Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-22

thoroughfares. are always gay on Sunday
with colored Autographs and show bills, and
the ingenuity displayed in getting the an.
| nouncements into places where they will
attract the most attention can hardly escape
the notice of any ordinary observer.
There are extensive building operations
going on across Smithfeld street from The
| DISPATCH office. No sooner had the occu-
pants of the buildings that have since been
demolished closed up than the whole block
was covered with glaring announcements OF
| some of the theatrical attractions In the
| city. About the first of April, when there
are a great many empty store-rooms, tho
windows are covered with gay Autographs,
and the whole town breaks out into all the
colors of the rainbow, and a good many
others that no respectable rainbow would
own, all setting forth the merits Of different
theatrical entertainments.
Sometimes two sets of theatrical adver-
tisers will meet in the small hours of Sum
day morning, while each is trying to steal q
march on the other in the way of sticking
up bills and Autographs in some spot that
has been neglected till now. Then there is
a row, and sometimes blows exchanged, in
the heat of the moment Each party has
waited till the other was supposed to have
gone to bed, and hence the complication.
Plastering One Over Another.
Then one party will paste up his bills,
and ten minutes after the other will come
and cover them with his own. Occasionally
there will be dispute over some store win
dow. Say that one theater has managed to
get into the store and cover the whole In
terror of the window with Autographs
There is nothing for his rival to do but to
stick up his paper outside, th1s hiding the
inside display. This was done in Pittsburg
a few weeks ago, and the man who had Sc
cured the inside came along about o'clock
Sunday morning and saw it. In a very few
minutes he had pulled down all the outside
lithographs, allowing his own to be seen
again.
At the conclusion of his work he chuckled
softly and went home to bed, satisfied that
he had spoiled his rivals little game COM
pletely. But his opponent was still on the
alert He happened to see what the other
was doing, so he made his way back to his
theater, procured bucket Of black paint
and big brush, and returned to the win
dow. When the morning sun shed its rays
on the scene it revealed ablack, blank space
where the inside man expected to see q
handsome display of his Autographs, and
the air was blue for ten minutes or so. He
cooled off in the course of time, however,
and when, in the afternoon, he met his
rival, smiling and innocent, the two men
shook hands, as tine defeated one murmuredi
81 pass"
Watched His Paper All Night.
1t is only three weeks since an advertis-
ing agent of one of the theaters spent all
Saturday night walking up and down before
a vacant store on Fifth avenue to protect
his Sunday showing" that he had ar
ranged with much care and elaborateness
about midnight, and that he could not af-
ford to trust to the tender mercies of his
rivals, who might have spoiled his work.
There are eight theaters in Pittsburg and
Allegheny, counting the museums, and each
theater puts out on an average 500 itho-
graphs every week during the season. One
wonders where room can be found in the
windows of the two cities for these 1900
Autographs, but there is plenty of room for
them, and for 100 or so additional, if neees-
sary. To procure the privilege of placing
these Autographs in show windows 1t is in.
cumbent on the theater managers to give
away a certain number of passes every
week, many people accepting passes who
would not give the use of their windows for
money enough to buy the tickets two or
three times over. This is one of the mex
plicable peculiarities of human nature, for
most theater managers detest deadheads on
general principles, particularly "ithOgraph
deadheads."
The city bill posters have to give away
300 regular season tickets to theaters, each
ticket admitting two persons, besides spend
ing thousands of dollars directly every year
for the space they use for their bill boards
1t takes great deal of capital, as we'll as
experience, to carry on the business of post
ing bills in Pittsburg. G. c. j.