prices. There is no law to forbid managers
charging what he pleases. He may have a diff
fercnt price for each row of seats, and a
different scale of prices every day. If he may
charge dollar and half at the door, why
may he not allow speculator to charge the
same at branch office If he may raise the
prices whenever the demand increases, why
may he not place a certain number of tickets
in the hands of outside dealers, and allow
thep to charge whatever they find people
willing to pay9 The only rational way of
regulating this traffic is by The ordinary con-
siderations of supply and demand which
govern other commercial transactions. When
Nilsson first sang in New-York, Mr.. Strakosch
forced most of the spectators out of the
market by fixing his prices so high that they
saw no margin of profit. The public submitted
in line at Steinway Hall for hours, paying
their four dollars seat, and congratulated
themselves that the spectators had been de-
fsated. So they had; but nobody gained by
their defeat except Mr.. Strakosch.
great deal of the cutlery against spocula-
tors has arisen from the dishonesty of some of
the sidewalk operators who sell false checks
for seats. But we do not need an Act of the
Legislature for common swindlers of this sort.
The police courts are ready to deal with them
now, whenever sufferer makes a complaint,
and no class of men would cooperate more
readily in bringing them to justice than the
proprictors of theaters. A license law would
soon drive such rogues out of the business,
and license law for ticket-dealers we might
very properly have. If we abolished the whole
class, we should abolish public convenience;
for the honest Spectator bears the same rcla-
ton to the mOncy-taker at the boX-oflce that
the uptown meat dealer bears to the butchers