Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-31
FOR ENTERTAINMENTS.
How Permits are Obtained at the Dis
trict Buildings.

One Of the most active industries at the Dis
trict building is the manufacture and issuing of
permits for exhibitions or entertainments.
When some lady or gentleman, or ladies and
gentlemen, desire to add to their worldly
wealth by inviting the public, at so much per
head, to witness the program presented on some
particular occasion, he or she or they is or are
mulcted severally or jointly in the sum of at
least Is. That's as cheap license as any one
could expect to have in city of such import
ance as this. But when people-few or many
band together that the church be benefited or
some charitable movement aided, then the gov
eminent temporarily ceases to sit at the seat
OF custom and grants permit" which is Just
as effective as a license, and it invariably costs
at least IS less than that necessary evil. Per-
mlts have to be secured from DIR. Tindall, Sec
Rotary OF the board of District Commissioners
but nine-tenths of the applicants never find
him until they have made a tour of the build
ing.
PERMIT HUNTING.
The great majority of persons who apply for
permits are colored, and those of them who
know not the ropes generally commence to
make inquiry at the front door as to where per-
mlts are issued. The information is freely
given by the officer on duty, but in most in
stances 1t is of no particular advantage The
seeker after free permission generally COM
mences to ask for what he wants in the water
office, and, although he is there told to go up
stairs, he generally makes a complete tour of
the lower floor apartments before he climbs the
first flight. Here opportunities to open and
shut doors and to gather much useless informa-
uon become more numerous and the seeker
naturally becomes more thoroughly mixed
just about this time he will ask some one
where he can get permit, and in response will
be steered right ahead into Inspector Entwisle's
room. II he wanted building permit that
would be the very place, but he doesn't,
SO he is once more in the wrong box.
Before he leaves, however, he is carefully in
structed that the gentleman he wants is to be
found in the second room ON the left-hand side
going toward the stairs. That invariably brings
the pilgrim up in Capt. Lusk's Office which by
the way, is not on the left, but the right Then
a messenger takes the straying one in charge
and walks him right up to the fence which DR..
Tindall has had erected to protect himself
from the ''madding crowd"
HOW PERMITS ARE ISSUED.
Sometimes there is more wandering and
sometimes there is less, but the foregoing is
just about an.average voyage Then DR.. Tin
dali is in demand, but it is only on rare occa-
sions that the busy secretary devotes any of
his precious time to exchanging courtesies
with any persons whose business is of such an
unimportant nature permit-hunting. He
simply calls out Harris" and then his colored
messenger, who responds to that name inyes-
tigates the application. Once in a while man
presents his application in writing, but the big
bulk OF callers fill their minds up with what
they have to say about the prospective enter
tainment and unload it for ten or fifteen min
utes for the benefit Of Jim, as Mr.. Harris is
Familiarity called.
FLAWS IN THE APPLICATIONS
Fully nine-tenths of the applications have
serious flaw in them; they must first be in
dorsed by the chief Of police. That necessi-
tates walk up to police headquarters and not
one in a hundred of the permit-hunters leaves
the doctors office with good grace, while many
of them are, after a subdued sort OF religious or
charitable fashion, really profane. 1t is not
always that they return. Once in a while the
police authorities refuse to indorse the appli-
cation on the ground that the person getting
up the entertainment is a fraud. or that the
hall in which it is proposed to hold the concert
is one which the police think had better re-
main closed. There are several halls in the
District which are
UNDER THE BAN,
so to speak. In times past these public
places have troubled the police not a.
little and it has been said that enter
tainments were frequently given to which
no man except a policeman was admitted un-
less he had on his person o razor a whisky
bottle and ticket. Not unnatraily,
strife and gore would be followed Nv no.
lice interference. There are other halls which
are regarded with suspicion, but they get
through occasionally by making the advertise
ments OF the entertainments as harmless as
possible in their appearance. Then some of
those who reside in the vicinity of the hall find
out that the real program contemplates having
present a full and not too-harmonious brass
band, guaranteed to play until o'clock in the
morning. Representations are made to the
Commissioners by the sleep-loving neighbors
and the permit Is revoked. These matters
cannot be otherwise than annoying to the pro-
motors OF the entertainment, but they bear
their griefs IN silence and as soon as possible
thereafter bob up serenely and ask for another
permit.