, 1889-04-23
OPERA GLASS MACHINES.
GOING ALL RIGHT AND MAKING LOTS
OF FUN AND MONEY.

SoheNAAnes One DON'T "Ork, and the Dime
Must BE ~Refunded-A Dividend of One
Per Cent the First STU Hair
pins and Other Trash Into the Slot.
Many humorous incidents have at
tended the introduction of the new fan
gled opera glass machinery at the thea
tres The theatre ushers say that the
machines are more fun than a circus
when the wheels that operate the spring
that unlocks the box led gets in a snarL.
But the fun is enjoyed by the spectators,
and not by the ushers. The theatre goer
whose dime gets stuck In the slot gener-
ally makes about thirteen and a half
times more fuss over the prospective loss
of the dime than a mar whose ~favorite
corn is stepped on by the inconsiderate
man who persists in going out to see an
other man between the acts. Recently at
Ii Casino a man in a dress suit, with
bank notes in his waistcoat pocket, made
n commotion that disturbed the whole
parquet assemblage for fully twenty
minutes because the usher told him he
couldn't get his money back until the
next morning at the box office. Two
ushers had to scurry around and hunt up
the president of the company that runs
the boxes to soothe the wrath of the
would be patron by handing him pack
theq quarter he had dropped into the slot
that wa out of order. 1t costs a quar-
ter instead of n dime, by the way, to get
a glass at the Casino. Outbreaks of this
this sort are getting less frequent,
though, and intending explosions OF
wrath are headed off by the timely ar
rival of the usher. who, as soon as he
finds hat q box won't work, tries another
that will without extra expense to the
theatre goer. There's plenty of fun,
though, when the box selects n cantank-
erous theatergoer us a victim for It's
cranky wrinkles This happens one night
a week, anyhow, and sometimes ~oftener.
GROWING IN POPULARITY.
The boxes are growing In popularity
despite these drawbacks. That Is proved
by the increased number used and by the
general introduction of the m~echanisms
in the city theatres. The dime slot boxes
are nov in use in eight theatres, and
contracts have been made for their in
PRODUCTION into many out of town thea
tres. On an average 1925 boxes are put
into n theatre of the size of the Fifth
Avenue OF these between fifty and
s~eventy-nve are USED nightly. That this
is sufficient to return n satisfactory profit
is shown by the fact that in the first
month of the experiment with the dime
slot mcchanisms the paid a
dividend of / per cent. to Mrs. Langtry
and other stockholders. 1t has been
found that the idea tickles the children,
and mothers and nurses drop money into
the slots just for the sake of seeing the
little ones pen their eyes in delight
when the lid pops up and reveals the
opera glass snugly fitted in the box.
Every night after the play IN agent of
the company goes around from box to
box and collects the coins. In the first
weeks of the experiment the tour was
made Unexpectedly interesting by the
amount of unique bric-a-brac that was
gathered up from the slots instead of the
looked for silver coin. Lead dimes, little
souvenir medals of brass and lead, and
bent pins were found tn the slots. Hair
pins, too, were collected in punches at
every tour. In fact, the hairpin seems
to be the favorite implement used by the
conscienceless theatre goers who put up
schemes TO beat the slot. But 1t is q
waste of hairpins and also of centennial
medals and lead coins to try and palm
them off on the machine for the genuine
dime or quarter of commerce. The ma
chines'are made to bend and break all
such nondescript counterfeits. And no.
thing but silver goes through success
fully. The only effect of trying to beat
the machine Is to throw it out of order,
and about ten of the machines arc In the
hospital for repairs each week.
WHY THEY RI NOT REL.
1t was carly discovered by dishonest
theatre goers that the lids of the boxes
canno be locked, except by a special
key, after the opera glasses nave been
used. A number Of the glasses were
stolen In the first week, but the pilfer-
ing of the boxes has since ceased. De-
t~ectives keep n watch on tho boxes at
each theatre. They caught q well dressed
theatre goer walking off with q glass one
night recently at the Fifth Avenue thea
tire, and he was arraigned In court, and
only escaped prosecution for the larceny
because imprisonment meant the ruin OF
his little family. On several occasions
theatre goers AVE pocketed the glasses
in n fit of observation-disclosures and re-
turned them afterward.
why don't you paint the glasses red,
so that they can be told right OFF, q
theatre goer asked Stockholder Joe Rey-
nolds the other night.
"Oh, that would burst the whole enter
prise at one fell swoop," he said. you
can never get a theatre goer to hire any
thing that bears on its ace the unmis-
taxable evidence that 1t Is hired. 1t
shocks the public's pride too much. AS
long as the glasses look like private
glasses the thing goes. Not otherwise"
The directors of the dime slot machines
are considering the ACCESSIBILITY of rails
ing the ante on a glass to the Casino
limit of twenty-five cents a peep. Some
of the stockholders object.
lit won't work." they say, ''unless
you put a lot of women in tights on the
stage to look at Then you may hope
to collar the quarters of the dizzy dudes
and the f~lamboyant bald headed men,"
, This argument Is reported to have
brought a delay in the proposed increase.
A new form Of case mas just been de-
signed. 1t is made of fine plate glass in