Evening journal., 1889-06-10
LETTERS FROM THe PEOPLE.

The Opera House Management.
Editor Of EVENING JOURNAL.
viii you kindly allow me space Ia your
paper TO day to lay before the public the
manner and extent to which II. p.
Soulier manager OF the Opera House, is
handicapping me in my endeavors to pull
the Choral CLUB through creditable per-
formance Of the opera Bohemian Girl. .
have long hesitated about asking the
attention Of the citizens of this CITY to
the way local talent is treated by this
management but after having done all
mortal man could do to treat them as
gentlemen and 10 transact business in a
gentlemanly manner. have but two
situations open, one to plead for our
rights, the other to demand them. |
naturally choose the latter.
will not 60 into lengthy detail about
this matter, but give you the situation
in as few words as possible. The most
important matte ron which Mr. Soulier
and now differ is in regard TO the use of
the house for rehehrsals. For the last
month have been endeavoring to get
him to say what he would charge for the
use of the house per night for rehearsals.
He has repeatedly put me off. and all the
satisfaction | could get was that was to
use the house and he would settle the
price afterward but would not be hard on
us. had been TO him about six times in
reference to this matter and at last
realizing the necessity OF having TO use
the house arranged for the club to use
1t one night, which we did. All would
probably have went well and our club
come out the little end of the horn had
not Mr.. Soulier been foolish en- 9ugh to
remark to prominent citizen that he
would charge me $25 per night init.
mating that he would sicken me. This
gentleman was sufficiently interested in
not seeing us downed to come to
me and put me on my guard
| went TO see the genial manager the
next day and had been with him about
two and half seconds when he and |
were complimenting each other on our
good looks and interrupting each other,
in a manner that was hardly polite,
when one or the other would discover
some new feature that he thought he
could demolish. ! went there as q gen
tleman and was grossly insulted. The
politest invitation | received was to come
back on the stage and he would
'do me" | don't know what this
favorite expression of his means but sup
pose 1t is something worse than being
cremated alive
After the rather disgraceful terminus
of our 4 interview / felt that
could not afford to got mixed up with
him again and so employed agents to
transact my business with him. BY these
agents | have sent letters to
him repeatedly and to the last one which
was sent this morning. my messenger
brought back the answer that IL wanted
to transact business with him | must
come to see him as he would not recognize
any agents or even would not recognize
my letters. In other words he refuses
to put in writing what he will charge me
for the house
Out of consideration for the position
| hold as president Of the Choral Club, l
will not allow myself to be forced into a
controversy with Mr.. Soulier again un.
less he or his agents should deliberately
interfere with the production of the
opera Bohemian Girl on next Wednes
day.
In closing let me assure the public that
although we are seriously handicapped
by his refusal to allow us to use the
house for rehearsals the club will double
its efforts to excell all previous praduc
tions. We hold a written contract which
gives us the use of the house for the per
formance on Wednesday night
N. DusuANE CLowARD, President.