New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-11
The Influence Of Late Dinners On the
Drama.
The Paris correspondent Of the London
Daily Telegraph writes:

DI0m0s
The Paris correspondent of the London
Daily Telegraph writes:
A controversy which has often been can
vassed in England has Just been raised
among the journalists here. NJ Sarcey, the
dramatic critic Of the Steele, protests that
there is great danger OF the theatre going
to the dogs in France in consequence Of the
habit of making the dinner hour later and
later every year. The result is, he declares,
that the hour of producing the chief piece
OF the evening is constantly retarded, and
that, nevertheless, the theatres are not half
to alter this state of things by doing away
with dinner altogether. The remedy is
radical. He is, however, indulgent to the
animal prOpensities and weaknesses of
humanity, and he proposes that society
shall sup instead of dining.
Nothing can be more charming, he declares,
than to go to The theatre on An empty
stomach, and nothing more delightful than
to eat on leaving performance and to talk
over all your Impressions of the evening
NJ. Sarcey points to the example of Ger
many, in which he is quite right, and of
Italy, in which be Is quite wrong. In the
latter country theatres begin at a later hour
than in any party Of the world with which
am acquainted. His reference to Ger
m0uy 10 dIoO SuSCOPGlDl0 u al .uU0TpEot8-
ton running counter to his argument, for
the hours of dining, on which the theatrical
usages depend, are becoming later and
later every year. Half past twelve used to
be the normal time, as it is still in country
districts and Switzerland. Then it got on
from one till two, and until the war the
regular time for dining at the Berlin
tables d'hote was three. In 1871, as
l remember to my cost, it was not posi-.
BILE to get anything to eat in the shape of
dinner at the one single good restaurateur's
i'll the Prussian capital after six o'clock.
But the tendency was even then to retard
the hour, and, as the business of life be-
comes more pressing, men try to cram more
and more work into the working hours of
the day. 1t may be very nice to shorten
dramatic entertainments, so as to enable
play-goers to get to bed early; bu: know
from personal experience how troublesome
it is for busy man TO take his seat in a
theatre at six o'clock. l also remember
we'll the shamefaced feeling with which,
after spending three hours In hot atmos-
phere, one energies into broad daylight
One feels as though it were tomorrow
morning. and as though he had passed
of substituting supper for dinner would
never do in Paris, where it is the
fashion to go into society after leav-
ing the theatre, and where the only refresh.
ment provided is in general glass of
and a sweet biscuit. Nor would
it be convenient, not to say possible, to pro-
vice supper for the chance guests who may
things, the lady of the house is equally well
prepared if only six visitors appear, or if, as
sometimes happens, sixty make q sudden
and unexpected Eruption into her salons
It is not by such artificial devices that peo.
pie can be induced to go to the theatre. Not
that it needs much inducement to drag
to the play, for as am perpet.
aally reminding you, the msjority Of thea
are for the most part as punctual as they
are patient. There are certain persons
who come in after the first act
8 half over, not because they have
been detained by late dinner. but
because they want to make q sensation
They are the same individuals who talk
oud during the performance, and who, in
act, use every means in their power to
The stage and to attract it to themselves
At whatever thine the performance began,
these ill-bred persons, who are generally
,andinS and cOcOttes IN eSse, OF in posse,
would make a point Of arriving iate. At
Ill events, it is not by raising the curtain
It six instead OF at nine that play g0ers of
his class can be induced to come earlier.
" 10 VI uo uSc HSuCiuS dSdluSG Iuo UNIVERSAL
habits Of society. There is, however, one
way of making visit to the theatre
infinitely more pleasurable than it is now
n Paris, and that way is to shorten
he length of the e7.h'actes 1t is the in
'rdinate extension of the waits that drives
theatrical entertainments in Paris to so late
IN hour. 10 piece which l witnessed
ew weeks ago, and which l timed, watch
n hand. the enh'actes lasted exactly as
ha ri 10 Ill
veil in Italy, where ladies are in the habit
# receiving in their boxes instead of in
heir homes, where the best tsges are pro-
'ided with large salon, and where the
audience only care to hear their pet 'bits''
n the opera performed. But Paris theatres
re not arranged after the same fashion, nor
re the same people, except at premieres, in
he habit of meeting night after night. In
his respect, at all events, to say nothing of
he generally more comfortable arrange
1eats of the English theatres, Partisan
'anagers might take example by their