New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-16

The annual discussion over the ticket spec
ulator has broken out again, and Will no doubt
run OH in n hopeless way for some time. We
say homeless because so long as the causes are
in operation which ,aake the spectators trade
profitable 80 long will he keep at 1t. The chief
of these Is the lavish extravaganza OF theatre
coers themselves. The class OF people who
have moro money than they know what to do
with is large in this city. There is also another
large Class who feel that they have achieved n
social superiority when they have paid higher
price for a thing than their fellows This KIND
of vulgar assumption Is usually seen In persons
who have not much money or have not had II
long. People i'll a hurry, people who are TOO
impatient to stand in a line and wait.thelr turn,
people whose excursion To the theatre was not
premeditated for several days or hours, but
who came on the spur of dinner-table sug-
gestion, people who have invited friends bnt
have not bought tickets, and 80 pay the fine OF
the SPECTATORS extra price, even when they
cannot afford it, because they cannot retreat
from social nvitation-these arc some of the
classes who give the ticket Spectator his
profits. It is often sagely and sadly remarked
that # the public would buy tickets only at the
box office or 90 without, the SPECTATORS occu-
nation would be gone. How true that is How
true it is also that the usefulness OF water
would be greatly increased if it would only
run up hill. The ticket speculator represents
an nfrmlty of human nature, in the extrav-
agant American life, and his occupation is
likely to continue until all Of us have learned
the art of spending our money sonsibly.
Even if the managers take all the precautions
which ma ny of them claim to do they cannot
prevent the spectators from getting tickets
through cOnfederates, women and children.
They cannot run the risk OF incommOdng their
own customers-that is a much better word
than "patr0ns "-by being too severe in their
scrutiny of applicants for tickets. But they
can be honest with the public, and refuse to be
partners with the Spectators III this indirect
method Of raising the price of seats. The
managers always deny, with Indignation, the
charge that they are in league with the specu-
lators, and no doubt many of them are honest
in doing so. 1t is certainly nc clean way of
making money-that of downright deception.
Yet unkind rumOr says that tile fortunes of
some rich managers have been built up in just
this way, and now and then something hap
pens which makes the wayfaring man think
these dreadful suspicious have some founda-
ton. For example, when he passes theatre
at the beginning of the performance and sees
the ticket Spectator fercely competing with
the theatre; and then happens to pass again
after the performance and sees the Spectator
rolling up the cocoa mating in the entry, and
shutting the gate, putting out the tights,
etc.--iu fact a Spectator no longer. but one of
the attaches; when he sees things like these,
and reads in the newspapers, as be did yester-
day morning, that a single ticket speculator
pays the management at Niblos Garden $4,000
year for the privilege of selling tickets there,
he is apt 10 conclude, in his uncharitable
way, that, in some theatres at least, the spec
ulator is puppet worked by wires from the
box office. These are doubtless exceptional
cases, and all managers can help to make the
public believe this by giving their customers