The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-07-21

that devils were considerably in de-
mand at that time.
Comforting the freedom of the play
house" on playwrights and men of let
tiers was common in GarrickS day, ana
without doubt the good-natured mana
ger was often pestered for the same ia
vor by persons who had no such claim
| 1t was evidently Garricks custom to
F, give tickets of admission, permanent
| orders, to those whom he desired to
honor. 1t is recorded that the Irish
writer, Murphy annoyed at what he
| thought ill-treatment or neglect, re-
| turned the ticket with the words, ''As
do not foresee any further occasion FOR
| this obiging passport, am not Wiling
to trespass too long upon your civill-
| ty." Garrick's answer was such as 10
reflect the greatest possible credit upon
himself, IF you choose to rellnqulsh
your right to the freedom of Drury
| Lane playhouse, you certainly VIII GO
as you please. But without the ticket.
| imagine, Mr. Murphy will find the
| doors open to him as usual; and be 1t
| further known to you, sir, that as
| thought you were above an undue IN
fluence, never meant the ticket as the
least tie upon the liberty of your pen or
conversation" 1t may be safely IN
ferred that Garrick presented the same
permanent passport to his gruff but
faithful friend, DR.. Johnson. 1t IS
hardly too much to say that the great
players generosity was as notable as
his acting; and his acting was probably
such as the world has never surpassed.
A considerable amount, in these days,
falls to the share of those who are con-
nected with the newspaper press. The
stage critics of course, have their per-
manent right of entry; and many 9TH
ers connected with the press In differ
ent ways enjoy frequent, If not contln-
uous, admissions But whereas the
stage now courts the press, the press
formerly seems to have courted the
stage. Just as shopkeepers used to pay
for the privilege of exhibiting bills, SO
the papers paid for the privilege of an
nounoing plays and programmes. Eve
ry theater now pays a large sum Tor
advertising; it used to be the reverse
the newspapers paid for being allowed
to insert the advertisements. Those
were days when the stage was clearly
more powerful than journalism.
We can hardly conceive such posi-
ton now. The fact is plainly evident
from such an announcement as the fol-g
lowing, which appeared In THE Daily
Post in the year 1721: 1.-THE managers
of Drury Lane think 1t proper to give
notice that advertisements of their
plays by their authority are published !.
only in this paper, though as manager \
he tried to oppose too proers of all 9TH
er papers who presume to insert adver-
tisements of the same plays can do it
only by some surreptitious intelligence
or hearsay, which frequently leads,
them to commit gross errors, as mem ]
tioning one play for another, falsely
representing the parts, ETC., to the mis-
information of the town and the great
detriment of the said theater."
This was before Garrlck's time. Dur
ing the reign of Garrick The Public
Advertiser put forth a similar notice.
The papers were thus grateful even to
be allowed to pay for stage news
They had, indeed, a difficulty in filing
their columns. A free press did not
then exist They were perpetually in
danger if they dealt openly with politi-
cal or even social news, and the delight
of being able to treat freely all matters
connected with the stage was a privi-
lege worth paying for. In those times
there must have been a dearth of press
orders. When the papers increased IN
Importance, and gradually became the
ruling power the theaters began to WOO
them with paper. The press began to
claim such as its right, and the claim
proved a serious diminuton of theatre
cal profits Albert Smith once COM
planned that If every newspaper pre-
scented it's orders, all the seats in his
house at the time would be taken by
paper Macready, though as manager
he tried to oppose too promiscuous is
sue OF orders, made free use Of them
himself when only a player. He liked |
to have at least two seats, and some
times a private box at his disposal,
when he was appearing on the boards |
and even this did not meet the demands |
of his friends, and Of those who, with |
any or no excuse, worried him for pa
per. Thus there was the constant |
claim Of the newspapers and the no less |
claim of the players them /
selves. Very frequently half a house |
would be paper Charles Mathews, |
then managing the Lyceum, com
planned that his house lost as much as
twenty-five pounds a night through |
press orders only and Webster, of the |
and Adelphi, calculated |
that during three years the newspapers |
had secured the admission of seventy |
thousand people into three theaters
alone. Not unnaturally, some of the
and performers thought that
so liberal treatment of the papers
merited constant favorable notices. and
adverse criticism was resented. This |
alone proved the i'll effects of the GUS
tom. In Dickens day the bill sticker
also came in for a liberal share of pa
per, and, indeed, claimed it. "The man
who would give the most orders came
,ff hest IL ,opdop GIohn