The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-10-02

oict TO the country on the play, The
press is largely represented on sucb
occasions, and there are always out-of.
town managers and influential town
people on the list whose opinion and
favor are worth having. TO be includ.
ed among these invited guests tickles
a shallow pride. 1t is customary for
the theaters to send two seats to each
one OF the newspapers for first night
performances. This makes a list of
from fifty to sixty seats. l have fire.
quently beer offered as high as S25 for
my TWO seats on a first night, when
they could be bought at the box Office
for W. have somewhere innumera-
BILE letters from men and women. 9th
erwise independently, gathered in an
experience Of over twenty years, beg
ging the Use OF my seats on a first
And here let me give a little person.
al experience concerning these first
night seats. In all the ''frst.class"
uptown theaters the seats allotted to
the press on first nights are the same
from year to year; thus, for example, |
have occupied X / and 3 in the parquet
at what is now the Star Theater for fif-
teen years, and | know exactly on a
first night what papers are represent
ed and who represents them By look
ing at the proper seats. 1t is Gus.
tomary for the theater to send the
tickets for this performance, but
the dramatic critic pays very little at
tention to them, for he has the entrep
Of the house, and knows just where his
seats are. 1t very often happens that
these tickets were stolen in transitu
and sold, the unsuspecting victims be-
lieving that the possession of the ticket
secures the seat. But the dramatic
critic only has to go to the theater
at night to discover the thief or the re-
~ceiver, and he is invariably invited out
or pulled out.
There is one side of the dead-head
system that has never been written
about, and that is the dramatic editors
side. l suppose he has more cause to
hate and despise it than anybody else,
for it is The curse of his life. There
was a mar deputed to taks,
charge of the amusement column of s
paper who did not very soon fac
out that he was the slave of tickcss.
A general notion prevails that he car-
ries in his pocket constantly tickets ior
all the theaters, and that his special
privilege in life is to write orders for
boxes and compiimentaries.
On some newspapers he is expected
supply the editor-in-chicf with pri-
yate boxes at half All hours notice,
and keep the staffin amusements. The
business department of some of these
papers do not hesitate to ask him to
get seats for their best advertisers. If
he wishes to preserve any thing like an
independent spirit in his criticisms
It is impossible, and | believe that
this Ubiquitous dcad-head business
las done more than any thing else to
lill the fcarlessness and impartiality
If current dramatic and musical
| was shown not long ago
n n of our theaters the requests
through the dramatic editor
a daily paper for twenty-eight seats
n three days. The managers are pro
Ierhially generous in their fayors to
he press, but it is with the expectation
favors in return. Matters are not
bad in the newspaper offices as they
some years ago. When took
Of the amusement department
II the World under Mr.. Pulitzer he
the curse of never going to a
heater without paying for it. don't
hink he went very often, for he was
90 busy q man, but when he did he
rave his check for n box and always
efused to accept it as Il favor, and at
ny suggestion he put a printed order
'ver my desk notifying every body in
he establishment that l was posi-
lively forbidden to write orders or sup
'ly tickets. This cleared the atn.os-
here a good deal. 1t was very differ
mt under the old regime of the World,
7hen Mr.. Hurlbert and every body I'M
CT him had a certain pride in their
capacities.
| scarcely hope that the system will
yer be entirely cradicated. The dead
cad, like the ticket Spectator, will
o"ntinue to defy ordinance and good
aste, and together they will 90 down
. future generations bound by a COM
ION iniquity.-Nym Crinhie, IN NJ 7. ,
World. ,