Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-28
BARGAINS IN MANHATTAN
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS NEVER
BEFORE SO CHEAP.
Money, However, Almost Too Scarcs 30
Permit of Purehases-POOr Business
in the Theatres-A Lady Encounters
an Unusually Polite Burglar-Twc
GfariAs AI,ouA nors
O1s-reaDo'ade1oe Of fhe AQ7'ain0 Eeaos.

/ IN the Theatres-A Lady Encounter,
an Unusually Polite Burglar-Twe
Stories About Dogs.
Ca-reaDOadenoe of the Morning Eeaos.
New YORK, Dec. Psf stockings
were not well filed this morning
it was because Santa Claus stocks,
like those of other people, nave so depre.
ciated in value that he has had no money
to take advantage of the unparalleled low
ness of the gift market, Seldom or never
have Christmas presents been SO cheap.
Valuable articles have been everywhere
sold Tor song. At BOOK store in Pearl
| street, for example. red-edged volumes of
Ruskin have been bought for 40 cents
each, while other works by standard au-
thOrs were equally inexpensive. The
book store in question has consequent
ly been well patronized by the spoiled
daughters of fashion whose fathers are
not as rich as they were, and not a few
probably for almost the first time in their
! lives thus became acquainted with that
dingiest of downtown streets. For lower
New York, with perhaps the exception of
| Broadway, Wall street and the thorough
fares leading to the ferries, is a terra in
c0gnttG to the average fashionable woman.
! Bargains, too could be obtained IN up
! town stores. and little money in all but
places like Tiffany's and other high priced
dealers has gone a long ways, but the
trouble has been that few people have had
| that little to spare. The very fact that
things have been to such an extent sold
below cost, proves how scarce money is.
! it were plentiful, it would not have been
necessary for storekeepers to practically
| almost make Christmas presents to their
J RnGfnmarG Still Of opfxy
one has more or less of the propensity
that has made Mrs. TOOdles household
word, and when articles worth having
nearly go begging, people are apt to 90
without necessaries and spend what they
| can i'll afford in order to avail themselves
/ of the golden opportunity. The cOnse-
! quence has been that the stores and
streets have been crowded with shoppers
as we'll as sight-seers, day and night, for
the past week.
So true is this of the last few days that
! the theatres have been comparatively
empty. Although Henry E. Dixey is
more than cOmical in ''Adonis'' the Bij0u
| Opera House, for example, could only get
! goOd-siZed audiences so far this week by
sending Police Superintendent Walling
tickets for Monday, Tuesday and Wednes-
| day evenings for distribution among his
! friends. They sent so many that the
! superintendent gave couple to nearly
| everyone who called on him before the
different performances. 1 was among the
! favored, and, although l had seen the
| play before, became a deadhead for the
occasion on Monday night. l was re-
warded by finding more familiar faces in
| the audience then | ever saw before at a
! New YORK theatre. There was something
| absurd in seeing everywhere one looked
people whom one recognized. The BiiOu
did not confine its politeness to the police,
and Othee municipal employees were also
| supplied with tickets so that the theatre
has made itself "solid" with the city
| authorities.
The BijOu Opera House, of course, is
not the only theatre which has been
! obliged to resort to paper" to obtain
audiences lately. The managers who
| have not done so have had only half filled
houses. Fanny DaVenport's experience
! at Nlblo's Garden proves this. Crowds
! greeted her "Feuora" nightly the five
weeks she played at the Fourteenth Street
| Theatre recently, and now she is appa-
rently not much more than paying eX-
| penses. Madame RistOri's attempt in her
! old age to act in English is thus far the
reverse of a paying investment, but fear
her i'll success is due more to her expert
ment not being successful than to the
effect of holiday shopping. s1Standing
room only" was the nightly announce
ment at the Union Square Theatre last
week; it has been far otherwise this.
Among the exceptions to the rule of small
audiences and houses of paper is the new
| Standard Theatre, whose opening night
| on Tuesday was as brilliant as could be
desired. To-day will doubtless see the
tide turned everywhere, and now that
| the holiday shopping is over, all the the
| aires will probably have as large audi
| ences as the hard times will admit for the
rest of the winter.
Harrigan & Hart are, therefore. pecu-
liarly unfortunate in having their success
full establishment burned just as the bad
! season for theatres was nearing its end.
They were more unfortunate, of course,
in having no insurance on their property.
but that was their own fault. 1t is said
that the policy ran out on Friday and they
forgot TO get it renewed. OF course they
should have applied for its renewal at
| least a fortnight before its expiration.
Their fOrgetfulness costs them in the
neighborhOod of 100000, in addition to the
more than equal loss above alluded to-
which insurance would not have covered.
Their lease Of the New Park Theatre at
Broadway and Thirty-fifth street, will,
doubtless, result also in the loss of the
downtown portion of their audiences, but
uptown people have been going to their
theatre lately, and they may find them
selves so successful uptown that they
will not care to have their old theatre re-
builded, or to erect new structure in its
neighborhOod, which is so far away from
their fashionable patrons.
Wherever the new Theatre COmique
will ultimately be located, it will continue
the family corporation which it always
has been. The father of the prOprietors
Harrigan) is the manager, and a brother
of the same is a sort of agent. Dave Bra
ham, the popular musical composer and
leader of the orchestra, is Harrigan's
! So lou lob
of the other proprietor, whose name of
Hart is assumed, is treasurer of the con.
Germ. Few establishments, certainly. are
so bound together by family as well as
| financial ties.
The wife of an editor of the Times, who
lives in Irving Place, had an adventure
with a burglar the other night which,
although not exciting enough to get in
the newspapers, is perhaps worth telling
about. She had gone to bed in back
room on the first floor, after having turned
out the gas everywhere. She was
awakened by bright light in the front
room. Thinking her husband had re-
turned from his nights editing, she called
out his name. There was no answer,
and she arose to see what the matter was.
There was no one in the front room,
but the window was open, and in
the hall, where the gas which she had
left low was also burning brig htly, she
found strange man. He was at the
foot of the stairs, apparently just about to
ascend. She challenged him with the
question, "WhO are you, and what are
you doing hereY His only reply was to
take off his hat and make her a
low bow. Then, before she could
recover from her establishment at his
pOliteness, he passed by her into the par
Tor and disappeared out of the open
window. 1t was not until he had de-
parted that the EDITORS wife found her
voice and aroused the house. A police
man was summoned to search the
premises and see whether any cOnfede.
rates of the polite burglar were concealed
anywhere, but none was found. One
might be tempted to think that Mrs
Editor had had a nightmare were not her
story partly cOrroborated by the fact that
, one OF the other occupants of the house
found the hall nearly dark, and the parlOl
entirely so, when he entered shortly be-
fore the appearance of the burglar.
To-day thus far has proved a mode
. Christmas. There is snow enough ON the
ground to make good sleighing without
, rendering the streets impossible to
wheeled vehicles, while the air is clear
and bracing without being too cold. Last
night sleighs could be seen. filled with
merry occupants, in all parts of the city
. and to-day the drives in the upper part o.
the town are fairly black with runners
A Christmas day uniting so many OF The
: good things of winter, with so few of the
drawbacks has not been seen for a mum