The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-18
CIRCUS TICKET sCALpERs.
Men Who Follow Big shows and!Get Prett,
Well Paid for IT

/ Il.
READING, Pa, May S-"Ticket scalnins
on the road, said one Of the attaches of tho
Barnum show, us getting TO be a nuisance
We do all we can to prevent il. bnt are no,
successful At least half dozen young
men started out from New York with ms
weeks ago, and have been following ms
They hire boys to wriggle through the crush
10 the ticket wagon and buy tickets for fifty
cents each, and the scalpers dispose of them
for sixty and sixty-five cents each to persons
ANXIOUS TO get into the tent early and
AVOID the crush at the ticket
wagon. To accommodate such people we
have our own agents-men whom we have
hired by the season-to sell tickets in yari-
Gus parts OF the cities at small advance.
we do not compel people to buy of the
agents. we simply give them a chance TO
avoid the crowd at very small cost The
scalpers, however, who follow us from place
70 place often get as high seventy-five
cents, and in Baltimore they really sold fifty
cent tickets for dollar. We ALWAYS write
to the Mayors of the cities we visit, advising
tnem 10 grant no licenses to outside parties
to sell circus tickets Mayor Rowe, of Read.
ing has promised not to give the scalpers
any license"
Half an hour later two.well-dressed young
men entered the Mayors office and asked
lor license to sell circus tickets. One of the
Mayor as follows: "The reason they ask
you to grant license is because they
want monopoly of the scalping business.
They have twelve men regularly en-
ployed who sell fifty cent tickets for
sixty cents, and reserved seats for ST. They
sell the whole canvas full before they open
the ticket wagon. In that way they get 20
percent. more money than they would ifthey
opened the wagon early and sold tickets at
advertised -
the ground to-day and see if they don't keep
the ticket wagon closed until the tent IS
filled on 60 cent and 81 tickets, and all the
side shows have had a whack at the crowd
The Mayor sent his officers to the circus
grounds. In the afternoon at o'clock 10. 900
people were present. One-half of these had
purchased tickets at an advance from agents
and scalpers. The other 5000 were jammed
about the ticket wagon, which remained
closed. About dozen agents were selling
tickets at premium of from ten to twenty
hive cents. You can buy tickets to the big
show inside our tent" cried half a dozen
side-show men. People purchased side-show
tickets for ten cents, but found no circus
tickets for sale inside. Finally the crowd
became so great and the excitement so in
tense that Sheriff Gerhards compelled the
opening of the ticket wagon.
Later In the afternoon the scalper who had
called on the Mayor was again SEEM Didn't
L tell you just how it would bep' he asked
Then he revealed his method as follows:
This afternoon, after they opened their
wagon, and when the rush was halfove
my partner and myself hired boys to buy
tickets for us. We got 2l3 fifty-cent tickets
at the wagon. These we will sell in Newark
on Thursday when the show gets there. If
we'd waited until then to get our tickets we
could not have got them. We always buy
day ahead, or two days"
suppose they were to sell different
colored tickets in Newark
1--WE run those chances. It is not likely
they'd change tickets. The cost would be
too much, and it would make too much
trouble. We don't travel on their train,
but independently. We make from S. to
$40 per day clear of all exp nses, reckoning
in the rainy days. We apply for city license
to save us from arrest, costs, and detention
Our first business is to make ourselves solid
with the police officials. We invariably
give from three to five tickets away to them.
That is great protection. We operate on
the outskirts of the crowd, away from the
spoilers of the show. We do most of our
business in the afternoon, and get away
from the town as soon as possible and into
the next. Sometimes, when we have good
stock of tickets on hand, we open an indie
pendent office on a store box, away from the
tents, and do big trade"